"I am feeling anxious" says my 8year old ADHD son every evening around the same time like 8pm

[NewbieParent]

He also fears dark so much that he wants sleep with parents and with lights on. I am guessing that "feeling anxious" is probably for the same reason since he says that only in evenings. Curious if this is something any of my fellow parents have experienced and more importantly what they have tried and what worked.

[mermaidsNfairies]

My 8 year old recently completed treatment for OCD/anxiety. Dark was one of her many fears. They used exposure response method. For the dark, she and I would go into a room where I could control how dark it was which was the laundry room. I would set a timer for 10 seconds and shut the door so it was pitch black. When the time was up I opened the door to let in light. We had her rate her anxiety during the exposure on a 1-7 scale to track progress. She learned to sit with the anxiety and let it come down. As her anxiety rating lowered, we increased the time standing in the dark gradually eventually getting up to a couple of minutes. It took a few weeks but it's a lot better.

Also, the therapist asked us to gradually stop accommodating the anxiety. So if he's sleeping with the bedroom lights on, you could start with putting him to bed and keeping say, a hall light on or two nightlights. Then over time take those away one by one. The exposure response prevention worked well for a lot of my daughter's anxiety triggers, but it does take time and a bit of creativity. Best of luck!

[NewbieParent in reply to mermaidsNfairies]

This is great idea! Thank you. I will try this