Hello. I found this place via a Google search and I am hoping to connect with members and maybe come up with some ways to help my daughter in her struggles. She has Emetophobia, General Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia and a deficient immune system. She is 14 years old, 5' tall and weighs just over 70 pounds. Which is actually a huge improvement. Nearly a year ago she had contracted a sv (I read around other posts first and saw that you use this abbreviation) and was sick for weeks. She got down to 58 pounds. Had an Endoscopy and Colonoscopy which came back negative. No Celiac, no Crohns, etc. However... since that time, Emet became a part of her life. Fear of getting sick and losing weight again. She won't eat certain foods, wear certain clothes, use certain blankets (if they pertain to her sv time). The only way I've been able to get weight back on her is to monitor her calorie intake each and every day, every meal. She sees a counselor once a week and an adolescent medicine doctor. She takes 5 medications a day to help deal with the depression this creates and obviously, the anxiety. I've got her recently enrolled in a program that works with ED's - and while she doesn't have that specifically, she does have food issues. Worries that everything will make her sick, or is old, or tastes funny. Instant anxiety around sick people. Don't get me wrong, she's come a long way in the last year or so - but I think this will be something we'll be dealing with for a while. And being a hormonal girl does NOT help. Some of her fears have created OCD behaviors as well, so that she can convince herself she is not ill. These OCD behaviors also transfer to me. I have to say the right things, at the right time, in the right order - or I miss up the balance of her chi.
So... I've probably forgotten some information... but, any advice. I don't want to show her this forum quite yet, as I fear it may be a trigger. She may not be ready. But if you have advice, I'd sure love to hear it and see what I can put to use (that I'm not already doing).