The summer of teenage hormones

[MissKim]

My 15 year old daughter is driving me crazy this summer. I'm sending her to my mom's next week. I left it up to my other two to decide whether they want to stay, but my 15 year old is staying.

She has a bit of an obsessive personality and this summer the theme has been her health. At the start of summer, we're watching SYTYCD and I remark that Mary Murphy had throat cancer. 15 minutes later, my daughter has convinced herself *she* has throat cancer. She begs me to take her to the ER so they can check her out. She's completely serious and panicking because she's sure she's dying. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't happened to me.

Last week I had my annual mammogram, so she had breast cancer.

This week, she's having some gastrointestinal issues. Again, she's convinced she has some awful disease and is begging me to take her to the hospital. I finally called the doctor because I just can't handle the "illness of the week" anymore, but they can't get her in until August 12 for a physical. (They would have gotten her in sooner if I'd said she was sick... but she's not, so I refuse.)

So next week she shall stay with my parents. My mom is a physician's assistant, so maybe she'll listen to grandma when grandma tells her nothing's wrong with her. Cuz she sure isn't listening to me.

How will I survive another 3 years of this?

Edited to add: I'm sure this will fade as she goes back to school and sees her friends every day, has homework, is involved in activities, etc. She just has way too much time on her hands right now... I'm teaching mornings and it's been too hot to go to the pool in the afternoons (if I'm going, I'm waiting until it cools in the evenings), and between our vacations and her friends, she hasn't been able to see them. She's usually not this bad. A little bad (like "I must have ______________ right now") but not usually this obsessive.

[aggiefamily]

God bless you Kim. You have my sympathies. This is exactly why my mom found me tons of babysitting jobs during the summer. LOL! My obsession was different. I would be upset that no one liked me because they wouldn't call me or do things with me. Of course they were all off during summer things: vacations, camps, jobs. My mind did not get that. I thought they didn't like me anymore.

A week away is always good for everyone. My boys are at my parent's this week and it has been wonderful. I can focus on me for little bit.

[Julie Billingsley]

Has she been evaluated for an anxiety disorder?

[AmyG]

Oh girl, . Hoping a week away and busy will get her mind on a different track! My 14 year old has been busy with tennis and he works out everyday. That helps drain some of that testosterone 'tood. One day they will be grown and in college, right?!

[Traci Reed]

{{{Kim}}} I'm sorry!

[JulieB146]

What Julie Billingsley said.

It sounds like she has a full on anxiety thing going on. It wouldn't hurt to get her evaluated for it. Her worries sound above and beyond the normal, and I have a husband and daughter who are slightly hypochondriatic. School will distract from it, but the underlying anxiety would still be there, expressed in a different form, perhaps.

[AmyG]

I have anxiety disorder. I have panic attacks. It sucks, they suck, it all around sucks. Thank God for Xanax!

My cousin's child was diagnosed with anxiety of some kind in elementary school but hers was totally performance based. Terrified of being judged, looked at, refused to play sports because she would be looked at, etc. It got better but I remember at some point she was on Paxil I think. She's in middle school now and much better, off meds. She plays volleyball and has lots of friends and is, of course, totally hormonal and driving her Mom nuts haha. I have no advice for it in children. I assume the hormones make it all worse, of course. Sorry .