[octavias]

Has anyone noticed that their RADishes go in cycles with the healing? It's almost as if F will be better for a while, then BAM! It's as if she got here yesterday. The last couple of days she has been at her worst. She's had two fits, one each day, totally freaked out, and out of the house too! Lucky for me, the two places she chose to loose it, the people where somewhat understanding. She has lost her voice again, from the screaming. My DH is about to go bonkers, he is getting really angry with her, like I used to. For some reason, she hasn't been getting to me like that lately, but still! This is hard!!! I am getting SO $%&*# tired of her trying to bite me!!!!!!!!!

[mallory4]

Octavias,

Our son does not have RAD, but he does have some anxiety issues and I have indeed noticed that we will be humming along for a while and then, out of the blue, I will see some behaviors from months ago that I had almost forgotten about.

One of my bio children also had anxiety problems when she was younger, and the same was true for her. It seemed like two or three times a year, I was yanked back to some period we had already been in, and had not enjoyed at all.

The first few times it happened, I didn't recognize it as a phase and just thought we were back to square one. It was probably a couple of years into the cycling that I realized it woudn't last that long, maybe a few weeks. That gave me hope and let me take it less personally--what a relief!

With my daughter, I was able to finally figure out what the trigger was for her to relapse. Unfortunately, she got worse when I worked more hours, and we really needed the money so I could not always turn them down, but at least I knew what it was and could try to plan ahead.

Now, my biodaughter is 12, and has only a tiny bit of anxiety stuff left, maybe no more than the average kid, but I can spot her "symptoms" very clearly because of our earlier experiences, so I see it when it pops up.

I hope you find that as time passes, your child will make more steady progress between trips down memory lane

[lucyjoy]

Octavia-Nancy Thomas talks about this in her roller coaster analogy. They do go in cycles but as they are healing, the hope is that the recovery time begins to happen more quickly and last longer. It sure doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

[ajjhmf]

Lucy's right . (As always )

The key here though is to not get on the roller coaster with them. Sometimes that means stepping away from the coaster altogether and regrouping. Sort of like that old saying "STOP THE WORLD! I WANNA GET OFF!!"

Jenny

[Lorraine123]

Another key is to realize that it is a roller coaster ride. It will get better in time. Yes, it will get worse again, but its the way to endure the bad times. And your goal is for the bad times to become less frequent and shorter.

[Queenmom]

You're right about that but when you are in the cycle of things you tend to forget. I think it gets worse for us when my husband is out of town. Guess where he is not? Thanks it is good to vent!!

[Peggy]

My problem is now that my daughter is a pre-teen, we are hitting the peaks on the ride. Really big curves, and they are coming faster.