Son gets "hot" ears which send him into panic atta

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Hi, new here. My 10 year old son has Aspergers, ADHD, anxiety, and PDD-NOS. One of the things that happens to him, that we can't find an answer to, is that he will complain (and complain is putting it mildly) that his ears get hot. Sometimes they get red, but I think the redness might come from him touching them to cool them. The crazy thing is, is if I feel his ears, they are cool to the touch. He has HUGE anxiety at night, a lot of fears, and this seems to be when he complains the most, though it can happen anytime during the day. I've tried asking him what is going on in his head at the time, but he doesn't know.

Does anyone have a child that suffers from this? Any advice? It is very much disruptive to us and him. He woke up last night screaming at midnight because of these ears.

BTW, this has been going on for years. His psych and counselor haven't been able to offer any help. He just started taking strattera, but this has been going on well before he started this med.

Thank you for any thoughts.

My son gets red, hot ears when he eats certain foods. I used to think the salycilate-containing foods were bad, since foods with high levels caused his reaction.. but it turns out I was wrong. His body was just trying to process those foods differently. I have a better description about the WHY, but not off hand ATM.

I totally believe him, the thing the I find weird, is that his ears are actually not hot to the touch. It's like it's an internal thing. I try to make him calm down and breathe, but he thinks nothing will work. He will yell "there is something wrong with me" and plead "someone help me".... it's so heartbreaking for us, the only suggestion we can give him, is get a cool cloth to put on your ears, along with trying to get him to relax.

Thank you again!

I get hot ears and my face gets hot when my anxiety's been kicked off, or when I get mad, embarrassed, or scared. Please excuse me if you already answered this, but do the "hot ears" tend to happen during or after his experiencing strong feelings such as the ones I mentioned?

Yup, I get it too during times of stress. I've learned since to look at it as one of many red flags for anxiety, and otherwise to ignore it as an irritating symptom. My cheeks get fire-red, too (although I do notice this happens less when I eat less dairy, and more when I drink alcohol.)

I am also pretty sure that I don't give off any heat, similar to how I may be burning up now that I'm having perimenopausal hot flashes, but nobody can feel that my skin is hot. It's totally internal.

So, my recommendation is that you frame it as a natural response to anxiety, and have him try some anxiety-reducing exercises. You might have him try the OT "How Does Your Engine Run" therapy to figure out what works best for him, but you can put it in this frame:

I know my son is helped by knowing what is going on in his body, so here's some sites to explain "flight or fight" responses; explain that the "hot ears" are a symptom of increased blood flow and heart rate which he may be able to reverse if he takes deep breaths and tries to slow his heart down (if he's like my son, you may need to explain that there is no way for him to stop his own heart.)

http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emotion/afraid.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/fear2.htm
http://www.youngdiggers.com.au/fight-or-flight

Good luck!

Maybe bring his to a doctor to check it out - there's a slight possibility it could be something wrong, and if it isn't, having a doctor tell him it's OK might carry more weight than Mom saying so.

Maybe the ear thing is an effect of the anxiety, and for whatever reason that is especially noticeable for him over the other symptoms. I know if I am especially anxious my face and ears feel 'hotter' but that is only one of many things such as increased heart rate, sweating maybe stiffness in my muscles and the awareness I am experiencing anxiety at that moment. As a kid the physical symptoms where way more obvious to me and the idea of 'anxiety' didn't always occur. So it could be identifying a physical symptom of anxiety and not recognizing it as such.

Not really sure of a solution though and well I don't know of any conditions that cause body parts to just heat up and cause pain but maybe there is something like that I would have no idea though.

My ears get hot right before, or right as I'm about to have a panic attack or a lot of anxiety. What happens usually is I will think about something and then almost immediately I can feel myself start to panic and I know I am because the first thing that happens is my ears, or face, or both will get hot. I've really only noticed that it gets set off by some thought now that I am an adult, but I have always had really bad anxiety, especially at night.

Something that helped for me, is whenever I start to panic I google the symptoms of panic attacks, and I can almost always find something related to what I am feeling in the lists I find. It has really helped me be able to tell myself that it's only a panic attack, and helped me try to calm myself down. Having google available at all times from my phone has really helped too.

If you cant find the specific symptom that he is talking about, try asking him what else he is feeling and finding those, and if most of them can be found then maybe it will help him to see that hot ears are just part of it too. Works for me at least...

One example from googling "anxiety AND hot ears":
http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic63929.html#b