Looking for advice please…
my 15 year old dd has developed school based anxiety and I have exhausted everything I know to help.
It started around October time when she started messaging me from school saying she felt sick, this was happening a few times a week. Since going back to school after Christmas things got worse, she was messaging me and getting the school to phone me to pick her up. I took her to the doctors to discuss her symptoms (feeling sick, soft stools and indigestion), the doctor prescribed antacids and did blood tests. The messages and phone calls continued, she even started messaging other family members to ask them to collect her! The last few weeks she has refused to even go to school (I have managed to get her there a few days). Most days she is in tears refusing to go to school.
We have spoken to her a numerous occasions but she says nothing is worrying her at school, it’s not the bus or friends etc. I hate to admit that I have got cross with her once or twice when she is refusing, which I know doesn’t help.
I have tried to have meetings with the school but after what feels like 100’s of phone calls I am still waiting. We have another doctors appointment next week so I am hoping to get some more support from that.
Has anyone else been in this situation that can offer some advice or different strategies to try? We have tried lots of different strategies already, deep breathing, tapping, 5,4,3,2,1 etc etc which she says haven’t helped.