Calming Your Anxious Child by Kathleen Trainor
Author:Kathleen Trainor [Trainor, Kathleen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2016-06-26T04:00:00+00:00
Atalaya’s Story
Atalaya began to relate her concerns: “I have so many worries all of a sudden. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I think everything is dirty, and I have to wash my hands a lot. I keep thinking about germs, like they’re everywhere, and now everything is germy. Bathrooms really scare me now because everything feels so dirty in the bathroom. It feels like pee is everywhere. Sometimes I have to change my pants because I think there is pee on them. Sometimes I want to wash my leg after I use the bathroom because I think maybe pee is on my leg, but I know it isn’t. At first it was just the school bathrooms that were dirty, but now even my bathroom at home feels germy. I wish I never had to use the bathroom ever again. I try to hold it as long as I can, but then I have to go. I hate taking showers now; it feels like I have to do more and more to get clean. Sometimes I feel like as soon as I am clean, something happens to make me dirty again. It makes me so mad. I just want to scream. Nobody understands how bad this feels!
“Then I have the worry about fingerprints. I feel like I have to rub them off. Someone could be seeing my fingerprints and will then try to hurt me. Everything I touch, I have to rub.”
It was easy to feel Atalaya’s pain as she continued. “I also have a really hard time getting dressed. None of my clothes feel right. I try to put them on and have to take them off because they feel so, … so uncomfortable. I can’t stand it. I don’t know why, but I have only a few clothes that feel ‘right.’ The rest I can’t wear. Mommy and Daddy don’t understand. I can’t help it. Sometimes I just cry and cry because it feels so bad. I can’t wear the clothes I used to wear. I just can’t. Everything takes so long now. I am always late, but I have so many things I have to do in the morning now, and my parents keep yelling at me to hurry up. I can’t go any faster. I have to make sure everything is right, and I have to wash.”
I asked Atalaya about bedtime. “At night my worries get worse,” she said. “I hate bedtime. I have all these things I have to do before I go to bed. Turn the light switches on and off, fix my stuffed animals a certain way, close and open my drawers, check the closet and close the door, and then brushing my teeth is a big deal, and the washing. Then when finally I get into bed, I feel like my parents have to keep saying, ‘Good night. I love you. Everything is okay. See you in the morning. I love you. I love you.’ Four times, or if that doesn’t feel right, six, eight, ten times.
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