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7 year old suffering anxiety attacks?

3 replies

5dcsinneedofacleaner · 07/08/2012 22:24

my 7 (nearly 8) year old dd has in the last couple of months starting getting very anxious about things. She is outwardly very sociable, confident, involved in things. She goes to cubs and canoing and goes away on the camps on her own no problem. But she has meltdowns of anxiety on a regular basis where she goes totally out of control and more worryingly these are now coming further into everyday life.

An example would be everytime she picks up a cup to drink she says something like "has this got chemicals in it? or "has this got tablets in?" (i sometimes use dissolvable headache tablets but ive certainly never given her any so no idea why this would concern her.

The latest thing is that she worries things are going to catch fire but there are numerous other small things she worries about - alot seem to be health/poison related. She will open up and tell me these things, she often comes to me to tell me she is feeling worried and say "my mind is worried btu i dont know why".

There is nothing,as far as i am aware that could be causing her to feel this way.My dh and i are happy we rarely argue, we have 5 children (dd is the oldest) they all get on and dd has one to one time with us regularly. Teachers etc say she seems very contented etc .I HOPE she feels secure etc.

My grandmother and mother both suffered crippling anxiety, I went through a patch of minor problems but too long ago for it to have been somethign taught if you see what i mean?,

does anyone have any ideas how to approach this? I did think of seeing the gp but since she is pretty happy day to day just with these meltdowns and little odd behaviours im not sure if they would take it seriously!

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
ToysRNotUs · 07/08/2012 22:28

I would take her to the GP, I had something similar at that age (brought on by a traumatic bereavement) and I have never been free of it, it still affects me now.
At least if you get some advice then you might be able to improve things.

5dcsinneedofacleaner · 07/08/2012 22:40

Thanks toys. Sorry to ask but thinking back can you think how you would have beed helped my your mum and dad? we have gone between trying to talk to her about it and trying to distract her but we cant decide if we are makign it worse by acknowleding it or helping! For example dh spent ages describing how the trip switch worked to her when she though electricity would kill her...

OP posts:
ToysRNotUs · 07/08/2012 22:51

I'm not sure to be honest. It was mostly ignored in a 'don't be silly' way which I suspect was the worst thing to do. I would try to get some advice professionally because they might be able to teach her some coping mechanisms which could help.

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