I’m brand new to this group and have so much to learn I feel overwhelmed. I have started the anxiety course. I feel guilty that I’ve let many difficult behaviors go on out of fear about talking about them or not wanting to hurt our relationship. When things are going good I don’t want to bring it up to ruin the moments. When things are going bad I don’t want to make them worse. My daughter is 15 and has had anxiety and depression. The anxiety began about 4 years ago but Covid really made it worse with the isolation. Then the depression and social anxiety took hold too. She was in therapy for about 9 months recently but decided she wanted to stop. She tried Prozac without much improvement and so is now on Zoloft the past couple months. Her anxiety manifests as anger and that gets me all flustered and I can’t communicate! I’ve always been conflict avoidant 😞 but she needs me to be stronger. One core fear she has is around her brother (he was a surprise born when she was 10). Something to do with either fear of losing me or fear of not being loved as much. She is so triggered by everything he does. I can just feel her constant anger but know it’s deeper than anger. How do I talk to her about that? Right now I accommodate a lot and try to keep them separate because I can’t handle the conflict, but it’s exhausting!
Hi Jen,
no need to feel overwhelmed. We are here to support you one step at a time. It is never too late to start working on these issues. I would approach her and ask her something like, “What can I do to help your issues around your brother?” I think starting from a place of listening (and collecting data) is a good place to start.