Can see DD1 aged 10 developing the sale anxiety as me :(

[sweetkitty]

DD1 has always been a sensitive and emotional child but now she developing anxiety. Last night I went to tuck her in she was in tears, I asked her why, she said the reason she cannot sleep at night is she thinks bad thoughts about things like hospitals. She's worried about having to go to hospital again (last year she had to have a small op as she damaged her finger in a door) she was a nightmare sobbing almost continuously etc she just worries all the time.

The scary thing is she's me at that age, I couldn't sleep at night for worrying, I went on to have severe anxiety and depression but I thought it was due to my narc mother and rubbish father in part.

I spent half an hour chatting with her and reassuring her I just don't want her ending up like me

Any advice?

Hi sweetkitty, I totally empathise with you and your DD as I have always been a bag of nerves and anxiety and I am terrified of passing it onto my DS. My mum was caring, loving and supportive and I was still anxious - I had a lot of problems with my Dad when they split up but I was anxious ever since I was a very small child. Unfortunately I really believe that some of it is just hereditary. That's not to say you can't do anything about it. The thing that has helped me is to be able to acknowledge I am anxious and what about. You should try speaking to your DD about exactly what she is anxious about and why she thinks things might happen. Tell her it's ok to feel anxious and she shouldn't feel silly (the worst thing about my health anxiety has been people telling me I'm just silly and should get a grip). The best way for dealing with anxiety in my experience is a distracting activity: for me, it's either going for a walk, listening to a podcast or doing something with my hands such as knitting or a jigsaw puzzle. If my DS is ever feeling a little anxious we play the alphabet game - ie, get him to name different fruits and vegetables A-Z, or animals A-Z. It's something I do myself when I can't sleep, with countries!

Would she benefit from a referral to camhs? My 18 yo DS has an anxiety disorder and as a younger teenager he had a series of sessions with a camhs counsellor surrounding anxiety, understanding his feelings and strategies to cope. He found it really helpful