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Please help. I feel as if I'm going mad.

2 replies

Ledkr · 12/12/2016 21:26

Dd 6 in January and has never been a particularly good sleeper.
We did reach a point at around 4/5 when she went to bed normally and slept well but woke very early.
However since last summer she has been horrendous to get to sleep. It involves great long story times and being u able to leave the room until she's asleep and even then wakes during the night and refuses to stay in bed, says she's scared or invents ailments.
We ended up so exhausted A few months ago that we put a temporary bed on our floor which she now gets into during the night.
Lately the ante has been upped again at bedtime, she fights sleep and if she does go off is up a few minutes after we leave totally hysterical if we try to put her back to her bed, seems terrified.
So tonight I'm ill and came home from work early. She os on a late shift so I put her up around 8, read to her till she nodded off then it all starts again five minutes after I've left. Refusing to go to her bed, says she heard a man say her name and later sniffing.
I battled her for a bit but feel too ill so now she is on the floor in my room and I'm in bed having not had a single second to myself once again.
I'm so sick of it. She's number five, I've never had this with the others.
She's a miserable hypochondriac in the day as well as she's exhausted.
What can I do

OP posts:
corythatwas · 12/12/2016 23:02

High anxiety. I had one exactly like it. She was later told by CAHMS that she will probably always have anxiety but that she can learn to control it.

Things that helped when she was little included:

letting her sleep in our room with minimum fuss

staying very calm and trying not to judge

and as she got a little older:

explaining that it is the scary thoughts that are causing the upset and that you can learn to control those

teaching her a few useful tricks of distraction

Ledkr · 13/12/2016 00:36

Thank you.

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