5 Year Old Daughter Struggling with Anxiety
I'm not sure exactly where to begin but I'll try to explain it clearly.
My 5 year old daughter has struggled with extreme anxiety, especially social, for a large part of her life so far. It really accelerated, and her mother and I started noticing it more, when she began preschool at age 3. We began to notice that she was slow to warm up, wouldn't look her peers or teachers in the eye, and she didn't want any attention on her such as getting called on or getting recognized for doing something good in class.
She's now in Pre-K and the 'severity' of her anxiety has picked up. There was an end of school year award ceremony where each kid in class got up to accept their certificate for completing Pre-K and she wouldn't go up to get it. She had anxiety for days leading up to it and melted down when the teacher called her name.
She's in a tumbling class as well and doesn't like when people watch her because she's afraid of making a mistake and people seeing it.
Additional things that give her anxiety:
-Not knowing plans
-Driving on the highway
On top of the anxiety, she has some sensory issues to louder noises as well such as beeping, loud music.
To address these issues, we've tried play therapy, OT, exposing her to more social situations to see if that will help, and affirmations to build up her positive self talk. It just doesn't seem like anything is working
All of this is causing me to struggle as well. I feel like a complete failure and feel like nothing we are doing works. I feel like my career is slipping because I can't focus on it the way I feel like I should, even though I know it's not as important. I feel like my marriage is eroding due to it all. I feel like the walls are crashing down.
I post this to ask if anyone has gone through or is going through something similar and how you might be dealing with it. I'd be appreciative of any tips you may have.