Escalating Behaviors
In my opinion, Carrie's anxiety is way beyond manageable right now. All of her little quirky behaviors are very prominent right now. Some of them are almost constant. She loses her temper almost hourly recently. This morning she screamed so loud in the kitchen that I could hear her upstairs in the shower. What triggered it, you may ask. The school suggested that all the children bring a blank white t-shirt so that all their classmates can autograph it. She didn't want to take a shirt and quickly melted down and began screaming about it. Every day she is doing all of these things more often:
- grinding her teeth
- strange guttural sounds or humming
- wiggling/self-stim
- loud, incessant talking
- interrupting other conversations
- being bossy (especially with playmates)
- hitting herself in the head or face
Last week when I took her to the dermatologist to have a spot treated on her neck, she started crying when I talked to her about cooperating with the doctor. She said that she may as well go home and tell all of her dogs goodbye because she was going to die. Then she said that she wishes that she were someone else.
We really need her therapists help. Quite frankly, I've begun to shut down and withdraw again like I had before we started PCIT. Speaking of which, she rarely will consent to special play time at home.
