I'm back to this one because I had to come back and read some of the encouragement... DS6 is now afraid of ANTS. You heard it folks, ants. Just when I think it's getting better, he comes up with the ants.
If it weren't bears, it would be ants. Or getting lost. Or a meteorite hitting the planet. Or a freak tornado. Or the sun going supernova. Or drowning. Or volcanoes. Yes, he usually has a few fears going at once. Although bears are usually a favourite. We were at a cottage this weekend and he whispered to me that he was worried about ants because he heard that fire ant bites really hurt and bears, because we were being too quiet to scare away the bears.
I guess it could be related to OEs? After all, he also cried for at least an hour because he was devastated that he had to leave his new goose friend behind. He now feels that the goose is sort of our pet because it spent the whole weekend hanging around the dock. He is now in love with the goose.
Nobody's mentioned this yet (I don't think)--but the phobias and attachments to unusual things are associated with anxiety. The clinical kind. Have you considered that?
DS13 here was fearful of similar things (we've done butterflies,bees, wasps, tornadoes, childhood cancer) during young childhood. It was exhausting and worrisome. He has grown out of most of it, but we do have to reacclimatize to the bees/wasps thing every summer. He still has clinical anxiety, though--it's just changed.
He despaired when we sold a car and bought a new one around that age, too. He truly grieved--took me totally by surprise. His reaction was just like what you describe with your DS re: the goose. All five stages of grief over a car.
At the intensity level you are describing, I wouldn't just decide it's part of his personality. It sounds like something worth investigating, potentially limiting his life experience He may need to learn some coping skills that he's not picking up intuitively.
Anyone else feeling exhausted because of their DC lately?
Yes.
P.S. Evidently w-a-s-p-s is a [SPAM] word.
