Reply to 2nd grade DD worried about parents dying during school day

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[quote=Anonymous]My child has anxiety and has lots of irrational fears.  He is afraid of car trips, because we may wreck or a tornado might come, or a volcano might erupt (when there are none).   We have seen a psychiatrist.  While I recommend you do the same, I will also share some things you can try.

Talk to your child about worries, and how sometimes the brain can play tricks on you.  We call it the worry brain.  The worry brain gives your bad signals and confuses possibility with probability.  So, while you cannot promise your child that you will not die, you can explain how very, very, very rare is for someone to die for no reason.  Remind your child that they have gone to school and nothing bad has happened and that there is no reason that the next day will not be the same.  The best thing you can do, is never let your child skip school due to this fear.  You should also talk to the teacher, in case the anxiety manifests itself at school.  Although if your child is like ours, they hide it during the school day and the teachers always think we are nuts :  )  I would not attempt to call or text because that is giving her fear more merit.  You need to acknowledge she feels what she does, but that her brain is tricking her.

You may really want to buys some books that are designed for children on anxiety.  My son almost felt relieved to read a book that acknowledged he wasn't the only person in the world to think bad thoughts.  It also helped him open up to us and talk about all of his anxieties (we had no idea).  It will seem at first like your child is getting worse, but in reality it is just them being open.

Again, I suggest a psychiatrist.  For some reason, I was terrified of this, but it was actually good for parents as well.  Ours spent most of the time talking to us as parents and providing us with tools we could use to address specific anxieties.  They can also help you figure out if this is just a sign of general anxiety or something else.

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