@nursegigi,

I think this is your son's way of just trying to have some control in an ADHD body that is oftentimes not fully under his control. Anxiety often plays a big role in ADHD as well. Carol Brady, PhD, gives a few simple techniques to help calm a child's fears in her ADDitudeMag.com article, "Calming Your Fearful Child" (found in full here: http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/867.html).

1. Make sure you understand the root of their fear before trying to allay it. 2. Ask the child to consider their fear in detail and rate its severity 3. Create a plan together to banish "scary thoughts" 4. Ask them what can be done to make them less fearful 5. Teach the child relaxation techniques like taking deep breaths, or cuddling up tight, or even playing with a favorite toy.

My oldest daughter is not ADHD but she does suffer from high anxiety. With the help of her counselor we have learned to discuss what she is fearful of and make a plan together. For example, she started middle school this year and one of her biggest fears was being late to class because she had trouble opening her locker. So I asked her what might be good options if she was in between classes and found she couldn't open her locker. Her answer was to go to class anyway to be on time. I helped her take it one step further and plan to tell the teacher of the next class she is having trouble with her locker and enlist their assistance. With a plan in place, she no longer had any fear of this happening.

For your son, ask him why he is emotional when you want to leave the house for a short period. Ask him what he is afraid might happen during that time. Talking it through and enlist their ideas makes a huge difference.

Penny W., ADDitudemag.com & ADDConnect.com Community Moderator, ADHD Momma to Luke, age 7, creator of the Website {a mom's view of ADHD} @ http://adhdmomma.blogspot.com

Quote