Hi all,
DD 1 is nearly 13 and has been suffering on and off with anxiety for the last couple of years really. I think it kicked off around the same time as hormonal changes/early puberty coupled with a genetic predisposition to worrying.
She goes through phases of worrying obsessively about seemingly stupid things. She cannot see the wood for the trees once she gets into this mode. She jumps on small things that she overhears or reads about and then thinks they must apply to her. She has worried about all sorts of things including: if she's a lesbian (her school is very big on LGBT issues/awareness), if she's cheated on a test because she accidentally looked at another child's paper (she's very conscientious and very bright and hated to think that she hadn't achieved something on her own merit), and her current one is an all consuming fear that she might want to hurt/kill someone and what the consequences would be. She hates if she can't remember something that has passed through her mind and often searches back over things she's said or done or thought about, looking for possible errors or wrongdoing of some kind.
After dealing with it ourselves for the last few months, I finally cracked a couple of weeks ago and took her to the GP and also sought support from school.
The GP basically said to look at a couple of websites and to go back in six weeks for a review. The school have been very helpful and she is now starting counselling sessions to give her some coping techniques (hopefully).
We are very proactive at home, doing workbooks, online activities, taking supplements etc, but when she is in the midst of a worry, she is all consumed by it.
We're using a great book about dealing with unwanted intrusive thoughts (this is recognised as a form of OCD), and it is helping, but it's early days.