austin's first anxiety attack

knowing how to parent is similar i think to herding cats. there are no rules, is no organization, and you can't be guaranteed any kind of outcome. you think you can anticipate where the cats will go and head them off at the pass, but alas, most often we are foiled. there doesn't seem to be any pattern to cat herding, and for the most part, there isn't one to parenting.

the two phone calls i got at school describing the physical problem that austin was having made me suspect that his issue was anxiety related. he is home with round #2 of the flu; he is home alone without me there as sickness watchdog; there have been a lot of things stressful going on for awhile. it stands to reason that stress is going to become a problem for him. after all, it is for me.

i got him in my room and in my bed for a couple of hours, where he shook and shivered for quite awhile. he wanted me to call his father. i did. no answer. i did reiki on him to see if i could get him calmed down. it may have helped. it helped ME feel like i was doing something constructive. he kept saying he was cold, but he had no temperature, and he didn't feel cold. all of his symptoms pointed to anxiety attack.

how i am going to deal with it when he wakes up is another thing. having been plagued with these all of my life, i know the various stages you go through with them, avoidance being the big one, and being scared shitless being the other. you think you are going crazy. you think you have something really, really wrong with you. you feel alone and no one can help you. throw in shaking as if you are having a seizure, and you have a very bewildering and disturbing experience.

the real issue is what has caused this. no small amount of irony that this occurred exactly 2 weeks after kee died. throw in stress over baseball, being sick, stress over baseball, amy, stress over baseball, basketball season ending, well...gee, any ideas about what could be causing the problem?

so what is my role in all of this? what should i do? i guess i will try and gently herd a cat...or not. maybe i will just watch and wait. i don't know whether he will bolt for a closet or under a bed as a cat does when you try and outsmart it out of a place it shouldn't be. or maybe he will be docile and want to "sit in my lap" and have his ears scratched...we'll see...