Fears | ADHD Information

Is it just me or do the fears of ADHD kids seem more intense than those of our other children?

My eight year old has suddenly decided that he's terrified of the crickets that we get in our house.  They're annoying, but harmless and we usually just scoop them up and throw them outside.  Well, 2 days ago there was one in his room and he woke up in the middle of the night crying and saying there were crickets on his floor (there were tons of toys, but nothing else), then he started screaming that there was a grub on his floor.  I showed him it was just a lego, but he kept sitting there staring at things in the dark for an hour before going back to sleep.

Then last night there was a cricket on the side of his loft bed.  At 12:30 he woke up crying that there were crickets IN his bed.  There weren't.  My husband turned on the lights and showed him that there was nothing there, etc.  We put him back to bed, and 20 min. late he's up again.  This went on for 5 hours.  All day he's been tiptoeing around with his eyes on the ground.  We helped him totally clean out his room, sucked up two crickets and a spider with the vacuum, changed all his bedding, and showed him there was nothing there, but he still took over an hour to get to sleep tonight.  We told him that if he wakes up and refuses to go back to bed tonight we will give him 3 chances and then we'll close the door.  Seems harsh I know, but being sympathetic and gentle got us no where.  And I can't do another day on 3 hours sleep.

My 5 yr old is afraid of storms, but that's pretty normal, and it's not excessive- she'll still go to bed if her cd is playing to drown out the noise.  But Jay's just been so intense and not himself. 

Anyone else have kids who's fears seem more intense or bizarre, or is my kid just really weird? 

Is it posible that he had some nightmare with crickets in?

Try to find some fun or interesting facts about crickets, maybe it will help!

And yes, my ADHD girl got fear of blood. Nothing helped yet about .

i wish my son had some fear into him,it would save me a lot of worrying and trips to the accident and emergency,the kid has no fear.

i agree with mammi,try to get some fun,interesting facts about crickets,maybe it will help.and no he is not weird,just wonderfully quirky

Anxiety often accompanies ADHD.....I don't think closing the door is harsh.  Most fire wardens would say that you are supposed to sleep with the bedroom door closed anyway in case of fire. My son would call me fifty times at bedtime if I didn't say,"Don't call me unless you are bleeding, throwing up, or the house is on fire." He is anxious about the dark, but it is generally manageable. Does your son listen to bed time music?  Perhaps if you found some with strings, it might cover any cricket noise?  Or, get a good pest barrier from your local nursery or hardware store.  I'd rather get rid of the crickets than be awake at 3am. It's almost pointless to try to rationalize another person's fears away. Good luck to you!

My son is also petrified of things.  His latest thing is he is scare of the blinking light on the smoke alarm.  This smoke alarm has been in his bedroom since we built the house and now all of a sudden he is screaming and crying and insisting that I take the smoke alarm out of his room (which is not an option)

I called the school psychologist and she said that children have many fears at this stage.  She said he maybe afraid of a fire and it is just coming out as he is afraid of the smoke alarm.

Well, nothing really seemed to work but time.  Each night the screaming and crying got less and less, and now it has seemed to stop for the time being.

But I too was pulling my hair out, it was such an unfounded fear.

Like Meg points out, ADHD children often have heightened anxiety.  My son has both ADHD and anxiety.  He is  13 now and his anxiety has taken many different forms over the years.  My son never seemed to have fears of objects....like bugs, etc. He is a tough boot who loves roller coasters, rock climbing, riding ATV's, bugs and critters,  and other "boy" stuff.   His fear was more rooted in performance.....or his fear of NOT performing well.  He's had a lot of anxiety tied to school.  Fears and anxiety take on many different forms and I consider it a "spectrum" disorder from what I've read, ranging from mild generalized anxiety all the way to obsessive/compulsive and major panic attack levels.

The bad news is if your child has anxiety along WITH ADHD, it makes treating the ADHD trickier.  My opinion is treat the anxiety first.  The good news is anxiety is treatable.  It responds usually well to cognitive behavioral therapy....CBT.  Some kids/adults also respond well to medication, usually antidepressants,  added to the CBT.         Okiemom

okiemom38985.3365972222

My son is 8 also and even though he claims to be afraid of nothing and is a dare devil- the weirdest things scare the h**l out of him.

He goes in stages.  All of a sudden something that didn't frighten him before is all of a sudden terrifying him.  He apears really insecure when this happens.  He still has a security blanket which helps him at night

ang

I have come on here to get some advice on adhd in girls, so i cant say my daughter is untill i find some help. But reading what you said about fears, my daughters fear is being sick, she is so scared, if she even hears someone say they feel sick, there are about 20 questions on the subject, why? how long have you felt sick?what have you eaten? how long ago did you eat? do you think you are going to be sick?is it a hunger sick?does your stomach feel upset? and it goes on, i only have to make a face and she starts the questions, now i just suffer in silence and try not to make any face at all, which is hard when you feel ill. if someone else has been ill, like a friends son, she wont let me go out with here, or see her at the shops. sometimes she wont even eat a proper meal if some near her had been sick. it's too much now.

my son is now 15 he has a fear of everything but at night his parinoia gets worse, from nobody liking him to the dark, he has the option of a night light or another light left on and his door open, last evening while watching tv in our room a cranefly came in the open window , now hes shouting on top of the landing holding a plate of chips that he cant go back in there untill its moved, told him he would have to wait becouse hubby was in the bath,

 but his worse behaviour is at night when hes meant to be going to sleep he lies awake staring out of the window, or arguing with anybody who will argue with him, and having 3 other children he will soon get an argument

My son, almost 16, has had various "fears" all his life. Like many others posted here, he is "fearless" in so many things, or at least it looks that way on the surface. His impulsivity makes it seem like he has no fear but I don't believe that anymore. He acts without thinking of the consequences: a symptom of the ADHD. Maybe the fears that manifest themselves as fear of insects are a byproduct of what really scares them; their inability to control their surroundings and their actions.

I would be very careful about closing him up in his room. While you do not want to "give in" to his fears, you could exacerbate the problem if left to his own devices. ADHD kids often have trouble falling asleep and if they are fearful of something that will make it that much harder to fall asleep.

The idea of playing music is a good one. My son needs a fan on in the room every night, even in the winter. He needs the "white" noise. Try a few things with your son and see how he reacts to it. Good luck to you!

My sons been scared of noise he doesnt understand for a couple of months - he screams his head of until he's red in the face, even for things like the dryer or a noise outside. We've put a nightlight in his room and spent hours trying to show him what the noises are, and where they're coming from. Most nights my older children go to bed and hes alseep at the bottom of the stairs on the floor. He also sleeps on his beanbag in their room - which I let him do... It's better then hours of crying, screaming and going up and down the stairs with him through the night, explaining cars and rain etc.

Take Care

Louise 

My 9 year old daughter has anxiety with the ADHD.  However, she has very few fears except for spiders.  She seems to go in cycles.  First, she is fascinated with them.  Then, suddenly from out of the blue, she is petrified and screaming when she sees one.  She has even been afraid to enter our garage in the past for fear that there would be spiders inside.Thanks for all the responses.  I actually seem to have stumbled on a solution, at least temporarily until we can get the base of the house sprayed.  I realized that after I sprinkled cinnamon around the cat's bowls to keep the ants out that I stopped finding dead crickets in the water bowl every morning.  I told him about that and we sprinkled cinnamon all around his bed.  Hopefully that works.  Of course he stayed awake until I got home from class at 10:30 last night to tell me it was working.my son also has many fears....they tell me many times anxiety accompanies adhd. he is fourteen years old and he is afraid everytime he hears yelling outside. there is always yelling outside, we live near a pizza place and the guys that work there are just always yelling, or else there are usually teenagers coming in and out of there...never quiet. he always thinks that someone is fighting outside comes to get me to check. he is also nervous when he hears sirons (police or fire trucks), until you explain to him, yet again that we live in the city and every once in a while we are going to hear them, and it doesn't mean something bad is definitely happening outside. he is just a very nervous child. he was like this from day one. loud noises frighten him. also ... he has always been a very poor sleeper. his doctor told me that i should cut out all caffeine, all sugar...we did and still he didn't sleep well. there are nights where he just stays up all night practically and i am exhausted. stupidly thinking that if i just keep telling him that "He Must Go To Sleep" he will. his mind just keeps him up a long long time. i posted another post re: his other issues so maybe when he is on meds he will do better. i know the adhd meds didn't work for him ... they all either kept him up longer, or gave him palpitations, or other side effects...still trying....