I am desperately looking for advice for my 8 year old son. He has never had any mental health issues and is physically healthy. 7 out of the last 8 days he has had an "episode" like tonight....30 minutes before soccer practice (every incident has been at a different time, not just before soccer) he tells me he's feeling sick again. I ask him what he's worried about (I took him to his pediatrician who said this is most likely stress related). He can't give me an answer other than he is worried about feeling this way at soccer. I ask him if he wants to stay home, he doesn't. We drive to the practice field and he is unable to get out of the car. I take him back home, he takes a bath and says he feels better. I take a phone call and he motions to me that he feels sick again. When I get off the phone he is crying and saying that his stomach, head and throat hurt. He describes it as something stuck in his throat. I take him up to his bed and tell him to try to think about something else. I bring him a book which doesn't help and then ask if he wants to play a game. We play two games of chess and he's says he's feeling better so I said I was going downstairs to prepare dinner. Immediately it starts again, and I know how ridiculous this sounds as I'm writing it, but he honestly does not look like he's faking it. He gets very sleepy and starts yawning (which happens every time). Then he says he wants to go to sleep so he doesn't have to think about it and it will stop. This was 2 hours before his bedtime. I went to pick up our older son from his soccer practice and when I got home he was asleep. I can't understand what's going on. Sometimes it's earlier in the day so he doesn't go to sleep. Tonight was a carbon copy of Friday night and he woke up fine on Saturday morning. There are no recent changes in any area of of his life. He starts school on Tuesday but that has never been a problem for him. The first night that this happened, we were on our way to Tae Kwon Do and a pretty severe storm was approaching as we were driving. Before the class started he came over to me and said he was sick. I thought he was just really freaked out by the weather. I think it did actually make him feel physically sick and now he thinks anything worrisome will make him feel that way. I just need to know what to do to help him.

I apologize for this terribly long post!