COPING SKILLS FOR HIGH ANXIETY - please help

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We are having a tough time and I'm hoping to get some advice. DS (6.5) was awoken the other night by an Elmo battery operated toy in his room that just started talking for no reason. This is enough to rattle anyone but he hasn't been the same since the episode and we have spent hours and hours trying to problem solve with him. He is so freaked out by this and one of his fears is that he'll never forget this fear. He says he can't get it out of his head. We have tried so many things and nothing has worked. The anxiety is so intense that it brings me to tears watching him in such stress. Any ideas would be much appreciated!

my son had a toy duck when he was about 3 that sang, his duck used to do this to some times. thank goodness he never woke up when it happened. I did and was freaked out for ages about it (and I'm not on the spectrum) it had something to do with the battries or the battry terminal, so we solved it by removing the battries until he wanted to use it, then taking them out again each time. Evil Duck!! !

not sure if it will help, but could you (if you havent already) have him take back some control and let him take the battries out himself.

he needs running and exercise during the day
minimize tv, video games, computer, and any magazines or cereal boxes that have ads (ads place stress of kids)
turn off the light in his room
get an electric candle for when it is dark in his room
give him his plush toy to sleep with
get him a little dog - pet therapy decreases stress
read his a story with visualizations
tell him to concentrate on a sound - guided mediation
play a game with him to distract him
encourage him to play with his interests
get him to cook with you
get him to verbalize his fears - talk about what he is afraid and what happened
have him draw what he is afraid of - art therapy
have him play out what he is afraid of or himself and the alarm clock using puppets
if u need more ideas feel free to PM me

my son is the same way, he's scared of my daughter's toilet that makes noises when she pees, or when the wind blows, anything that makes noises out of the blue scares him, even the phone ringing. anyways, i would show him the toy and show him that im turning it off or taking out the batteries in front of him, ill bang it and say, "see....it's not going to make noises anymore." my son is 5 and there are times when i let him sleep in bed with me until he forgets about it.

Have you tried explaining to him why it happened? That it most likely had something to do with the batteries running down?

Sometimes if you understand the "why" it helps. If he is still freaked have him help take the batteries out of Elmo, or if the fear is more general all the toys in his room with batteries or move the ones with batteries to a different local where they can "sleep" for the night.

(remember to make sure to replace the smoke detector battery often!)

We play with my daughter's toys that have batteries in them. It's a way to let her feel social. When she sees us enjoying her toys she feels like we're enjoying her. She's gotten mad at her toys but never fearful and she is an extremely anxious person. So I'm wondering if we unknowingly took the potential anxiety out of the toys but showing her that we think they're fun and harmless.

Wait! This just reminded me of how my daughter calmed down around unexpected noises like phones ringing, people cheering, babies crying, etc. We gave her some cd-roms where they told stories but if you clicked on certain pictures or words, there's be some kind of startling, fun reaction, like a phone bouncing and ringing, for example.

When she first got that CD-Rom, she'd tense up and click on something that she knew would scare her. Then she might jump out of her chair and run away. She did this hundreds of times. Soon, she'd sit in the chair and not react, except with a laugh. After all that effort, we could finally take her out to restaurants without incident.

The CD-ROM was predictable but it was practice for the unpredictable world. She still uses the computer this way to reinforce her self-control.