Monster Man's biggest fear, especially since he's started having problems with anxiety, has been heights. Going to a hockey game, he had to be calmed down and eased to our seats when he realized we were sitting higher up than he expected. When we stopped to see Tallulah Gorge last fall (we stopped at a gift shop after a camping trip, and the gift shop had a viewing deck), he spent 45 minutes working himself up to the point that he could go to the railing of the viewing deck and look out at the gorge, though we had told him he could stay inside the gift shop with one of us while everyone else looked at the gorge - a stop that could've taken about 10 minutes. Just knowing that he was visiting my mom in the mountains last summer (you can't even tell you're in the mountains where she is at), he was sure he was too high up and was going to fall off the mountain. Like I said, heights terrify him.
The fact that he's so scare of heights is what makes his latest behavior so interesting. I've heard from so many other parents of children with TS about this desire to do dangerous things. In 'Against Medical Advice', Cory Friedman grabbed the steering wheel and pulled it in the opposite direction she was trying to turn. Another time, he climbed as high up in a tree as he possibly could, almost falling on multiple occasions. In Monster Man's case, he is trying to climb up different things to jump off of them! At church, he gets on the outer edge of the porch, about six feet off the ground, and tries to jump off. At the ball fields, I've caught him climbing up a wall that is approximately ten feet high, getting ready to jump off of that. We stopped at a park this past Friday, and I caught him getting ready to jump off the playground equipment, right next to the top of the slide. I've been able to stop him in all these cases, before he could manage to get hurt in the process of his jumping. I can't imagine what he's doing when I'm not looking!
In Monster Man suddenly having this desire to face his biggest fear, and to overcome it by jumping off of high places, he has given me a new fear, one I'm half-expecting to become a reality at some point in the future. I am scared that he will end up jumping off something one day, before anyone can stop him, and that I'll be getting a phone call to take him to the ER for a broken arm or leg. Hopefully he'll get over this desire before he manages to hurt himself.
Showing posts with label heights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heights. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, December 31, 2010
Anxiety
Monster Man used to be the type of child that wasn't afraid of anything. I remember going to the bathroom one time when he was two and walking out to find him standing on top of the refrigerator. While on the swings, he always begged to be pushed higher. Danger? What danger? He didn't seem to know what the word meant.
Imagine my surprise when he started having major anxiety issues this past summer! He and Angel Baby visited my mom in the North Carolina mountains over the summer. You can't even tell you're in the mountains where she lives, but he was sure he was going to fall off the side of the mountain. When he heard about a hurricane in the Atlantic, he was sure it was going to come up the mountain after them. A couple of weeks later, he was invited to Six Flags with his best friend. He refused to go on most of the rides, afraid that the rides would come off the tracks, that he might slip out of his seat belt, that something - anything - might happen to kill him. In fact, he was so scared and was vocalizing his concerns so loudly that he ended up scaring people in line around him.
A week later, my hubby and I took the kids to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center to see the Star Wars exhibit. Monster Man, a major Star Wars fan, would have a blast (we thought). When we arrived at the space center, he started panicking that the rockets out front would fall over on top of him. We had a hard time getting him to walk around and an even harder time convincing him to give the rides a try (interestingly, once he got on the rides he kept wanting to ride over and over again). Worst of all, he was terrified by the domed movie theater. Sitting too high had him in tears, and he still hid his face when I moved lower with him. The objects on the screen were too big for his comfort.
His anxiety hasn't just turned out to be fear about his own well-being. If Angel Baby's bus is even ten minutes late getting home, he worries that it might have gotten in an accident. If Little Man is running around, Monster Man is afraid he'll fall and get hurt. Sometimes, it seems like Monster Man is in almost a constant state of worry, and it breaks my heart.
Unfortunately, anxiety can go hand-in-hand with Tourette Syndrome. We're currently working on ways to help him calm down when his anxiety hits, including breathing exercises and a lot of patience, and his doctor has given him some medicine for when his anxiety is at its worst (though I've never remembered to have it with me at the times he's needed it thus far, so we're still not sure how well it works for him).
Imagine my surprise when he started having major anxiety issues this past summer! He and Angel Baby visited my mom in the North Carolina mountains over the summer. You can't even tell you're in the mountains where she lives, but he was sure he was going to fall off the side of the mountain. When he heard about a hurricane in the Atlantic, he was sure it was going to come up the mountain after them. A couple of weeks later, he was invited to Six Flags with his best friend. He refused to go on most of the rides, afraid that the rides would come off the tracks, that he might slip out of his seat belt, that something - anything - might happen to kill him. In fact, he was so scared and was vocalizing his concerns so loudly that he ended up scaring people in line around him.
A week later, my hubby and I took the kids to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center to see the Star Wars exhibit. Monster Man, a major Star Wars fan, would have a blast (we thought). When we arrived at the space center, he started panicking that the rockets out front would fall over on top of him. We had a hard time getting him to walk around and an even harder time convincing him to give the rides a try (interestingly, once he got on the rides he kept wanting to ride over and over again). Worst of all, he was terrified by the domed movie theater. Sitting too high had him in tears, and he still hid his face when I moved lower with him. The objects on the screen were too big for his comfort.
His anxiety hasn't just turned out to be fear about his own well-being. If Angel Baby's bus is even ten minutes late getting home, he worries that it might have gotten in an accident. If Little Man is running around, Monster Man is afraid he'll fall and get hurt. Sometimes, it seems like Monster Man is in almost a constant state of worry, and it breaks my heart.
Unfortunately, anxiety can go hand-in-hand with Tourette Syndrome. We're currently working on ways to help him calm down when his anxiety hits, including breathing exercises and a lot of patience, and his doctor has given him some medicine for when his anxiety is at its worst (though I've never remembered to have it with me at the times he's needed it thus far, so we're still not sure how well it works for him).
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