Experience with school age children having bizarre, extreme, violent reaction to being scared?

Question

My son mentioned something that scared him and then when I said it back to him - he just started screaming! It took me a long time to calm him down.

Answer 1

We would need more details. Is this a phobia? If so, there may be a reason for it. Ask him about it if you can without scaring him.

Answer 2

Most kids scream when they are scared (look how babies react) and after a bad scare it does take a little while to calm down. I don't know exactly what it was that scared him, but some times the mention of a phobia (like snakes or spiders) can cause our fear to spike.(you get the image in your head like a flash back, or day dream) He needs to learn its ok to be afraid of thing but he can't go around screaming just because some one said a certain word. This needs to be controlled. Try to teach him if he's scared to take deep breaths and count until the fear goes away. You have try exercises where you say the word and he has to take a deep breath and count. Only do one or to exercises a day, as the strain on his body may be to much if you try to do more.