Hi, i have a beautiful kind 12 1/2 year old, she has anxiety, we have helped her through this all her life, for 18 months she has thought she has appendicitus ,so we got a scan but that did nothing to reassure her. Tonight she has been crying for an hour that she thinks she has a brain tumor because she is feeling dizzy and little headache. She makes fidget things like rice in a balloon ect to help herself, she even made an area in her room to have her fidget box to relax,please help us we reasure her and we give her so much cuddles ect but not sure what else to do, she doesnt want to go to headspace or anything like thst, we are such a close family and do everything together, my heart aches for her
13 Replies
She doesn’t have to see a psychologist but you should on her behalf. They can give you strategies and work with you to help your daughter
Try the brave program online. I’m sorry to say but where she
Is at she really needs to see a psychologist and a psychiatrist to possibly medicated if she is not already. I really feel for her, health anxiety is crippling. Please take her to the gp for some professional help ASAP!
She should have a referral to a child psychologist or behavioural pediatrician for a targeted diagnosis and consideration of treatment and a child psychologist for developing some coping strategies. This sounds like more than generalised anxiety.
Make the appointment and try, or go yourself. There are many things you can do to help her, strategies she can use but if she wont go in, then you can learn them and show her at home.
She needs professional help. Explain to her that there is only so much you can do to help her, and that a psychologist can help her and gives her someone to talk to about her health concerns. You could start with a visit to the GP so she can discuss her latest concerns with them. They can then guide her towards talking with a psychologist. It would probably be worth you seeing someone as well, to help you with strategies to help her.
Speaking from experience with a 15 year old who has struggled for 4 years -
You make her go to headspace. You're the adult and are responsible for her well being. Anxiety will not magically fix itself, she needs a psychologist and probably medication. Do it now before she's a crippled adult who won't help herself!
My son is the same.. you will not help
Her unless she can see a psychologist. You need to get a care plan and get her to a dr and help her now professionally. I am waiting for my
Sons appoint and it’s the only thing in the past has helped him. I can’t see him go through this. If she can go, make sure you do but speak to her openly and freely on her own and tell her they will help her understand these feelings and help it to go away and help her to cope with it and ways to deal with it. She will need to be medicated one day if you can’t get the help she needs. Explain to her how see there was nothing in the scan, it’s passed and it was nothing that you were thinking. I have severe health anxiety and I complete understand her but professional help is a must.
Sorry take away her rights here for her own sake.. you make her go.. I also hope she doesn’t have technology as they make anxious kids worse. Speaking from experience my son doesn’t have technology and it’s the first thing psychologist asked.!! He told me how much technology is creating anxiety in kids
Not saying that caused it but it doesn’t help. She needs help. Get the care plan book an appoint and make her go.
This is more than cuddles can fix, it is a legitimate medical issue and needs to be treated just like any illness etc. She also needs to find out that counselling etc really works and nothing to be ashamed or afraid of. You need to make her go before she gets older and you have no control over her appointments etc. an assessment for nutrition, vitamin & mineral deficiencies, plus maybe needing medication plus a child psych. Early intervention Is key so please accept that professional help is required here
My son (same age) has physical disabilities and although mentally good at the moment, he has recently had some down days, getting older he’s seeing that he is different and doesn’t want to be.
I’ve booked him in to see a psychologist.
He wasn’t keen at first, but I’ve asked him to give it a go and basically put my foot down and said in the future there’s things we need a professional to help us navigate and he doesn’t have a choice.
I want to start it now so it’s easier down the track if we need it.
He’s decided to put his trust in me and do it.
You make her, you give her no choice, the way I see it, I would rather a few tears now than find them hanging from the rafters.
You don’t mess around with this stuff, you get them the treatment they need.
Like when they have a sore throat and don’t want to go to the gp, it’s no different.
I feel like it’s better to get them to go at this age, then later when they’re 15/16 and we have less control over them.
Please get her the professional treatment she needs, somethings we have to admit are bigger than us and need intervention.
My son was the same age when he started seeing a psychologist. He started high school, then there was a death in the family, he really started to feel his differences to the other kids at school (physical disability and lots of new kids he hadn’t grown up with through primary school), another death in the family. I had been suggesting for months that we see the GP to get a referral to a psychologist plus several teachers had referred him to the school guidance officers. As soon as he started saying he didn’t want to be alive anymore I stopped giving him a choice and took him to the doctor for a mental health care plan. He was not happy about it, and refused to talk to the doctor unless asked a direct question that I wasn’t able to answer. After the first appointment with the psychologist he thanked me for making him go. Things did get worse initially but have improved again. Now, a year or so later, he’s mostly doing ok. Has his good days and bad days.
That’s awesome, yes high school is hard for different kids.
He never whinges, complains, with all the crap he has to go through and is one of the most balanced, level headed people I know.
We’ve had no deaths recently, thank god.
It’s a hard age, they have hormones pumping, they just want to fit in.
But it has to get him down, I’m sure it will in the future, so I can see nothing but a positive in doing this now.
If he has a few sessions and doesn’t want/need to go back fine, but at least he has the experience so if things go haywire later and we really need it, he won’t see it as a negative.
If the posters daughter was mine, I would have been getting professional help a lot earlier than this, the poor kid is suffering tremendously.
Good luck with your son, so glad it has helped xxxx