Hi there. I am a counselor whose 7 yr old child has severe anxiety. I do not have her medicated at this point and try hard to avoid it. Her anxiety can create hours of tantrum-like symtoms. She will cry, yell, and throw things. Generally this happens at home but has lately increased and will happen in a public place. I have found if I remove the stimulus all together, it helps a ton. For example, I don't tell her that she has gymnastics class or ccd or that we are even taking a trip. I have packed bags while her dad runs her to the store and hidden them in a garage. He then loads them when he gets home. We "surprise" her when we get to the train station and start the experience. This seems to work well for her. She is growing to love surprises and tries to understand that excitement is scary to her. Too much build up, too many possibilities. I often have to reassure her that we have plenty of time to do the task at hand. We still struggle with homework because she always worries about the wrong answer. Her teachers say she is great at school though. I have alerted them to the situation and they haven't needed to act. The hardest part of the stimulus removal is that the grandparents don't understand. They want to see her excited when they are planning a visit or a vacation. I finally had to explain that her excited isn't a "happy" excited but instead a terrified sort of excitement/discomfort.
Our pediatrician has referred us to counseling and for a med eval. She has also given a dose for Benadryl if needed. It doesn't seem to help though. We do showers or walks with the dog. It seems that the more tired she is the worse the anxiety. We often do schoolwork in the mornings to adapt and get much better results.
This has worked for us and I continually bounce ideas off of my counselor coworkers to change things up when we need to. Feel free to contact me if you need referrals for a counselor or just to vent.
A.
