Anxiety -- you can come through to the other side.

Anxiety.

It can linger around yet no one sees it for what it is.  

It can lead to behaviours you don't understand - you or your child.  It's there.  But as it grows, you start to see what it is.  Then the journey begins to figure out what you can do to help your child through this emotion.  

I thought it was typical shy behaviours.  
It was my child's personality.  
But eventually, it was something both of us were trying to deal with.

When I look back over time, I realize that this road was long.  The anxiety started a lot sooner than I realized. 

It was part of the fear of the dark.  
It was part of the difficults when trying to go to sleep.  
It was part of wanting to skip social gatherings, and the list went on and on.  

But it's only with this hindsight can I see how big this 'anxiety monster' was that was riding on top on my child's back -- weighing them down -- and interfering with their life.  

Could it be that the anxiety was bigger than the learning issues we were dealing with?!?!   

Yes, one impacted the other, but I thought the learning was the primary problem. It is the chicken or the egg analogy, and I'm still working through this. 

All I know is I was left to figure this out on my own.  

Health issues started to develop.  I looked for resources and found myself attending anxiety parenting workshops. 

The workshops offered a place that confirmed I was on the right path, and this I needed. They offered some new strategies that we tried at home.  Some strategies were helpful. But honestly some ideas had limits, possibly because there were so many patterns and responses that developed over the years -- it would take 'time' to replace them and set up new strategies that worked.  

The monster was big. 

Health concerns grew and with it the anxiety.  That's when I saw what it was doing.

Then there were doctors.  Tests.  And more doctors.  

We continued a long journey of illness, homeschooling, and ways to manage the anxiety monster.  

Months later, I see a new child.  

Health issues are resolving.  Fear and worry are melting away.  I look back, and I see we made it to the other side.  The issues not gone but now there are strategies in place. And with this, other strategies will follow (maybe even the ones that didn't work before) 

If you are dealing with anxiety in your home - reach out.  

Ask for help -- not just once but as many times as you need. 

Get that monster off their back (and yours) and eventually you will look back and see that you can make it through. 

Keep going -- see you on the other side. 

Susan