3 year old with anxiety?

Sometimes I feel like DD may have anxiety issues.
Has anyone dealt with this?
I'm not sure how to distinguish if she's just being girly & over sensitive or if she really has some anxiety.
She's always terrible at bedtime but it's gotten so bad. She works herself up & can't even take a breath & she starts shaking
The first few nights I just stayed with her until she fell asleep but now she pops up when I leave the room & starts it all over again.
During the day it's other things.
For a month she was going to the bathroom literally 20 times a day! That finally ended but now it's just little things.
If she does have anxiety, how do I help her through it?

Message edited 3/5/2015 10:13:27 PM.

Re: 3 year old with anxiety?

My DD has had pretty bad anxiety for a few years. It's mostly separation anxiety, but she gets weird about other things too.

I finally took her to see someone for some talk therapy and it has definitely helped.

ETA: Anxiety disorders run in our family- on both sides- so I felt it was important to treat it early before it got out of hand.

Message edited 3/6/2015 3:02:07 PM.

Re: 3 year old with anxiety?

This might not be helpful but my sister has some serious anxiety issues. My mom will describe her even as a young child displaying symptoms. She would get sick and vomit before pre-school, etc.

I don't think my parents did anything about it.

Kudos for your for at least looking into this. I would probably speak to a pediatrician as a first step and then see what they recommend for a child so young.

I personally think it would be beneficial for a child to learn coping strategies, etc that could be helpful long into their future. Obviously it would need to be handled by professionals and specific to the child's age and development. I think they've made a lot of advancements in the mental health field since we were all kids.