How do you know

July 19, 2011

My dd is 10 and says things are wrong with her body all the time. Her heart

skips a beat. She can't breath. She thinks she is dehydrated. She is sure she

is going to have a heart attack. She has a lump in her throat. She is afraid

she is going to get cancer. She smells a toxic smell. Etc, etc, etc, etc. How

do you know when to listen and take it seriously? I hate to have something

actually wrong with her and ignore it. In the past, she complained her ears

hurt and I finally took her in. She had a BAD double ear infection and the doc

seemed shocked I would not have brought her in earlier. Things like that have

happened in the past. It is like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, I never know what to

believe or when to take her seriously. She has started the heart skipping a

beat thing recently and my husband thinks I should have that looked at, that her

heart is too serious to ignore. I will make a doc appt for that, I agree with

dh,

but also know the chance of her having a real problem is low and then I am just

feeding in to her OCD. She comes to me about 95% of the time with these things,

needing reassurance. I usually ignore her, have her answer her own question,

tell her she knows the answer, things like that. When she has had a

particularily difficult day, I do tell her the reason I won't answer her is

because it is her OCD asking and my answering will make it worse. I tell her I

do love her, and that it isn't that I don't care about her and am not concerned

about her. I tell her I know she is healthy and if I really thought something

was wrong with her, I would take her to the doctor. I also don't know if I

SHOULD answer some of her questions. She is very smart and loves to learn.

Sometimes when she asks questions, I hate to not answer because I know she loves

to learn and so many of them are learning opportunities. I hate to have her

miss out on that

learning opportunity. But, it is usually her OCD making her ask me. So I am

torn.

Thanks

Sharon

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