Anxiety in children, like in adults, is normal, for a long as this isn’t recurring. From time to time, kids go through big changes in their life, which may render them distressed about what’ll happen. These include attending their first day of school, meeting new friends, and moving to a new neighborhood.
However, there are also some instances when your child’s anxiety may become a cause for worry. It’s when they experience it regularly and it becomes a disorder.
When you start to notice your child exhibiting symptoms of anxiety disorder, you need to act on it right away. The earlier you settle it, the lower the risk of their anxiety progressing to more serious issues in the long run.
Remember that this disorder could affect them socially, mentally, psychologically, and emotionally. And when you confirm that your kid has it, make sure to provide all the support they can get from you. Be with them through challenging times, walking with them every step of the way.
If you suspect that your child may have an anxiety disorder, this article will guide you on knowing if your kid has one and how to respond to it.
The Importance Of Seeing A Professional
When your child starts to exhibit the symptoms of intense anxiety quite frequently, you have to take action as soon as you can. Immediately see a clinician or therapist. You must get your child the best inpatient and outpatient anxiety treatment and counseling San Diego has to offer or wherever your local area is.
Usually, there will be individual sessions with the therapist and your child. Then, there’ll be instances when the therapist will ask everyone in your household to be present. Experts at clinics with similar caliber to Citron Hennessey can help your entire family have the skills needed to help your child cope with the anxiety triggers.
Remember that the goal is not to avoid anxiety, but to learn how to manage it.
The Symptoms To Watch Out For
These are the symptoms of childhood anxiety you have to be mindful about.
- Your Child Is Constantly Tense And Nervous
It’s a tough situation for parents to see their child nervous and upset. But you have to act on it and be there for them. However, keep this in mind: be there, but don’t be too involved.
Yes, you have to be emotionally and physically present for your child, but you don’t need to get yourself involved. The older your child is, the less you should engage. Give them space and let them process their feelings and emotions. After all, it’s no longer your place to dictate.
You should let them try to solve the problem first before you offer your helping hand. By doing so, your children will also learn how to navigate through their own emotions and problems in the future, even when you’re not around.
And when they’re constantly tense and nervous, remember this: give your child the time to express themselves to you.
If your child is already capable of expressing their thoughts and emotions, then give time to hear them out. Do give them the chance to talk to you about what they’re so afraid of or why they’re always tense and nervous. If your child isn’t very expressive yet, like when you have a younger toddler, you can also ask them to draw to you or show you what they’re nervous about. This can help you have an understanding of why your little one is acting that way.
And in case you feel that something is triggering the anxiety, don’t prevent it from happening. Remember that it’s normal for children to feel fearful of activities that have made them nervous. But you just can’t avoid these triggers forever. Try to slowly ease your child back to those triggers, so they can slowly go back to a sense of normalcy.
For example, your child now feels nervous when they’re around other children in a nearby playground or school. It may be because they’ve been consistently pushed and bullied. Normally, parents may want to shelter a bullied child and homeschool them forever. But you can’t do that.
In the long run, being sheltered won’t do your child good. It’ll be harder for them to cope. There will come a time that they’ll be forced to mingle with other people. And because your kid was homeschooled or was isolated away from other kids, your kid doesn’t have any experience socializing with others.
In this example, instead of sheltering your child, you can organize small play dates from time to time. You can take them to an Indoor Playground where they could be supervised and probably won’t get bullied. Moreover, instead of taking away the anxiety triggers, which were the other kids, you let your kid face them head-on, under supervision of course. Let your child learn how to cope and adjust to things that scare them.
- Your Child Is Frequently Aggressive And Moody
As a parent, you should be prepared to deal with tantrums. You’ll face many instances of it as your child grows. However, don’t be complacent; not all tantrums are normal and okay. When you notice that your kid is becoming too aggressive and moody, be worried. It might be a sign of anxiety disorder.
Watch out if your child is doing or experiencing the following together with bouts of moodiness and aggressiveness:
- Frequently causing disruptions at home
- Consistent decline in academic grades
- Noticeable avoidance of other children
See a therapist together with your child to help your kid go through their bouts of anger. Therapists will often use the following to help you:
- Talk therapy
- Exposure therapy
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Emotion regulation therapy
Apart from seeing a therapist, there are also many things you can do as a parent. Some of them are the following:
- Stay Calm: Meeting your child’s aggressive behavior with more emotion will only backfire and make your child more aggressive.
- Utilize Time-outs: Note that giving your child time-out does not mean telling them to go to their room. It means telling them to get a deep breath and then giving them space and the opportunity to talk about what’s bothering them.
- Use Positive Reinforcement: Recognize the good deeds your child does, so your kid can start feeling good about themselves.
- Your Child Lacks Focus Or Concentration
Some children are inherently capable of maintaining focus for a long time compared to others. You can draw the line between what’s normal with your child and what isn’t when your child previously never had any problem focusing and concentrating before.
You can’t always change all negative situations that affected your child’s ability to concentrate, but you can train them to cut through frustrations and distractions so they can focus. This kind of strategy helps them in the long run.
Here are some strategies which may be helpful:
- Isolate Them From Distractions During Specific Periods: Primarily, you need to do this while your kid is doing their schoolwork. Train your child that no matter their emotional circumstance, they can’t neglect their school.
- Break Down Big Assignments: When your child starts procrastinating or avoiding doing their work, check how big of a task they are facing. Remember that your kid is still young, and huge projects or goals can easily overwhelm them. Give your child a helping hand by breaking down their big assignments and giving them guidance on how to tackle them piece by piece.
- Your Child Is Constantly Fearful
Kids have fears, yes. But they shouldn’t be fearful of too many things. However, don’t think that you should always protect your kid from their fears or tell them that they aren’t real. Instead, it’s your job to acknowledge that what they fear exists and they have to learn how to deal with it in their minds and emotions.
- Your Child Is Experiencing Intense Anxiety From The Following Sources
Each child experiences stress and anxiety from common events and sources. However, if you see that they’re not coping or adjusting, their anxiety may worsen and its source may become traumatic for them, which may result in anxiety disorder. Because of that, be on the lookout for the following:
Separation Anxiety
This is normal, especially for young kids who are separated from their parents for the very first time, like when it’s your first time for your kid to go to school, or you, as the primary caregiver, have gone to work for the first time in a long time.
Bullying
In relation to separation anxiety, as your child gets used to going to school without you, their onset of nervousness and anxiety will start to dwindle. If it doesn’t and you notice your child detests going to school, this could be because your child is bullied.
This can be one of the most painful things to hear as a parent, but unfortunately, it’s a common occurrence and you can’t be there to protect your child. However, it does help make your child stronger by going through negative emotions and circumstances. Sadly, it doesn’t happen for everyone.
Regardless if you think your child can make it unscathed or will be traumatized, you still need to do your responsibility as a parent. If you prove your child is a target of bullying, be sure to inform the school administration about it, so it can be stopped.
Academic Failure
Kids aren’t meant to be achievers all the time. As parents, you must celebrate your kid’s success whether in school or with sports. You should also be with them and walk with them through their failures.
However, some children, who are achievers or receive a lot of pressure from their parents, can easily break down once they experience failure. They can start feeling anxious and detached even if they fail something small like an unrecorded quiz.
While you may want your child to succeed in life and be the best, never pressure them. Remember it’s not just high grades that will land your child a job. Also, you should remind yourself and your child that failure isn’t the end of the world. Instead of chastising them, talk to them. Let them learn that it’s healthy to open up to you and vent during those moments.
Big Family Changes
These can also be an anxiety trigger for children, especially when the family changes are negative, like when their parents are going through a divorce. Children feel secure with their parents around, and their home is always their security bubble. As parents, sometimes the intensity of our issues can overshadow the need for our child to feel secure. And once that security is disrupted, they experience sadness and anxiety. This does not mean that you must ignore the problems you are facing, rather you should just try to be mindful of your child’s presence. For instance, if you are going through a divorce, you could maybe take the legal discussions with family law professionals such as the Eatons Solicitors in Leeds (if that is where you live), outside the house so that their presence doesn’t aggravate your child further. Little gestures like this can make a lot of difference.
It’s normal for your kids to feel anxious as you navigate through big family changes. Just be sure to be with them every step of the way, so this anxiety doesn’t escalate when they grow older.
Unexpected Traumatic Events
Another fear of parents is the onset of unexpected events to happen, particularly when they aren’t with their kids. Unfortunately, events that are out of your control like natural disasters and school shootings can scar your kid for life.
With this kind of case, you need to immediately plan on how you can help your kid cope. Some of the things you immediately need to do are the following:
- Talk and listen to them. Don’t force them to talk.
- Develop and discuss safety plans.
- Encourage them to talk to their peers regarding their experience.
Overwhelming Schedules
Many children are filled today with schedules that are too overwhelming for their little bodies to handle. Aside from the usual classes, children are now heavily involved in extra-curricular activities. Unfortunately, too many of these activities can become harmful for your kid when they become too overwhelming for them.
Hence, you may want to evaluate the activities you’re sending your child to. Perhaps there are some of these activities your child doesn’t like doing. Listen to what they have to say, and be open to any suggestions they may have for activities your kids prefer. For as long as the activity they want to do isn’t harmful to them, then give them the leeway and freedom to go for it.
Conclusion
Symptoms of anxiety disorder may start appearing from an early age. As a parent, you must recognize and address these signs to prevent them from worsening.
There are many different things you can do to ensure you prevent things from getting any worse, but it’s always best to speak to a health professional first. They may suggest you speak to a therapist and try cognitive behavioural therapy. If things are more manageable, they may suggest using doses of CBD as a form of medication for the anxiety. This is becoming more and more popular as a treatment for anxiety and you can read more about this at cfah.org. Then there are also medications that they could prescribe, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Essentially, there are lots of options.
Occasional anxiety is indeed alright, but when it becomes a regular occurrence and too intense, you must act fast. Most importantly, you don’t have to go through your child’s anxiety all by yourself. If you feel the need to see expert help from a therapist, then accompany your kid to one. Doing so ensures your child receives the best professional care they need.