I don't even know if this is the best place to post this...
My 2.5yo has always been very anxious but it's gotten a lot more... I don't know, focused? It's not just a general separation-type anxiety anymore. Now, for ex., he's having nightmares and has a phobia of a couple of animals -- but not the ACTUAL animal, just some pretend version of it. It's almost like a scary imaginary friend, it sometimes seems like he really believes those animals are right there. He's scared of so many other things, and everywhere we go lately there are Halloween decorations and costumes which certainly doesn't help I'm sure. Also, although he's extremely verbal, he hardly utters 3 words when we're out, he's too anxious to talk or move much.
He clings desperately to me when he's scared... which is lots of the day and several hours in the middle of the night while he's sleeping. We've tried all sorts of things like telling positive stories about the things he's afraid of, role-playing, making signs warding off the animals, putting all his bad dreams in a box before bedtime, giving him homeopathics, and of course distraction... I don't know what else to do. He is obsessed with a few of his fears and talks about them endlessly & asks us to tell stories about them all day long.
We try to handle it calmly and rationally and sympathetically but when he's been clinging to me non-stop I just want SPACE, I can't stand being clung to like that for hours on end. It really affects my ability to deal with him. We are going to see about getting in to a child psychologist or something but I need to come up with some more concrete ways to handle this in the meantime. I have had a life-long anxiety disorder myself so I know how hard it must be for him & I have lots of ways that I deal with my own issues but I can't seem to apply them to a toddler, you know?
And maybe I just need someone to tell me I'm not the only one whose kid is terrified of the world...
My 2.5yo has always been very anxious but it's gotten a lot more... I don't know, focused? It's not just a general separation-type anxiety anymore. Now, for ex., he's having nightmares and has a phobia of a couple of animals -- but not the ACTUAL animal, just some pretend version of it. It's almost like a scary imaginary friend, it sometimes seems like he really believes those animals are right there. He's scared of so many other things, and everywhere we go lately there are Halloween decorations and costumes which certainly doesn't help I'm sure. Also, although he's extremely verbal, he hardly utters 3 words when we're out, he's too anxious to talk or move much.
He clings desperately to me when he's scared... which is lots of the day and several hours in the middle of the night while he's sleeping. We've tried all sorts of things like telling positive stories about the things he's afraid of, role-playing, making signs warding off the animals, putting all his bad dreams in a box before bedtime, giving him homeopathics, and of course distraction... I don't know what else to do. He is obsessed with a few of his fears and talks about them endlessly & asks us to tell stories about them all day long.
We try to handle it calmly and rationally and sympathetically but when he's been clinging to me non-stop I just want SPACE, I can't stand being clung to like that for hours on end. It really affects my ability to deal with him. We are going to see about getting in to a child psychologist or something but I need to come up with some more concrete ways to handle this in the meantime. I have had a life-long anxiety disorder myself so I know how hard it must be for him & I have lots of ways that I deal with my own issues but I can't seem to apply them to a toddler, you know?
And maybe I just need someone to tell me I'm not the only one whose kid is terrified of the world...
