Support thread for parents of dc with anxiety

[whiteworld]

I've looked, but can't see another similar thread so thought I would start one. Does anyone else have dc who are very anxious/worry a lot?

My ds - 11 - has emetophobia. It's badly affecting his life. He washes his hands so much they bleed. He will avoid certain foods and not eat in certain places in case they're dirty. He thinks about being sick/other people being ill constantly. He checks use-by and sell-by dates on food and will avoid food if it's close to its use-by date.

He had private counselling last year to help him deal with it, but it is back. I've been reading 'what to do if you worry too much' with him, asking him what's the worst thing that could happen, reassuring him, but nothing is working.

Can anyone else advise anything? I hate seeing him so upset - and I also hate the fact that he's so anxious so young.

I have Emetophobia, I feel for your DS and you, it's awful.
Please, get him the book Cure your Emetophobia and Thrive. I think they do a kids version.
If you can afford it, do it with a Thrive consultant too. It's brilliant. I am still finding it hard as I have had it for so long and wish I had done it long ago to try and nip it in the bud.
There are loads of testimonials from people that have used it, on the website.

I would go to the gp and get a referral to CAMHS. It might take ages for an appointment to come through but at least the process has begun and can be documented to the school which can also help. My dc1 has anxiety issues that we feel are possibly partly due to an ASD. Unfortunately the GP did not seem to have much knowledge of how ASDs can present differently in girls but did acknowledge the anxiety. Hopefully the psychologist can see whether she needs referring to paediatrics for an ASD assessment as well. The GP also usefully suggested contacting her new school as soon as we know where she is going and letting them know in advance about her anxiety (which can be school related) rather than waiting til September.

I hope you can get some help for your son.

My eldest ds has ASD and severe anxiety. He has particular phobias regarding contamination and poisoning and is constantly scanning his environment for potential sources and regularly has panic attacks or refuses to go to certain places. He also has a really bad fear of dying, which fuels the other phobias.

It has taken us 5 attempts to finally get a CAMHS referral accepted, as they kept saying it was all ASD related, so they couldn’t help. Now our local CAMHS has been ASD accredited, but they have only referred him for group therapy, which we know he won’t engage with, as he won’t speak in front of his peers. I contacted them to explain, but they said the alternative is another 6 week, minimum, wait for a reassessment and we have already been waiting since the start of October and he was assessed in early December.

They advised taking him to the first session, where he will be allocated a case-worker, who can reassess more quickly and recommend an alternative therapy route if necessary. Problem being, he massively masks and his fear of death means he’s not ‘at risk’ for self-harm or suicidal thoughts, so he’s always going to be a low priority, despite it being devastating to his quality of life and extremely hard for the rest of the family to live with.

He’s in Y11 and all this is massively impacting on his school attendance, due to perceived dangers in the school environment, so if he doesn’t get some help really soon it will adversely affect his GCSEs.

I would definitely go to CAMHS and get your ds referred, as I know of other children who have had very good results from the programme my ds has been referred him, it just isn’t right for him personally.

My oldest Son has anxiety. He worries about being safe in teh house and has a lot of anxiety about school, we have just got a referal to CAMHS. So fare we have only had a telephone consultation, got the referal through the GP. He is also getting some extra help at school and being referred for a bereavement counselling course through Jigsaw. We think (and he agrees with this) that a lot of his anxiety comes from a close family friend dying when he was in year 2 (this lady was one of my best friends and her daughter is inthe same year as my Son). A year later his Nan died suddently as well (he was very close to his Nan). My Dad is still alive but is in a very difficult relationship and my Son has a lot of anger aout him not being invovled. He can be quite aggressive due to this anger which is difficult but hoping that the extra help we are due to get will go some way to making things easier. I'm sorry for all of you who are struggling with anxious kids, I think this thread is a very good idea.