Hello,

I'm wondering what to make of my DD7s life long intense fears. She seems react in very specific situations. For example, she had to leave her dance class yesterday because she became terrified while they were playing a game of 'monkeys'. The game involved acting like monkeys and picking fleas. I didn't witness the game but DD said she didn't like the way one of the kids was acting. She also is routinely frightened by movies and tv shows, including Arthur and other preschool shows that her DS3 watches. These shows/situations never frighten DS3 and I'm always surprised by the intensity of her reaction. But what I find most surprising is that she can read books with much more frightening plots. I'm guessing that she is reacting to the 'visuals'. Any thoughts?

Thanks, as always...

Annaliisa

I have a DS7 who is exactly like this. He was afraid of a Winnie-the-Pooh book that my MIL purchased for him. It was one of the newer ones and had owl eyes glowing in the dark. A Babar book freaked him out for weeks. He was afraid to sleep at night. I always screened his books because of this issue, but those two slipped in and caused big problems.

We were visiting family and they asked if he could watch Peter Pan. Ummm... I didn't know what it was like, so I had to go check the "feel" of it. He seemed okay with it, but before long he came out of there and didn't want to watch it. I think it was the "meanness" in Hook's voice and the scowl on his face. LOL

Also, when playing imaginary games (similar to the monkey game that you mentioned), he reaches points where he will request to stop the game; he says that it's "too thrilling" for him. He uses the word "thrilling" to describe the intensity. He knows that it's not real, but it "feels" real to him. I don't know what this is other than a very vivid imagination. It's definitely the visual, real or imagined, that gets my ds.

All of that said, I can definitely see that he's been improving in this area over the past five or six months. I think he's found a way to cope with it or maybe he's just growing out of it some way.

I have a child like this. If you research intensities in gifted children, you should find some things that describe your child to a T. Also look up overexcitabilities. My child is 9 and still is this way. Though she's managed to handle them better, they still exist. It's just part of who she is and how her brain is wired . She gets freaked out by things that wouldn't bother most kids and then she worries about the "what if". We do a lot of talking and figure out what seems rational and it seems to help a lot. I think a child that is intense doesn't grow out of it, but rather learns to cope with it.