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My daughter has always been high-strung, active, energetic and has always had a difficult time calming down.  At the same time, she's outgoing, smart, talented, has lots of friends and is considered popular at school.  But over the last few months she's become someone I don't recognize.  She can't sleep, because her heart is racing, her thoughts are racing and she's so fearful something bad is going to happen.  We live in a very safe neighborhood, so there's no rational reason behind this. She's also afraid she's going to get sick and throw up...which is so frightening to her...she'd rather die than experience it (her words.)  She's become exceptionally needy of me and always asks for reassurance...mutiple times.  She has panic attacks where she feels she needs to run out of the house to get a breath.  It doesn't help though.  I notice this has been building since our move across country last year, but didn't become acute until she started school (5th grade) in August.

Some friends guided me to seek out professional help and I did. The psychiatrist has recommended she take an SSRI, which is an anti-depressant. She's not depressed, so this confused me at first. Apparently it's also effective in treating Generalized Anxiety Disorder...which she has been diagnosed with.  The doctor also wants to have her see a therapist trained in CBT...Cognitive Behavioral Therapy...and I'm looking for someone for that. Apparently, these 2 things are very effective when combined.

It's all so overwhelming though.  No one is getting sleep, which is exacerbating the problem.

Anyone out there ever had experience with this?  If so, what did you do?