Monday, June 21, 2010

Anxiety

So a while back we noticed that Zoe seemed to be having a lot of nightmares. Not the screaming, up the rest of the night nightmares. But it woke her up, into my room, wanting to sleep in our bed, kind of nightmares. We kinda blew it off as a phase that she would outgrow.
Then last November, I took a part time job bartending, for reasons that I will post another day. We felt that Domino was old enough, and had taken her Safe Sitter course at the hospital, that she could be responsible enough for a few hours in the evening while Kurt and I were working. It started out ok, but then Zoe starting calling and texting wanting to know when I would be home, how much longer, why was I not there yet. This started to bleed over into the day time. So we decided that her anxiousness needed attention from a professional. Dr. Loveland "diagnosed" her with separation anxiety and referred us to a therapist. Just having the conversation and describing her actions out loud, we realized that it started about the time that Kurt's mom passed away. So this all made lots of sense to us and we just needed to get Zoe dealing with her emotions.
Fast forward and we are about a month into the counseling sessions and things are only getting worse. Night mares have subsided but phone calls have increased and now Mom or Dad home is not enough, she needs both of us. Now I realize that a summer schedule, or lack thereof, is very much a part of this. Not to mention, severe weather season! We have added anxiety attacks to the problem. The poor girl gets herself so worked up that she is getting nauseated, which leads to crying.
Two of these in less than a week, and I almost feel the need to quit my job, unfortunately that is not an option, so how to deal???? Today, I woke her to tell her that I was leaving for work, and Kurt was already gone. She wimpered, I assured her that she was fine, and I would be home around lunch time. She got up and came downstairs before I got out the door, so I thought, she is awake, and alert enough to think straight. Not 10 minutes later, she called. I was not even to the office yet. "I fell back asleep and just woke up" By 9am I had received 3 more calls, one of which was Blaise telling me that Zoe was throwing up. I had to come home.
I have always been conflicted between work and my kids, and this just really makes it more challenging. Not sure what this means, what to do.......

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