8 year old who is scared of everything.

[BornToBeRiled]

As it says really. My 8 yr old is lively and pretty confident and outgoing, with lots of friends, and doing well in school, so generally fine. However, she is really scared of lots of things. They are things that are scary, illnesses, murderers, road accidents, house fires, but they seem to be weighing a bit too heavily on her, disturbing her sleep and so on. We have talked. I try not to dismiss her fears, but to rationalise them. I know that if an advert about checking smoke alarms comes on the radio, it can cause problems for example. Any advice ok how to proceed?

It sounds like she is a bit anxious generally. I would ask your GP for a referral to psychology (CAMHS). The things you are describing are usually easily treatable but can be indicative of a style of thinking that can persist and become gradually more problematic if left.

This is my concern I think pebbledasher. I suffer from anxiety myself, and don't want that for her. Thankfully she is much more confident socially than I was.

I think you might try some more strategies before approaching the GP for CAMHS, personally. So far you have 'just' talked! We used a book for DS called 'what to do when you worry too much' and it's written for your DDs age group. It's brilliant and really helped DS. It has some little exercises to do, and gives lots of ways for her to master her worries. Also one major thing for DS was having a once a day 'worry time' - he had to save up his worries for then rather than as they came up through the day. It was amazing how many worries just got forgotten before worry time although they seemed so important when he first thought of them!

He was also able to understand that as parents if we spoke on demand about his worries, rather than stopping them, this kind of gave them 'oxygen' and helped them grow.

It's all done in very visual age appropriate ways. I can highly recommend it and I'm sure there are other similar books out there.

I would try more along these lines and then do GP route if her anxieties just can't be managed.

Sounds fantastic. Will get that. Thank you.

Are you still there OP? How did you go? My dd is where you were a year ago, just wondering how you went on. Thanks.