 | On Saturday morning my 17 year old daughter saw a picture of a painting that is supposedly haunted (photo being enough to bring the curse). Since then, she's been sick. (Sickness being a sign of having been cursed.) She ran a low-grade fever for most of Saturday afternoon...didn't sleep very well that night either. She seems to believe strongly that the painting really cursed her, and won't believe anything else no matter what anyone does or says. I've tried staring at the painting on my own to prove it to her. I've also found the true story of the painting for her (with the pictures was a fake story about all the problems it's caused), and I've let her sleep in the living room with the light on and the TV, or anything else that might help her change her focus. I'm also staying out in the living room with her tonight (at her request). She's still worried. I know part of it is psychological and part of it being overtired. What else can I do here, does anyone have any suggestions or experience? I'm worried because this is really unlike her. She would normally enjoy this kind of thing. Nothing has ever affected her to this magnitude before. She's never made herself sick worrying.
One other thing that I think is reinforcing this is that her friend also got sick at the same time. They both looked at the painting. I'm not sure of the details of these, but this girl has been abused all her life and has several severe emotional problems, phobias, the like. I spent some time with her, just getting her to think about other things, and that's seemed to help her most--but is there anything else, for her (the friend) that I should be aware of so that nothing backfires? I know that she has a phobia of clowns and puppets (there was a marionette in the painting) among other things (sleeping/going to bed being one of them)...basically, what do I do? I feel like I've tried everything and it just seems to be getting worse.
Thanks in advance...
Dave |
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