Tara-Michelle with her daughter Anna.
Anxiety is nothing new for me?I?ve suffered from it most of my life. I?ve made myself sick with anxiety, dealt with panic attacks and kept myself awake at night.
But until recently, my five-year-old daughter, Anna, rarely worried about anything. Even when we moved, she adapted well. As a toddler, she was fine with attending new daycares and adjusting to new staff. She barely said ?bye? to me before she bounded into her junior kindergarten class for the first time last September.
This summer, that all changed.
Anna?s anxiety symptoms didn?t seem like a big deal at first. At the beginning of summer, we registered her for soccer and she told me she was nervous about going. Turns out, she loved it and was sad when it ended. Next, she was nervous about a one-week day camp. Again, she wound up loving it and asked to go back. But by the end of summer, she did another single week at a different day camp. She was crying every afternoon when I came to pick her up. She kept saying she missed me, which?albeit adorable and heartbreaking?seemed unlikely. I figured she was overtired, overstimulated and possibly overheated. She still made a few friends and enjoyed a couple of field trips, but her crying bouts stood out to me because they were the first time where she didn?t instantly love a new place or activity.
And it didn?t stop there. She was anxious about spending the night at my co-parent?s parents? house. She was exceptionally anxious about ...