Dealing with fears (9 year old)

[Anonymous]

My nine year old is suddenly struggling with a whole bevy of fears - ghosts, monsters, people breaking into the house - the works. It's keeping her (and us) up at night and making it tough for her to do day to day stuff she used to do independently (she has a hard time ever being alone). This is a particular challenge because we have a newborn in the house, so we are all pretty sleep deprived. Any suggestions for resources, strategies to help her cope? I had similar fears at that age, so I empathize, but I don't have a good sense of how to help.

[Anonymous]

Therapist

[Anonymous]

This book really helped us when DD had similar "worries". It was such a hard time for all of us, hang in there!

What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety

https://www.amazon.com/What-When-Worry-Much-What/dp/1591473144/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Therapist

+1 Dealing with this right now with our sever year old. Her pediatrician put her on Zoloft and we are doing therapy. Anxiety disorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This book really helped us when DD had similar "worries". It was such a hard time for all of us, hang in there!

What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety

https://www.amazon.com/What-When-Worry-Much-What/dp/1591473144/

The book is excellent. It teaches recognized CBT strategies for conquering fears. My son loved the "worry monster" especially.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! We just ordered the book and look forward to working through it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nine year old is suddenly struggling with a whole bevy of fears - ghosts, monsters, people breaking into the house - the works. It's keeping her (and us) up at night and making it tough for her to do day to day stuff she used to do independently (she has a hard time ever being alone). This is a particular challenge because we have a newborn in the house, so we are all pretty sleep deprived. Any suggestions for resources, strategies to help her cope? I had similar fears at that age, so I empathize, but I don't have a good sense of how to help.

I would try to have one of you sleep in her room for a while. The other takes care of baby. I would not start medicine at 9 for this... poor girl

[Anonymous]

also recommend therapy. our therapist has not recommended medication.

[Anonymous]

This fear is new, right?....and you just added a sibling into the family?

There's your correlation.

[Anonymous]

My 9 yr old has had these fears for a while. Our old house backed to woods and we had a lot of critters (foxes, snakes, frogs, etc.) coming on the property and nearby. I used to have to remind him almost every night that we have an alarm, he's on the second floor, I wake easily, etc. I added nightlights of his choosing and told him he could keep any light on in his room that he wanted. Nothing was really all that effective, but I think it had a lot to do with the house we were living in. We lived there from ages 5-8 and around age 8 iss when these fears became noticeable. He's normally a really sociable kid with a strong character. We are renting an apartment on the ground floor in a different location and he's sharing a room with his older brother and I haven't had one issue with DS expressing these types of fears. He has expressed that when we find our next house, he will share a room with his brother. His brother adamantly disagrees. So, I anticipate having to deal with these fears again. I will definitely look into the suggested book before then.