Sensitive kids group

[polaris]

Cattia, I love the ideas in the link you posted. Although as I was reading down through the advice I kept thinking "but how do you find the time to do all that?" I guess that is part of the problem, when we are trying to juggle too many balls with not enough help/support. I don't know how I'm going to manage when I'm back at work. This parenting job is such hard work isn't it?

I do think being out of routine definitely tends to be more disruptive for sensitive kids. Thomas is always unsettled by routine changes and holidays etc. Clara is the opposite, she likes nothing better than a houseful of people and she actually thrives on all the excitement. Also she sleeps so badly anyway that late nights make absolutely no difference to her, in fact if anything she slept a bit better than usual over the Christmas period. She is totally the opposite to Thomas in this regard! He is able to cope better now than when he was younger but I think it is still a huge effort for him and it does take it out of him trying to hold it together.

Cattia, I had to smile at Abigail getting upset about changing her mind about next year's birthday party - this is just so similar to conversations that I have had with Thomas! He really feels compelled to think way ahead into the future but then it all gets a bit overwhelming for him I think. In the run up to Christmas he got so stressed out about what present he was going to ask for that he decided he would just ask for a surprise instead. It was really stressing him out a lot. And he is already talking now about what he wants for his birthday next October!

 

[OmarsMum]

Cattia I know how you feel, I dont have much advise, we're in the same boat, he's overly senstive & he cries for the silliest things. I guess after 3 weeks from being at home & lack of routine we're all more than ready for school next week.

At school he's too quiet which is not his nature at home or when we go out, he's articulate & well behaved, but he still doesn't fit in. But he's getting better in joining in in activities. But he still zones out, I also noticed it at home when we're doing activities, it seems that he gets occupied in his own thoughts then he starts to talk about random things unrelated to what we're doing.

I try to keep him busy, he goes to several classes after school.

When he's around kids we know he acts like any other 4 yrs old, he plays with his friends, he takes lead, he suggests games & so on.

Polaris- Omar's sleep is much better since he started to take the valerian & camomile drops before bedtime, he's finally sleeping through.

Omar is not really bothered about routine change as we never had a routine until he started school in September, but it didnt make his sleep better.

 

[hattiehippo]

. She has been so excited about her birthday and Christmas taut I wonder if that, along with the end of term, has unsettled her. We have had really bad meltdowns at bedtime every day this week. It's exhausting.

Daisy's also had her birthday this week as well as christmas and that, along with being out of her pre-school routine, has really thrown her. She hasn't melted down yet but I can see it is going to happen.

It's a lot of upheaval isn't it. Outwardly Abigail seems to take things in her stride but actually she doesn't, things do throw her more than I think I realise. Yesterday she said she wanted her birthday party NEXT year at the community centre where her friend had a party, so I said fine, thinking nothing of it since it's a year away, then later she was crying because she didn't want her party there! The emotional roller coatser is really a lot to cope with.

I think this time of year is really hard for kids who feel things more deeply and also analyse everything over and over.

We took Tom to the panto today as a special treat - he'd been ok going to one with his nursery class and it was his favourite story, Rapunzel. I took him to the toilet just before we went to our seats and he totally lost it and was sobbing and screaming because he wanted to flush the toilet and I did it without thinking. But I'm sure that was just a trigger for all the pent up stress and worry about doing something so different on top of Christmas and birthday and the total lack of normal routine. We've had a few other breakdowns but this was the worst.

He did enjoy the panto with a lot of persuasion to stay at the start but was clearly in total sensory overload at the end - just totally spaced out!

 

[OmarsMum]

Hattie- we have the meltdowns for me flushing the toilet or pressing the elevator button & so on, I know when he has those meltdown he's either overwhelmed or overtired. It's just trigger to all the trapped emotions. Sometimes I feel that he's suffering from anxiety, he went for a short winter camp during this vacation, during the classes he started to grind his teeth to cover his anxiety, now the classes are done he stopped. He liked the arts classes but he looked ready to cry every time I took a look at his from outside, he didn't look engaged with the activities. The dance class he didn't even join in, for the whole 7 days he sat down in the corner watching, I told him that it's ok if he didn't join in & he can sit & watch & he was so relieved bless him. Both classes were very loud which is very overwhelming for him, I'm not sure if I want to send him to group classes anymore, I feel that those classes are too much for him, school is more than enough at this stage. He's happy with the one to one piano class & the abacus class with 3 kids in class only.

I really hope this new year is better for us & our kids.

Happy new year xx

 

[hattiehippo]

Happy New Year Omarsmum too.

Tom has nervous ticks that get worse when he's stressed or tired. He makes a kind of whopping noise as he breathes in or he constantly clears his throat. They wind me up so much cos I hate repetitive noises but I try to not show it cos he can't help it! His need to control everything gets worse as well - he constantly fusses over how we hold his hand and it has to be exactly right.

It's scary how similar he and Omar sound!

 

[Cattia]

I've been off B&B for quite a while now because to be honest it was making me a bit neurotic reading so much stuff about other people's children and parenting, but this thread has made me feel so much better! There seem to be so many other people whose LOs are similar. I am just wondering though, does your child's behaviour stress you out? As I said before, I suffer from anxiety myself so I am fairly highly strung. That in conjunction with our awful experience wit Abigail's first pre school has made me feel very anxious and worried about the way she is, and I feel that's really bad for her. Essentially, she is fine, and I wish I could be more accepting of her and not worry so much and try to change her. As a child I was incredibly anxious and looking back, had several behaviours that probably verged on OCD, so on the one hand I understand her being so upright about things, and on the other hand I worry that I am passing on my neurotic nature to her. I kind of feel I should spend more time trying to support her and less time worrying about her.
Today hasn't been much better on the meltdown front. They all seem to happen late in the day, so I think tiredness has a part to play.

 

[OmarsMum]

I had a bad school experiences, but I follow my instinct, when we went to a nursery when Omar was almost 3 the principal wanted to put him in special needs class as he cried the 1st day, she tried to force him to eat, she locked him in her room & ignored him, when I questioned her way she didnt like it.

When we went for school assessment in Feb last year he was so advanced, but as he was still in nappies when going out, not sleeping through & had letters obsession they mentioned autism & he didnt pass the assessment. They wanted to re-assess him but for me it wasnt the right school for him.

In his current school, the head of department was impressed with him, I told her clearly that he is highly sensitive, they didnt make a big deal about it, but i didnt mention his sleep issues, & he was out of nappies when we went there. he cried for 3 weeks but there were other kids crying, his key teacher had an attitude at 1st & I didnt like the fact that she's in her mid 50s & she clearly didnt have patience, so I spoke to the head of department & I told her clearly that her attitude is not acceptable. Now he gets extra attention from his teachers & TA.

On bad days I feel overwhelmed by his behaviour, I even cry & question my parenting. Sometimes I have talks with hubby & I bring up seeing a professional.

But he doesnt tick any boxes related to autism, ADD or ADHD. He has perfect attention span, he has amazing imagination, he makes up games & songs, he has amazing sense of humor.

Cattia, I'm around loads of kids his age, many of my friends IRL have difficult kids some are highly sensitive. My friend's son argues in a spiteful way, he goes on & on, Omar argues but he asks for reasons & he is well behaved when he argues, he whines but he doesnt cross lines when he talks, he doesnt tell me that he hates me or he wants to leave us & so on.

From what I read here most of our kids are advanced compared to other kids their age, I guess some times we forget that they are only kids, I started recently to stop over analysing his behaviour.

When we went to a Chirtmas party (we go to the same party every year) he joined in in all activites, but when the band played he sat on my lap watching, other kids were jumping & dancing around, last year I was frustrated as he didn't join in, but this year I was relaxed, we had fun watching the show while cuddling on the floor, I accepted that dancing is not his thing in public places, he dances at home & in parties with kids he knows.

Try not to worry, I think when you talk to mums who are going through the same it makes things easier, this group really helped us in overcoming loads of his issues. xxx

 

[hattiehippo]

I've been off B&B for quite a while now because to be honest it was making me a bit neurotic reading so much stuff about other people's children and parenting, but this thread has made me feel so much better! There seem to be so many other people whose LOs are similar. I am just wondering though, does your child's behaviour stress you out? As I said before, I suffer from anxiety myself so I am fairly highly strung. That in conjunction with our awful experience wit Abigail's first pre school has made me feel very anxious and worried about the way she is, and I feel that's really bad for her. Essentially, she is fine, and I wish I could be more accepting of her and not worry so much and try to change her. As a child I was incredibly anxious and looking back, had several behaviours that probably verged on OCD, so on the one hand I understand her being so upright about things, and on the other hand I worry that I am passing on my neurotic nature to her. I kind of feel I should spend more time trying to support her and less time worrying about her.
Today hasn't been much better on the meltdown front. They all seem to happen late in the day, so I think tiredness has a part to play.

I do try to not stress about Tom but tbh his behaviour in public seriously stresses me out sometimes. Now he's older other people look and stare when he's having a meltdown or sobbing about something. And it's really hard to not compare with kid's his age.

Yesterday at the panto there were loads of other kids just taking it on face value, having fun etc. He had to sit on our knees, ask questions the whole way through and needed a constant Pep talk to not start crying and screaming. But he loved it afterwards.

At a friend's party he sat on my knee the whole way through - I felt people thought I was keeping him there and didn't want him to join in whereas I would love nothing more than for him to run off with the others! He's the same at Softplay places - one of us has to go with him most of the time or he will just sit with us.

I do worry a lot that he may have some elements of autistic behaviour that will become more difficult as he gets older but it could be he grows into himself more and learns to manage his worries and emotions more. I actually think he will get better once he's at school and can read cos I think part of the problem is his need to know things!

My DH suffers from anxiety and depression and I'm quite introverted and it appears Tom get a combination of all of this

 

[polaris]

Cattia, I haven't been on B&B much either but I do always check in with this thread if there are any new posts. I just find this is a really lovely group of ladies who I can really relate to and feel comfortable with. I think because our kids all have some similarities, although of course they are all unique too.

I go through phases of worrying and not worrying. I don't worry about ASD or other childhood diagnoses because I know he doesn't meet the criteria. But I do worry about him socially. Even more so because all the social stuff seems to come so easily to Clara and it really highlights how difficult it is for him sometimes. I worry about him not having friends or getting depressed or anxious later in life. Recently he said to me that he is "not nice in preschool". I tried to question him a bit to figure out what he meant and it turns out that he was feeling sad because "some people don't like him". I tried to tell him that not everyone likes everyone and that's OK and that there are probably some people he doesn't like too. To which he told me sadly that he likes everyone. My heart just bled a little bit for him. I know this is normal stuff that all kids have to go through but he is so sensitive to rejection. I felt sad that he was labelling himself "not nice" because of how he thinks other children perceive him. So yes, I worry about that sort of thing and how he will cope with it.

Another random worry that I have is that he might be at risk of schizophrenia when he's older. There is a family history on both sides of the family so it's not completely ridiculous. Recently he has been telling me that at night time he hears noises in the wall and people calling his name. I know this is probably just normal childhood vivid imagination but I still worry. So I can relate to what you are saying about worrying. Some of my worries I don't discuss with anyone.

Thomas has got much better about joining in with stuff but he still often prefers to watch. We joined an outdoor meet-up group and that was great for him because he was mixing with other children but in a much more relaxed way out in the open air and it was easier on him and me. He could choose to interact with others or else go off by himself if he wanted. He still prefers adults to kids though. He's more interested in talking to the other mums.

When Thomas is nervous he twirls his hair. Don't know if it's wrong or right but I actually cut it short to stop him from doing it because it was getting more noticeable.

Happy New Year everybody!!

 

[Jchihuahua]

When Daisy was 2 I honestly thought she had a serious behavioural disorder and I spent ages reading things on google that scared me silly. My husband would tell me to stop it but I was so sure there must be something wrong with her as nobody else's child seemed to behave like her. I was very stressed about her behaviour in public and I actually started to have anxiety about how she'd behave if we were going to be on a bus or train or whatever and it stopped me from doing things with her as I would worry about it so much. I would lie in bed worrying about how she'd behave and what people would think. I think my anxiety passed over to her and possibly made her behaviour even worse as she picked up on my stress.

Pre-school helped Daisy no end as routine works well for her and her behaviour is really good 90% of the time now but she is still 'different' in a lot of ways. Mainly how emotional she can be and how she overthinks things. Her massive over reaction to hurting herself is a big thing too. She is academically very able for her age and is very sociable and friendly and seems to be popular with her peers generally but it doesn't take much for her to become really upset about things that don't really matter. Adults often comment that she is 'one of a kind' and even though they are not saying it to make me worry it still does a little bit because I then think that she must be noticably different to other children. I don't usually share my anxieties though so this thread has been a godsend really.

 

[Cattia]

Wow ladies, it's so good to share your experiences. When I share my concerns with DH he just gets frustrated with me so it's nice to talk to other people who understand.
Omar' s mum, it sounds as though you've found a really good school for Omar. He sounds like someone who knows his own mind and knows what he likes and doesn't like. I guess that can make it hard fitting in at school but the plus side is that as he gets older he won't always need to follow the crowd and he'll probably find more like minded friends as he goes through school. It's good to know that the routine of school is helpful, because school is something that worries me a lot. We're just doing the application for school at the moment and our first choice is a small primary school which I hope will be a supportive environment.
Hattie, Abigail is that way with things too, says needs to ask lots of questions to be sure about things. She gets so anxious about things and it seems like she can't just go with the flow, she needs information to be in control somehow.
Polaris, I totally understand your concerns. It's so hard to think of them struggling with friendships isn't it? I went through that at school when I was younger, I wasn't very confident and I found it hard to fit in but once I made friends they were good friends so probably Thomas will be like that. I was never in the popular group but I had my closet little group of friends. The schizophrenia thing must be scary but you know that it would be really really unusual to see symptoms in a child that age so it really sounds like he's just got a vivid imagination. I think at night it's difficult to tell what's real and what isn't.
Jc I can relate to that too, in fact I am a little that way with George, because he's so hyper and really quite 'naughty' I worry wherever we go out about how it's going to be and it makes me anxious. Some friends take their kids out to dinner in restaurants. For me that would be very stressful, having to contain him while I waited for food. With Abigail my worries are more around over analysing her interactions and worrying if I think she's not joining in our not playing well. That can make play dates quite stressful for me as I can't relax.
Although all our children are clearly very different, one thing that really strikes me and that I notice so strongly in Abigail is the over thinking about things. Suffering most of my life with anxiety, this is something that I've always struggled a lot with myself and still do. I guess if I knew it was a genetic disposition I could accept it more but what worries me is that it's behaviour that Abigail has learned from me. I would hate to think of her going through her life with all these anxieties and hang ups because I've been over anxious around her. On the other hand, although I worry loads about George too, he's shy in New situations but really quite gregarious when he warms up!
Anyway, I'm waffling on again, I hope you've all had a nice first day of 2014

 

[Tacey]

Hello again! It's been ages since I was last here. Nice to see the thread active again.

Cattia, Alice's behaviour used to bother me a lot, mainly because I wasn't sure if I should find out if she needed some sort of diagnosis. There was a lot of guilt too as I have social anxiety, and am very sensitive, and felt it was my fault. Reading The Highly Sensitive Person helped me see it in a more positive light. I have seen a lot of change recently though, mainly that she's now happy, whereas when I was posting here before, she clearly wasn't. That's an awful thing to see. For us we had to step back from a lot of things I thought we 'should' be doing, and she got much happier. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that.

Alice's little quirks have come back in full force lately. Like a few of you have mentioned, I'm putting it down to Christmas and the change in routine. She became very stressed out about Father Christmas. I've not really introduced the idea, but everyone else including strangers kept talking about him, and she found it very unsettling. I'm relieved it's all over, and we can get back to normal. Home education is going brilliantly. We've started going to more HE groups, and some of the older children have taken her under their wing. She struggles with the social rules, but is getting there. She's extremely physical lately, which coincides for us with high sensitivity. It's like she can't stop running and climbing. Her skin has broken out in rashes round her face, which I think is a sign of stress. She's also back to her old ways with labels, socks, and fabrics - she binned all her leggings as apparently they itch. This comes after having worn the same ones for months with no issue. I'm going to bankrupt myself finding socks that she will actually wear! Her noise aversion is back too, and she's more sensitive to smells. She was sick the other day when I was changing Arthur in another room. The last thing I've noticed is her reaction to pain - it's off the scale! She screams at full volume with a short pause for breath before another long drawn out scream which goes on for about 10 minutes. She won't let me touch her, and nothing I say changes it. I've tried humour, sympathy, ignoring and (blush) shouting, and it all falls on deaf ears. It's annoying at home, but pretty mortifying in public. After one incident, I asked why she kept on screaming, and she said "The hurt has to come out of my mouth." She seemed really embarrassed about it, so I don't think she's able to control it. Hopefully it will pass in time. As well as Christmas, she's taken some big leaps forward mentally recently, and that always seems to coincide with being especially sensitive.

Wow. That was long - I forgot how this thread makes me splurge! So lovely to catch up with how you're all doing. Happy New Year!

 

[Jchihuahua]

The last thing I've noticed is her reaction to pain - it's off the scale! She screams at full volume with a short pause for breath before another long drawn out scream which goes on for about 10 minutes. She won't let me touch her, and nothing I say changes it.

This is EXACTLY like Daisy.

Lovey to see you posting Tacey, I was wondering where you'd gone! Happy new year to you too .

 

[DaisyBee]

Wow look what I've missed! I was taking a break during the holidays. It was stressful enough without analyzing anything. Megan has been horrible this month. I've been so frustrated. Hr bday in the beginning of December was the start of it I think. Then the girls were sick, followed by Xmas. Dh was off work last week which makes things worse almost as things are never the same as when it's just me and the girls at home. Sleep is so off right now. Megan starts preschool again tomorrow. Im hoping it helps!

We had a playdate yesterday and she was horrible. She was upset at first because the boy who is 10 months younger than her wouldn't play with her. She spent the rest of the playdate acting out and totally embarrassing me. Melting down, and tantrums. She rarely tantrums but I would call what she was doing tantrums. She hadn't napped and then was anticipating them coming and was so worked up before they even got here.

Everything on this thread describes me or Megan it feels like. Dh and I have talked and we are both going to go see our drs this month. We are both struggling and going to ask about meds. Dh is depressed, and I also have anxiety. I was fine until late last summer I started getting depressed. I was able to keep it under a bit of control it felt like, but lately adding anxiety on top of it - I need to be able to parent without it affecting me so much.

Megan is very bright and ahead of other kids that we have playdates with. I often forget though and then expect too much out of her. The boy yesterday was barely putting sentences together and was very hard to understand. He can't recite abc's, count, doesn't know colors or most shapes yet. Megan was talking full complex sentences before 3. Megans creativity, vocabulary, empathy, understanding of the world is far above the other 4 year olds we play with. But she is also the hardest to handle. She is the most spirited, the most sensitive. She is the hardest to parent -the most persistent, the worst sleeper, the one that melts down and gets overstimulated.

Oh and socks... She has many pairs that she has found that turning them inside out feels better to her.

I've worried about ADHD, autism, sensory processing disorder. But none of them seem like her? Her issues with noise are my biggest red flag at the moment. At 2 she was the most active kid I'd ever seen. But she still had a great attention span. Mil would constantly talk about ADHD though. But since 3 she is still busy and active, but it changed, she will sit for story time, walk right beside me without me worrying about her running off, etc. So some of that was just age. And her noises thing does seem to be improving. She handles public bathrooms so much better these days. And days she is overtired or overstimulated she is more sensitive to noise and other things. She purposefully wants to stay and watch the vacuum cleaner at school vs wanting me to pick her up and her crying. We got a new blender at Xmas and she now is willing to stay in the room and just put her fingers in her ears and sometimes she takes a finger out to test out if she can handle the loudness. without tears or a fit.

Merry Christmas and happy new year everyone

 

[Cattia]

So nice to see so many familiar faces on here!
I wouldn't really call what Abigail does tantrums as such, but more over emotional meltdowns. We have had them every day this week about food. Whenever she sees what she is having for dinner she melts down because it wasn't what she wanted. When I ask her what she wants she always says sandwiches, but then when it comes to it she doesn't want them either! It's not even picky eating, she just doesn't want to eat anything!
Tracey, Abigail has been very concerned about father Christmas too. She asks endless questions about him. She had definitely been far more unsettled over Christmas.
Daisybee, I too have been through loads of possible 'diagnoses' for Abigail, I even filled out the CAST questionnaire for aspergers but she scored well below the cut off.
Sometimes I feel that she is emotionally less mature than her friends, she seems less 'worldly' than some of her friends, and certainly less able to handle her emotions. On the other hand her pre school teacher says she is very concenred by other children's emotions at pre school.
Sorry to hear that you and DH are both feeling low. I have also wondered about going back on medication for my own anxiety. It certainly makes everything more of a challenge doesn't it? I hope your Dr is helpful.
Anyway, I shall stop spamming this thread in a minute, but it's just so nice to talk to people in the same boat. Makes me feel a lot more sane.

 

[DaisyBee]

Yes Megan has never really had much for tantrums, I've always said that... Hers has always been meltdowns and not able to handle overstimulation. It's about getting her to calm down. Jordan has tantrums and it's almost funny to see as Megan didn't really do what Jordan does.

My depression started with my dad. In maybe august when it hit me how bad he was looking. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I was crying a lot. But it's just continued and I think megans intensity hasn't helped.. The past month when she has been at her worst, my anxiety has skyrocketed. Dh is having a tough time coping as well. I think both of us are just so burnt out. He works more hours than most people can even comprehend. Adding that to 2 kids, things going on in his family, my family, etc. It's just been too much. Xmas actually kind of sucked here, dh was not a fun person to be around and if it's going to affect the kids like this we need to do something now vs wait.

 

[hattiehippo]

Tom is def emotional meltdowns rather than tantrums as well - I gave up on that word by the time he was 25 months as it just didn't describe how he behaves at all. It's not like him then getting his way would stop it - once he'd lost it there was no going back for up to an hour and he couldn't calm down on his own. We had a couple of meltdowns where his brain was in such overload that he passed out, slept for 30 mins, woke up and then carried on screaming!

He is much better in that the meltdowns are much shorter and his temper recedes within 10 mins max now and then he's just very upset.

I completely understand about the anxiety issues for you both Cattia and DaisyBee. I had a very bad episode in the late summer just after Tom's behaviour was awful for 2 months solid. His behaviour isn't the root cause of my anxiety issues but dealing with it all the time doesn't help. When you're stressed out anyway, spending all day trying to not fight with a 3 yr old who is spoiling for confrontation doesn't help!

I hope they all have better years in 2014. We should be ok till it's time for Tom to start school. He's already worried about it but then so am I.

 

[polaris]

Tacey - lovely to hear from you! So good to hear that home education is going well - and especially that she is happier in herself! Do you mind me asking what were the things that you needed to step back from, rather than feeling you "should" be doing them? The reason I ask is that I think I can be guilty of this at times.

Daisybee - - I'm so sorry to hear that both you and your DH are struggling at the moment. Definitely better to get some help rather than just letting things slide on. I don't know how possible it would be with your DH's work schedule but would you consider looking into some counselling rather than just meds? I know it can seem like a bit of a logistical nightmare to organize childcare etc but in my experience it is so worth it. My own opinion is that meds can sometimes be useful as a stopgap to tide you over but they are not going to cure the problem. Not saying that counselling will cure the problem either but at least it does help you to process and deal with the emotions rather than suppressing them. (hope I'm not speaking out of line - I'm obviously a little biased as a psychologist!!)

Thomas doesn't really have tantrums either, just emotional meltdowns, 90% of the time they are related to tiredness, hunger, or too much stimulation. I would be willing to bet that Clara will have proper "if you don't give me what I want I'm going to scream and scream and scream" tantrums. She is only 16 months and she already does have little mini tantrums. Very different from what Thomas does - she never really seems to lose control of herself and the tantrum will immediately finish if she gets what she wanted. Definitely more about communication and asserting herself, rather than being overwhelmed.

 

[Cattia]

It's interesting how many of us suffer with anxiety or related issues ourselves, which I guess makes us sensitive too. I would say I have some sensitive traits; I get very anxious, over think things a lot and interestingly have never been able to wear anything at all itchy or with labels in. However I am also quite outgoing socially and people who don't know me well often mistakenly think I'm a laid back person. I kind of see this in Abigail too. She is confident socially in fact I sometimes worry because she will talk to anyone and everyone, but at the same time, she's anxious, an over thinker and emotional. I wonder how much of our kids' sensitivity comes from us?

I also have a couple of friends whose kids' have some similar traits but because their parents are a different temperament themselves, they don't seem to register that their children may be sensitive. For example I have one friend who's daughter throws intense tantrums, doesn't sleep, is a very picky eater, is very moody and has lots of emotional meltdowns but my friend just considers it normal behaviour for her age. I think with sensitive children it helps to be tuned into their issues though because hopefully it can help us to better understand them.

Daisybee, I agree that counselling could be helpful. I have had CBT before which has helped to some extent with my anxiety but you have to remember to keep using it which can be hard. I also think meds can certainly tide you over a rough patch and alleviate some of the symptoms which can sometimes give you more energy to work in the cause.

Polaris, how is the sleep going?

 

[Cattia]

Btw, just an aside and not really relevant to the thred, but I see that TennisGal has posted on this thread in earlier days. Just wonder if anyone hears from her or keeps in touch with her? She was my first real B&B buddy!
Hope you're all having a good evening x