help, anxiety

Karen,

This is just my impression, but it seems there’s a thread running through the events that triggered your son’s anxiety. In the case of Mother’s Day, he realized that the holiday occurred only 1x/yr., and sounded disappointed to have to wait an entire year for it to roll around again. This is assuming he had an enjoyable day, appreciating his mommy & whatnot! :)

Did you happen to think to mention to him that it just means you’re that much closer to Memorial Day (barbecues & camping are popular around here during that weekend!) and 4th of July? And that once those are celebrated, there will be other holidays to look forward to? Maybe he wouldn’t feel such a “loss” if he was able to anticipate something positive coming up.

As for the GameBoy, that one is tricky. Was there *anything* positive about not having it (while it was missing) that he might have a sense of loss over, now that it’s been located? Even just the act of having someone help him look for it regularly (meaning, maybe he enjoyed having them help him hunt for it)? Or, maybe it was a good excuse to get together w/ a friend to play PlayStation? Something like that might help to explain his bewildering disappointment!

The rollerskating party is more similar to the Mother’s Day reaction, on the surface - he’s just experienced something he (presumably) enjoyed, and come to recognize that it won’t be happening again in the very near future.

You might try keeping a list of his activities posted somewhere that he’ll be able to see it, either using small pictures (if that works better for him), or writing them out, “Soccer practice Wednesday,” for example. If he has “checkpoints” along the way to anticipate & look forward to, maybe it will help to reduce his anxiety when any one individual “good thing” is over with! It might be worth a try! Good luck!

~~~ Lei

Sometimes a person can be anxious about one thing — maybe even without really being aware of it — and it spills over into other things in strange ways. He may be afraid of losing his mother … or any of a number of things related to a kid’s perceptions of news flashes, etc.
Or not!! It’s just a thought….

When my ADD son(now 12) was dx’d at 9, anxiety was brought up by the psych but, frankly, I didnt see it

Since then, particularly around age 11, I did notice it. For my son it was worrying ‘something was going to happen” to family members. He is old enough to be left alone for short periods but I would get phone calls on my cell-“you just went to the grocery store;you should be home by now; Im worried you’re in an accident”

When I mentioned it to DH, he told me(and I cant believe he didnt mention it sooner)that he had several messages on his work cell like this. He drives long distances for his job and apprently ds was doing this even if he was home with other family members(which tells me it’s not that hes freaked out to be home alone)

Anyway, when we swtiched him to Strattera, these incidents stopped. THAT wasnt why we made the med change; I didn’t even make the connection until months later and, considering the kind of med Strat is, it makes perfect sense

So, is anxiety just a normal component of ADD? Are kids prone to one prone to the other? I wonder

BTW, my oldest son(now 19) cried at age 12 more than all ages combined. He was obviously in full puberty at that age, one of those kids who get hit hard and fast(he has stretch marks from growing so quickly) Any little thing could set him off

Could it be hormones?

Has your son had a complete physical recently? If not, that should be your first step. Among other things, thyroid problems could cause anxiety to surface suddenly. If the physical turns up nothing, it might be a good idea to consult a mental health professional who might be able to figure out what is going on. Clearly your little guy is suffering an unusual level of anxiety. Sometimes stressors from other parts of life can spill over into anxiety even at otherwise safe or fun times such as parties and family celebrations. Also, children with ADHD and LD do have greater tendency to suffer comorbid disorders such as anxiety or depression and you therefore would want to act sooner rather than later to check out any possible problem of that nature.

Karen,
Just thought I would add that my son began to have severe anxiety after being on stimulants. We had to completely get off them for about 2 yrs. They began treating the anxiety and OCD symptoms with Imipramine. Later he started taking Straterra, also. We are once again trying stimulants. I hope it doesn’t throw him back into a tailspin. We are monitoring it very closely.The doctor said that stimulants don’t CAUSE OCD and anxiety but it exaccerbates these symptoms. Hope this is some help to you. Jan

I notice above the mention that thyroid problems are linked to anxiety. This interests me as I have a thyroid problem and although it’s coming under control there are indeed mood swings. Can you tell me where to find more about this specific topic?

Hi, Victoria -

I found some information which might be of interest to you…it looks fairly current (updated March 2004). I’d love the chance to do something for *you* for a change!! ;)

http://www.psycheducation.org/thyroid/introduction.htm

~~~ Leizanne

Thanks very much for the article. It is both interesting and informative.

As usual, I don’t fit any of the clinical patterns (always was an original), having half the symptoms of the low and half the symptoms of the high — I keep asking if I have to have an auto-immune disorder and be on a special diet, why do I have to be the one who *gains* weight? Life is unfair.

I’mk going to pass this article on to my endocrinologist and see if he has any more ideas.

My son has an anxiety disorder and I did ask the doctor to check his thyroid, but unfortuntely, that wasn’t the problem.

(Victoria, I usually think ‘hormones’ when middle aged women like myself have mood swings ;-)

Janis

Hey, who you callin middle-aged? :evil:

I have this little problem of severe celiac disease that was misdiagnosed for decades, some kind of autoimmune that got a great three-year runaround but no diagnosis or treatment, rapidly dropping thyroid which my GP thought was probably related to the above, and oh yeah, I am getting older for some funny reason. I also have Viking ancestry and the bone structure of a linebacker plus a cultural tradition of stoicism — we drive ourselves to the hospital with one hand after dislocating the other shoulder (yes, done it, twice); the net result being that it is extremely difficult to convince anyone including nurses that I’m really sick! I’ve had to battle literally for decades to get doctors to NOT classify me as an older woman who just wants to complain. This is one reason I can give practical advice to people in the same boat.
It is hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been there and done that — maybe ADD folks know this one — but there are different *kinds* of mood swings. There’s one kind that is natural, of course you get tired and frustrated when things go badly, and you *should* feel depressed when you lose something important in your life. Then there’s another kind that comes from outside, a black cloud that slides over the landscape for no reason. The second one naturally worries me and I try to get help for it, but the same old problem of not looking sick enough …

Victoria,

I know what you mean. I suffered from depression even as a child and it took till I was a young adult to be diagnosed and finally getting the help I so desperately needed. It’s very hard to explain how you feel to anyone that hasn’t experienced it.Sometimes extreme feelings of guilt come over me because I have a good life and don’t have any reason to be depressed.I know now that it is a physiological problem but it still makes you feel guilty. Thanks for all the help you have given to so many on this site including me!! Cheers, Jan