Functional Abdominal Pain

[BeBopaLula75]

My 12yo DSD has suffered from a lot of anxiety, has selective mutism and since her mother died 4 months ago, we think she's developed Functional Abdominal Pain, which is worsening.
She's had blood and urine tests ( all clear) but is extremely anxious about providing a stool sample. She started secondary school but has missed more days than she's been in, because of the anxiety and these stomach pains, that are definitely real and definitely getting worse.
Her diet isn't very good...she's very picky about healthy foods, and opts for processed food instead of healthier options.
I also suspect ASD and ADHD, and she's been referred for assessment.
If anyone has any experience of Functional abdominal pain, I'd really like to hear how you've dealt with it, please. I've read that CBT can help.

No, but my son is going through something similar so I’m keen to hear what others have to say.
I’m sorry she’s having such a hard time.

Mental haelth advice is strange and unclear, sometimes... CBT is good to help people adapt to symptoms, but it won't clear them. Psychoanalytic therapy can often get to the root of the function, and cure it in the end, even if neurodivergance is part of it.

I searched for this because DD too is suffering. Sorry I have no answers, but i feel for you and your DD. My DD has been referred to psychiatry but I don't know what approach they'll take. @CaptainRorschach I'd like to know more about the psychoanalytic therapy you mention.

The specifics vary, but the assumption goes that if a symptom is functional, such as in FND, pseudoseizures, functional abdominal pain, etc. then undrraranding the precise function (usually not the readily stated one) can free up the symptoms. Understanding why the physical pain, or paralysis, is preferable to the alternative is both freeing for the sufferer in terms of personal insight and self-exploration, and the ability to engage in more daily activity (previously impossuble due to symptoms).

It won't work if doctors have missed something physical, though.

My boy developed functional symptoms after a long recovery from Covid. He was eventually admitted to hospital to thoroughly check the symptoms were functional, and there he met with a pediatric pain specialist who gave him mindfulness type exercises to better tolerate / have a better experience of the pain. Which sounds awful, but apparently the more you’re able to not focus on the pain the more the miscommunications in your nervous system die down and the pain goes. If you focus on it, it sticks around and feels worse. It worked for him over time, and he can now use the techniques when he gets fatigued / ill / anxious and the functional symptoms return. Good luck!

My daughter suffers abdominal migraines. Could it be that?