Hi, DD is 9, adopted at 7 months. I would like to help her with her anxiety problems but I am at a bit of a loss about how to and where to start - I have looked at books to help kids in general deal with anxiety and then I have been rereading 'Twenty things adopted children wish their parents knew' which seems to focus more on therapeutic help such as helping them to grieve their loss and helping them to realise they have special needs arising from adoption.
DD doesn't have any diagnosis or anything. She manages well academically and has friends but I have always been aware of how anxious she gets underneath. Lately she has started verbalising to me how anxious she gets. Most of her anxiety is social. She doesn't cope well with groups or new people. Her teacher has told me she is very quiet in school and that there is a danger that children like her will get ignored by teachers. If she is a group situation she withdraws/closes down and the same with new people. We both work but have had to stagger our hours so that we can pick her up from school as she becomes highly distressed if we even casually mention her going to an after school club for a day or two a week.
She seems fearful of being wrong or shamed. She is very well behaved, too well behaved for a 9 year old. She apologises often even when she has done nothing wrong and someone is correcting her so they can help her. Last night I became irritable with her because she kept saying 'sorry' and she became very upset. She then apologised for saying sorry too much Bad mother .
She always thinks of others before herself e.g. if I ask her what she wants to do she will ask me what I want to do and will then worry that if she gets to choose then I will be unhappy.
Over the years she has had a myriad of fears, the current one being shop security alarms going off when we are leaving. This happened a few times over xmas and now she has developed a fear of shops as she is afraid the alarm will go off (even when we haven't bought anything!) and everyone will look at us.
In between all the above she is a happy girl with lots of interest but I am worried for her future as she lets her fears stop her doing things. I am particularly worried about the change to secondary school - bigger classes with strangers and strict teachers will make the transition very difficult for her.(Recently she changed her swim school and it took me 25 minutes to persuade her to get out of the car and into the building.)
A friend has recently said that she might be picking up her behaviour from me. I do worry about her but I am not socially phobic and I don't have excessive fears/phobias so I'm not sure if she is right.
Would a book on anxiety in kids be the way forward or should I be looking for a more adoption related book? Any similar experiences or advice would be very welcome
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on adoption.
Adoption
how can I help my anxious daughter?
43 replies
foreva · 10/01/2013 13:42
OP posts:
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.