Severe Anxiety after my child’s head injury

[Cheska2020]

Hi guys. Just needed a sanity check. My hubby and I went for a walk before the end of term and got the call every parent dreads from school. Our son had fallen in the playground and cracked his head on the concrete. Long story short we got him checked out and he suffered a bad bump to the head and mild concussion. He’s been playing tig when h

...he banged into another kid and fell over backwards and hit his head. I no

...so sorry (am new here and my podgy fingers keep pressing something mid sentence that posts before I’ve finished.) I wanted to say that ever since the incident I’m having severe anxiety and panic attacks about him going back to school in case it happens again or in general about how he could just have an accident and just like that he taken from us. I know I can’t wrap him up in cotton wool and he needs freedom to play and run around and be boisterous but how can I get over this abject fear and feel comfortable when he’s at school??

Hi my son was injured at school requiring surgery, hospital stay and months of treatment its awful and we moved schools due to what happened but I started to suffer from anxiety and really struggle with it. It's so scary and awful I've just self referred to talking therapies as I've become very anxious over health ect. Give yourself time , it's a awful experience to go through but your son is safe now

@Sleephead1 I’m sorry you had to go through that and I hope your son is fully recovered now. Thanks for letting me know I’m not alone. The anxiety can be all consuming. Mine is health centred too but now this new, additional fear has reared it’s ugly head since this accident. Perhaps getting some counselling or speaking to someone would help.

I'm a teacher (and a parent!) and one little girl in my class last year fell and split her head open TWICE! Both times just total accidents and I had done my risk assessments etc... parents were great, so understanding but omg it still makes me feel sick and paranoid! I'm a lot more risk averse than I was and still see the child around school with the scars!

Good on you, OP, to recognise that this (however natural) is a question of your own anxiety that needs dealing with. To me, it seems the kind of situation that might work well with CBT-based exercises: basically, a mixture of relaxation exercises that you do regularly (e.g. at bedtime) to stay more relaxed and specific distraction exercises to keep your mind off obsessive thoughts that you recognise to be detrimental. My dd does breathing exercises at bedtime: you might want to google those. I have a relaxation exercise that works well for me: whenever I find myself beginning to get obsessed by stress thoughts, I visualise myself walking down a country lane and I get to a crossroad, it is sign-posted with one sign-post reading Stressy Thought (or whatever) and I say to myself very clearly: "No, I am NOT choosing that road, I am going up this other road instead." Just visualising that I have a choice about what my mind does is helpful.

@corythatwas that’s a great idea about the crossroads. I’ll try that thank you x

@Mammyloveswine eek! I’d be a wreck!!!

@Cheska2020 Thank you my son is ok now thank you he is actually very matter of fact about what happened. Its 2 years since he had his accident and I do think I have some health anxiety I hope talking therapies will help for me and you aswell

I had a bit of health anxiety after DS was born and I still do from time to time. As the previous poster said, CBT-style exercises worked for me. I didn’t do relaxation exercises, but I like the way CBT strategies aim to give your perspective. For me, the best one was asking myself ‘what would a non-anxious person think in this situation?’ It helps me see that I’m being irrational and improves my risk perception.