Children with anxiety

[Proseccoismyfriend]

Just looking for other parents/support who have children struggling with anxiety

Hi there i'm currently 2 weeks in a horrible journey with my 12 year old Daughter having intrusive thoughts and anxiety. I feel completely alone with this,

Sorry you’re also struggling. DC has completely shut down and isn’t talking anymore. Have you managed to get any support? We finally met a lovely nurse at camhs who is hopeful she can turn this around

I am so sorry to hear this! How long did it take for a CAMHS refferal? What I mean by that is how long before they got in touch?

Hi, my son is 11 with autism and has anxiety stemming from PTSD. He has been with CAHM's for 11 months and slowly having EMDR treatment. He only attends school 1-2hrs a day as this is all he can manage. He also has coeliacs disease and VVS. It's extremely exhausting.

Camhs saw him within 8 weeks, I believe that’s because he was classed as urgent due to hating his life and not wanting to be here. Medication has been mentioned to help calm things so they can try and find out what is going on, due to the overwhelming feelings he has we don’t get anywhere. I’d rather avoid meds but I can’t bare to watch him struggle anymore.
I’ve been looking into emdr, how are you and your son finding it? Is it helping? So far I can only find positive information but it can be really tough going through the processing.

Medication can help if paired with other support. My DD was 13 when started on sertraline which we had to get prescribed privately as the GP refused. It stopped her anxiety spiralling further, and enabled us to stabilise and rebuild her MH over a 18mth period with good life basics, of healthy food, fresh air, exercise, & learning it’s ok to fail at stuff as it’s how we learn in life. She’s also out of MS school now, so we could change the environment for her education. She’s much happier in herself it’s not a magic bullet but definitely in a better place than previously.
Do look after yourself too as it’s really hard parenting a child / yp with anxiety. I took up running again just 5ks but it’s really helped me to stay sane.

Sertraline changed my 12 year olds life. I’m not being dramatic, it literally saved her life and she’s a completely different child now

Thank you for reaching out, it’s reassuring that there are others and we aren’t totally alone. I like to run too but haven’t for a few weeks, I must get back to it. The hope was medication may lift the dark cloud we’re under at the moment so we can start getting things under control, the nurse said we can’t allow things to get lower than we are now, the only way is up. I really hope we can begin to turn this around

Do you mind sharing a little more please? I don’t want to make it hard or outing so please don’t feel you need to. How was your daughter before medication? I’m glad to hear things are better now for your dd

Sorry hunni can you explain what VVS is?

Vasovagal syncope

We are in the early stages of this. My previously anxious but coping DS12 went off the rails completely over the course of a week or two in November. Attending only a few hours of school a day only some days of the week and it takes huge effort. It’s slipped into depression in the last few weeks as well, which is apparently common for severe anxiety. We’ve started sertraline (prescribed privately) at the weekend as he was not able to engage with therapy and was clearly deteriorating. Fingers crossed it will give him some relief as he is suffering hugely every day and becoming more and more isolated. The private psychiatrist and CAHMS both think there is underlying autism which just wasn’t apparent as such when he was at primary school. It’s terrifying and exhausting watching him become so severely impacted and not being able to stop it.

Do any of your kids have cognitive impacts? He finds he can’t remember things or process information in lessons. He’s additionally scared and upset that his mind just seems broken - he literally cannot think and is overwhelmed with feelings of fear and sadness.

Hi @HJBeanssorry you and your ds are struggling too. Mine also forgets many things and doesn’t retain information, we have always put that down to his dyslexia as his working memory is poor. Mine too is very overwhelmed to point he won’t speak at the moment, hasn’t said a single word for 7 weeks. Camhs are exploring meds to hopefully ease some of the anxiety so we can try to cope with this and unpick the underlying cause. Dh wonders about autism as we do have some sensory issues but they don’t impact day to day. How is your son finding sertraline? I know it’s early days, some research I’ve done said it can take several weeks to be effective.

So far he mostly feels sick. But how much of that is the anxiety and how much the medicine, I don’t know. It’s really early to be seeing any positive effects, but I did note yesterday was the first day in weeks he started the day saying anything other than ‘I feel scared’ or ‘I feel sad’. He was excited by a game he was going to play, and just felt excited. Anything vaguely normal feels like such a reprieve - he’s just so thoroughly wiped out and suffering so much. :-(

Very sorry to hear your son is so unwell, too - it must be so hard that he is not speaking. I hope CAHMS are able to provide some medicine to help him soon. The psychiatrist said once they can’t engage in treatment, it’s time to try a trial of medication and that made sense to us.

I agree, medication is a last resort but he’s struggled for so long and he’s so young he can’t engage with the help right now. I’m so glad to see your son felt a little brighter, I really hope it continues and there are less bumps in the road for him.
Thank you for taking the time to reply, it feels less lonely

She was so depressed and low in mood, no motivation to do anything, plus not sleeping due to constant worry and anxiety. She also has OCD, and would get stuck in ruminating thoughts about being a young child again when things were simpler 😭 She would get fixated on random irrational thoughts and cry constantly and just get “stuck” in this spiral for hours. It was honestly awful, it went on for a good 6 months getting worse and worse. She saw a private psychologist who tried various therapy’s but nothing helped. It was the psychologist who said that she needed medication to be able to make any kind of progress with therapy

That sounds really tough. It’s difficult when their mood is low to help them see any positives, the message I have been given is similar to yours that medication can hep with therapy and making things ‘clearer’. Just need him to try and open up

Just wondering how everyone is doing? We are seeing the medication team this week, ds’s mood is very low. I am beginning to think I may need the go for myself

Hey - hope the medication discussions go well. My son is managing them well and I think they do help take the edge off the worst of the anxiety and resulting depression. It’s by no means a cure but he’s now able to engage with therapy and think about what will happen next with some degree of hope. I hope your son has a positive experience.

We are day two on some pretty hefty meds as his anxiety is so severe and he said this afternoon how he feels calmer and happier. We can’t be on these very long so need to switch to sertraline but for now things seem much better more positive