Health anxiety

Hi, background. My daughter is currently awaiting a doctors appointment for a potential diagnosis for ASD. School have now also feel that she may be on the ASD spectrum and we will hopefully getting some help from SENCO at school. 

My daughter has always had health anxiety, it has been an awful weekend and she has not come out of her bedroom due to being “unwell”. She can’t always say why she feels unwell but normally it’s a stomach ache or pains in her chest area. On Friday night she said she had twitching legs and couldn’t sleep. Although sleep is also another major issue! And we may address that at some other time lol! 

my question is, do other parents have to deal with thus and how do you deal with it? I don’t want to be dismissive as I know to her they are all very real but at the same time it’s tiring and can get very repetitive when she says it 20 times a day and needs a possible explanation each time. I’ve been trying to get her to rationalise what’s happen and for her to get her own answer but although it helps in that minute, we still have to repeat that over and over. 

any helpful hints would be amazing  

many thanks  Louise xx

Parents
  • Stomach ache and chest pains are due to anxiety, also the muscle twitching can be put down to stress and tension. My daughter is the same.  We tell her we understand that she is feeling a certain way, but she is not sick. And.....unless she has the shits, is puking or has a temp she is going to school.

    We use calm balm and a pillow spray for bedtime, I also send her to bed quite early to give her time to relax before she falls asleep. She has a gravity blanket and a gel eye mask which helps with the anxiety and meltdowns.

    Does she mind being touched? If my daughter is having a wobble, I push down on her shoulders and down her arms, encouraging her to slow her breathing.

    How old is yours? Mine is nearly 12, so I've got PMT in the mix too

  • Hi thank you for your reply!

    i try and be as understanding as possible and I always keep calm. I also don’t ever tell her that she isn’t ill or not listen to her. She does not like to be touched apart from our cuddles good night or goodbye and even that is very much on her terms lol. She is 14 so yes PMT is very much a part of our lives and I try and keep a track as to where she is on her cycle. To help me understand how she may be feeling. 

    I just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing and if I’m missing anything x

  • BTW - The 'Clue' phone app is a really great menstrual cycle tracker and you can enter pain and mood data. Could also probably add behaviour data if there are specific ways in which she expresses this type of pain.

    May also engage her enough to help her develop her body awareness.  

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