Please or to access all these features

Child mental health

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Anxiety and sleep problems

4 replies

MaverickSnoopy · 21/06/2023 06:35

My 11yo has severely been struggling with sleep for 3 nights, as in its gone 11pm before she manages to fall asleep and then has a broken night's sleep. She is exhausted.

She has suffered with anxiety since she was small. She was under cahms at 7yo and she now has another referal but the wait is long.

We are waiting to see her teacher about adhd to discuss. She spends her life obsessing about negative friendships, to the point that it's like she manifests things. She says one child is beating her up but we have witnessed one event of what she described as beating up and actually both children had their arms around each other jumping up and down and giggling with excitement (my dd describes this as friend trying to strangle her and that it was terrifying - she cried when she told me). It's all she can think about. She spends most of her time at home screaming, crying and being angry.

I've spoken to the GP who referred her to a local Mind worker - it did nothing for her at all. I'm not too sure where to go from here, both from a mental health perspective and sleep perspective. Any advice would be very welcome.

OP posts:
Briandouglas · 21/06/2023 06:38

That sounds very difficult for you all, may I ask what her night routine is like- is she working herself up into a panic or is it just a case of not falling asleep?

MaverickSnoopy · 21/06/2023 07:48

We normally have a bit of downtime and she'll go upstairs anywhere between 8-8.30pm. She then either reads or does some meditation before lights out. I think it's that she's alone with her thoughts and can't switch off. I do notice she doesn't want to talk about stuff in the daytime but seems to focus on it more at night, I think because she's fearing the next day and what it might bring.

OP posts:
TeenDivided · 25/06/2023 07:36

I think worrying in the evening is normal for an anxious person as that's when other distractions stop.

DD (18) has melatonin (prescribed) and often propranolol to calm first as without it she couldn't get past the anxious bit on to sleep.

When she was really bad she also had some 'knock out' little blue pills (I think called something like promethazine hydrochloride). She still has them occasionally e.g. before exams, but only a half which doesn't give the sleep hangover a full one used to.

(I'd like to try now without the melatonin but we are planning to cut down on ADs over the summer and I don't want to change more than 1 thing at a time really.)

TeenDivided · 25/06/2023 07:49

Just to be clear, I'm not downplaying your DD's anxiety which seems v bad, just that I'm not surprised it comes out at bedtime impacting sleep.

When DD started with her MH collapse we were advised to try piriton at night due to its drowsy making side effect.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page