Anxiety vs. really sick

[Guest guest]

I know I haven't written in a long time. Somehow my

email got switched, and I wasn't receiving emails from

the group. But I got that figured out and now I have a

question.

Do any of you struggle with knowing when your child is

having problems with anxiety vs. really being sick?

Sometimes I have a hard time deciding which is going

on with my 15 year old son. He can make himself sick,

so I don't always know if he is really sick and tend

to push that he's fine and not make a big deal out of

it. However, I have known to think he's having

problems with anxiety and he was really sick.

Yesterday afternoon, he came home just chatting away,

playing with is brother once he got in the door. Asked

if he could be taken to the library and 7-11. He got

home, asked to get on the computer and was fine until

he said that he felt like his throat was " clogged " . (a

common symptom of his anxiety). After a few minutes,

he got up and went in the bathroom. When he came out,

he said that he felt much better-that he'd thrown up.

So I didn't make a big fuss over it and went on,

thinking it was anxiety. About 20 min. later, he did

it again. Then he was fine. (He'd been drinking soda

prior to this, but he'd had soda all weekend. He does

have mild refulx).

Then, at 1am, he woke me up saying his ears hurt (both

of them) and his throat hurt. He had NOT said a word

about it before he went to bed. Never even showed that

there was a problem. I finally got him back to bed

having him take a Motrin, and he said he finally went

back to sleep later. I, however, couldn't fall asleep

for fear that he'd be back in, saying nothing was

working.

He got up for school this morning and said that he did

feel better. He went to school (which surprised

me)-with having taken another Motrin before going. He

texted me later this morning saying that he'd had fun

on his field trip (he is being assessed for a

vocational school and he is visiting the school to see

what he may be interested in, along with other

students over a period of several days) this morning.

So he seems fine now.

I was sitting there all night wondering if I was going

to have to go to the ER and couldn't figure out how I

was going to do that. (I have a 14 month-old that

depends on me sometimes at night). Then, I figured if

I had to, I'd get him an appointment today for

whatever was going on. But I didn't know how I was

going to do that because he was going to be on the

field trip to the vocational school. But then he said

he was much better today. And the fact that he hasn't

gone to the nurse and wanted to come home tells me

he's fine.

So how do you tell if it's anxiety or really an

illness?

-Melinda