Genetic neurodiversity

Hey all, I’m having a hard time with something my four year old is going through.

When I was a kid I used to startle at literally anything, an unexpected sigh or someone saying something to me without expecting it. It would send me into a full blown fight or flight meltdown that over time lead into running away and having a panic attack. It consumed a lot of my life being high stress and it marked me as “weird” right out of the gate. But more than anything, it felt awful. Constant panic is the worst feeling in the world, I still get a lot of it today although less surrounded by my sensory needs. We both have a lot of “my heart” centered anxiety.

My kid has started going through something similar in the past 6 months now and it’s bringing up a lot of feelings for me. I would love to know how I can help her and what needs to be done. This morning I simply said her name (I don’t yell, we’re not yellers at all because we all have sensory issues.) and she ran around for a minute huffing and puffing (panicked, not angry.) and then threw herself at me into my bed. Just so terrified. But this is normal for us right now, it just makes me feel so bad for her.

What should I do 🥲 she’s about to start school so I feel like I need to start helping her with this anxiousness today.