Hi I am writing this in the hope that someone could offer me some advice or that someone has gone through something similar.
For the past 7 months my daughter who is 10 (nearly 11) has been having great difficulty and becoming very anxious about falling asleep. She is very scared as she says this girl (not real) watches her at night and tells her she will kill her, as you can imagine this causes her distress. My daughter will scream, kick, hit her head against the wall ect if we try and put her to bed. Let me just add some context to this - when my daughter was two years old I split from her father, this relationship involved DV, however my daughter still had contact with him and his family. 3 years ago she broke down and told us that her dad had been physically and emotionally abusing her, we contacted the appropriate agencies and she hasn't seen him since. However, her paternal grandparents will not see her either, they say that if her father cannot see her then they refuse too. As you can imagine this has caused her to feel very rejected as she had lots of cousins that she misses and she had a close relationship with that side of the family. Anyway back to the story - I cannot remember the last time she slept through the night, she will just lie there awake and becomes very angry that she cant sleep, she is scared at 3am as she said that her friends talk about the witching hour which is when the witches spy on you, she also wont have a shower unless I am with her as she got sent a chain letter via social media that tells some sort of horror story. I am exhausted and just want her to feel safe! her behaviour can be very challenging and she gets very anxious around bed time! I just don't no what to do anymore, she is under CAMHS at the miniute and they are worried about how distressed she is. I live with my partner ( daughters step father since she was 2) they have a good relationship and he is like a dad to her. Sorry for the essay but just so desperate for some help/ideas.