Topic : Sleep Issues

I am the same way. Did you get any answers? I have tried to get help but all they want to give you are medication. Now I cannot go to sleep with out them. I also have depression because of my sleep problem. Brain Fog, joint pain. I haven't been able to get help. How about you?

My 10 year old son told me that he doesn't like to be by himself anywhere in the house especially at night. It's not that he is afraid of the dark he said he is afraid of people coming in the house. 2 years ago my husband, his step-father, was arrested for possession with intent for meth. He is currently in prison. When my son told me he was afraid of people coming into the house I tried to reassure him that nobody will come into the house. Nobody would want to hurt us, we are good people. He replied with "But dad isn't, dad did bad things". I tried to tell him that all of that had been taken care of. We moved 2 hours away from where we were living with my husband, but my son said that people can find things out, that the people my husband use to be around could find us.

I don't know how to reassure him so he feels safe in his own home.  How do you explain or reassure him that he is safe? What can I do to help him feel safe?

Do you think that it is odd that your husband was arrested two years ago, but your child is just now saying these things? Has there been anything recently that would bring this topic up, or some reason why he would be thinking about things that happened so long ago?
Does your son have the “worrier” type of personality, tending to worry about things often? (such as grades, if his teacher likes/dislikes him, etc…)
I’ve had a kind-of similar experience in the way of one of my children being afraid of things that you can’t see- my child had a fear of ghosts. What worked best for us- and believe me we tried many things- was taking her to hypnotherapy. I understand what it feels like to have your child be so fearful of something that you, his concerned parent, has no control over. It is a delicate situation, because you don’t want him to feel that you are dismissing his feelings.
 My advice for you is to seek professional therapy for your son; it would be helpful to have the guidance of a professional to talk about the ‘bad’ things his father did, but also to highlight that his father also must have had good traits as well. Also, it will be helpful for your son to hear things like, ‘you’ve moved, no one wants to hurt you, etc.’ from an unbiased person instead of from mom- when he hears those same words that you’ve said come out of another person’s mouth, it lends credibility to them. I wish you the best of luck.

My son has brought up the concerns before but never in such detail. I could see the fear in his eyes and it just killed me. We just moved about 2 months ago and yes he is a worrier. He worries about everything all of the time. But, I am the same way so I'm assuming he picks it up from me.

We tried therapy before and didn't have any luck. My son told me that he would rather just talk to me rather than a person that didn't know anything about our family.

As for the good things that my husband has done... well to be completly honest there hasn't been to many of  them. It's hard to defend a person that has caused so much hurt and pain in your life.

The only change lately has been that we moved. And yes, thats a huge change, but we did it for the better. We are closer to our family now. I discussed the benefits of moving with my son before and after we moved.

I'm just so confused on how to react to all of this. Is he doing it just for attenition, trying to get out of bed time, or is there a real problem here that needs to be addressed.