My 6 year old has anxiety

[Anonymous]

Not diagnosed yet, I'm guessing we should see her pediatrician? Or is there someone else we should see instead? We've always known she is a anxious, sensitive, nervous child, but doing more research, she clearly has anxiety. We obviously want to help her as best we can, but have no idea where to start. Anyone BTDT? We're in Northern VA.

[Anonymous]

My pediatrician will diagnose and prescribe for ADHD, but will not touch anxiety. He refers to a psychiatrist and also recommends counseling. If you don't need a referral for your insurance, I'd start directly with a psychiatrist.

[Anonymous]

My pediatrician will diagnose and prescribe for ADHD, but will not touch anxiety. He refers to a psychiatrist and also recommends counseling. If you don't need a referral for your insurance, I'd start directly with a psychiatrist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My pediatrician will diagnose and prescribe for ADHD, but will not touch anxiety. He refers to a psychiatrist and also recommends counseling. If you don't need a referral for your insurance, I'd start directly with a psychiatrist.

We do not need a referral and she definitely doesn't have ADHD (at least not presenting with any symptoms of that at this time).

Thanks!

- OP

[Anonymous]

Our pediatrician recommended that we bring our child to a psychologist at the Ross Center, so we started by doing that. Our child was diagnosed with anxiety, and continues to see both a psychologist and a psychiatrist there. It has made a world of difference. Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Straight to a psychiatrist. Fair warning, none I contacted took insurance, and all were around $1000 oop for diagnosis.

As a teacher, once you get the diagnosis I'd go straight to the school and request an IEP/504 evaluation. They can provide counseling at school and/or put accommodations in place so that your daughter had a support system set up. Don't do it in September (or else teacher feedback is a waste--they don't know her yet!) but by November/December for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Straight to a psychiatrist. Fair warning, none I contacted took insurance, and all were around $1000 oop for diagnosis.

As a teacher, once you get the diagnosis I'd go straight to the school and request an IEP/504 evaluation. They can provide counseling at school and/or put accommodations in place so that your daughter had a support system set up. Don't do it in September (or else teacher feedback is a waste--they don't know her yet!) but by November/December for sure.

Ha thanks for the warning! We have an HSA so at least we could claim it against that. Very overwhelmed lol, a lot going on in general, DH and I thought we may be headed this direction, but realizing we're there...

Okay off to read a lot of information!

- OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician recommended that we bring our child to a psychologist at the Ross Center, so we started by doing that. Our child was diagnosed with anxiety, and continues to see both a psychologist and a psychiatrist there. It has made a world of difference. Good luck to you.

What kind of treatment did they get at the Ross Center?

[Anonymous]

While medication has its place -- my child is on anti-anxiety medication -- it's not the first thing to try. So I would start with a psychologist/therapist instead of a psychiatrist. I really like the therapists at the Sibley Group (https://thesibleygroupdc.com) although I don't know if they work with kids as young as 6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While medication has its place -- my child is on anti-anxiety medication -- it's not the first thing to try. So I would start with a psychologist/therapist instead of a psychiatrist. I really like the therapists at the Sibley Group (https://thesibleygroupdc.com) although I don't know if they work with kids as young as 6.

This. We just took my 7 year old to a therapist who specializes in anxiety in kids. She taught him all sorts of coping methods and how to identify when something was anxiety. He was in therapy for about 8 months, weekly, then every other week, then monthly. He is doing great now and we have stopped therapy for now. You don’t need to run to a psychiatrist immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Straight to a psychiatrist. Fair warning, none I contacted took insurance, and all were around $1000 oop for diagnosis.

As a teacher, once you get the diagnosis I'd go straight to the school and request an IEP/504 evaluation. They can provide counseling at school and/or put accommodations in place so that your daughter had a support system set up. Don't do it in September (or else teacher feedback is a waste--they don't know her yet!) but by November/December for sure.

Ha thanks for the warning! We have an HSA so at least we could claim it against that. Very overwhelmed lol, a lot going on in general, DH and I thought we may be headed this direction, but realizing we're there...

Okay off to read a lot of information!

- OP

First PP here. We were able to find a psychiatrist in our plan and the wait was not excessive - like maybe two months. I would caution you against jumping immediately to private pay unless you have significant resources. Thing is that these issues don't go away or don't go quickly and the costs add up very fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician recommended that we bring our child to a psychologist at the Ross Center, so we started by doing that. Our child was diagnosed with anxiety, and continues to see both a psychologist and a psychiatrist there. It has made a world of difference. Good luck to you.

What kind of treatment did they get at the Ross Center?

I am the Ross Center PP. Child has CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) with the psychologist. After over one year of CBT alone (which was very helpful), the psychologist recommended that we also consult a psychiatrist, because the child might respond even better to the CBT if also medicated. We felt very torn about starting medication, but the combination of CBT and medication turned out to be the right solution for our kid. We started later in the process (child was already in 6h grade before starting medication) than you - I only wish we had started treatment when the child was younger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician recommended that we bring our child to a psychologist at the Ross Center, so we started by doing that. Our child was diagnosed with anxiety, and continues to see both a psychologist and a psychiatrist there. It has made a world of difference. Good luck to you.

What kind of treatment did they get at the Ross Center?

I am the Ross Center PP. Child has CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) with the psychologist. After over one year of CBT alone (which was very helpful), the psychologist recommended that we also consult a psychiatrist, because the child might respond even better to the CBT if also medicated. We felt very torn about starting medication, but the combination of CBT and medication turned out to be the right solution for our kid. We started later in the process (child was already in 6h grade before starting medication) than you - I only wish we had started treatment when the child was younger.

Yes I already feel bad now that we've waited as long as we have. Going through insurance to start, if we don't find a good resource that way we'll definitely go private.

- OP

[Anonymous]

Anxiety is a normal and helpful feeling, like stress, that one should not attempt to get rid of. Work instead on the reaction to those feelings. Indeed, they can be performance enhancers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anxiety is a normal and helpful feeling, like stress, that one should not attempt to get rid of. Work instead on the reaction to those feelings. Indeed, they can be performance enhancers.

Like a lot of people who never had to deal with serious mental illness themselves or with a family member, you have no idea what you are talking about.