My 9 year old

[izzys83]

We have a lot going on in our household with my husband having a chronic illness, our 9 year old son's behaviour is concerning us, his temper is through the roof just now but the more concerning thing is, he wont stay anywhere in the house on his own, if he needs the toilet one of us has to go with him or even his little sister, at night his sister has to stay in his room to watch a dvd and when she falls asleep she has to be moved straight away and one of us has to stay with him till he falls asleep.  He has nightmares that his dad dies, his dad was in ITU in Feb on life support with pnumonia and it wasn't good they thought we would have to turn the machines off, so it was recommended that I take the kids in, so they both seen their dad with tubes everywhere.
Is there anything we can do to get rid of this fear?

[izzys83]

Thank you very much, his dad has GAD and OCD, depression etc, his nanny also has a form of anxiety also.

Going to see my GP on friday and will hopefully get him to do a referal to try and speed up the waiting time on the child psychologist, he has been on the waiting list since Nov last year and still nothing, hopefully will get things sped up a bit if I start shouting a bit more :-)

Thanks for the input

[jdtm]

I see Dr. Kennedy answered this question for you.  I'll stick my neck out - I think he does have an anxiety disorder.  Many children develop GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) about eight years of age.  You might wish to google phrases a "GAD and children" or "anxiety disorders in children" or "behaviors of anxiety in children" or similar words/phrases to better educate yourself on this issue.  There are also tons of books on this topic in bookstores, the internet and in public libraries.

Anxiety tends to be an inherited trait; however, it can be exacerbated by environmental conditions.  Anxiety responds well to treatment and the prognosis is excellent for children.  Your son will need to learn how to "manage" his fears/anxieties and a medical mental health specialist with experiencen in anxiety issues should be able to devise a plan of action for your son and for you in assisting him.  Hope this helps ....