Social anxiety and school play

[yosemite78]

My son has a school play coming up. He is absolutely terrified! He has never really enjoyed performances at school and was so happy they were none during the pandemic and school closures! It is not a case of being shy though, he appears to have such negative thoughts and opinions about himself which is heartbreaking. I am familiar with social anxiety/social phobia and I am convinced he is suffering with this as he has most of the symptoms. He is only 9 and I don’t want this to have a negative impact on his confidence and life. I don’t know where to turn, I don’t think his teacher or even school would be sympathetic to this. Obviously I am trying to encourage him to take part in the play but he is so anxious and upset by it. I’m surprised the school doesn’t come up with support roles, behind the scene type roles for kids who don’t like being centre stage and have difficulty with these things. My heart is breaking for him and I don’t know how to help?

If he is suffering from anxiety, could you speak to your GP? I was like your son as a child but it got written of as ‘being shy’ when actually, when I look back, and knowing what I know now, it was definitely (social) anxiety. It had a massive impact on my self-esteem and confidence. From my own experience, being encouraged to do something that terrified me made my anxiety worse.

I have a friend whose little boy suffered anxiety at around 5 or 6 years old recently and he got help through the school - some sort of counselling - so it may be that your son’s school would be able to support him.

Definitely seek help because if it is anxiety you can’t fix it on your own. Good luck.

@RosieLee2019Thanks and sorry to hear you have struggled with this too. I will try and get through to the school although they are still like fort Knox since covid and I think they are using it now, just like our GP! Seems like you really have to fight these days to get some support. I agree that pushing him to do it could cause more harm. It’s so sad that he feels that people will be looking at him and thinking bad things about him. He seems so young to be having these feelings but he’s had some trauma in his life too so wonder if that is a trigger... Thanks again