Anxiety In Children
Sometimes children also go through sever anxiety but show different symptoms. Parents need to find out the case of anxiety in their children if any present to approach right psychologist or right therapy.
Symptoms of anxiety in children are seen in different way. crying irritations, throwing tantrums, continuous pulling or picking of skin are some of them. They might feel uncomfortable in social gatherings, sports activities, making friends or anything like that.
They may show up symptoms of separation anxiety like refusing to go to school or meet somebody.
In the transition phase of childhood to adolescence they are more prone to develop anxiety.
Anxiety can be the cause of eating disorder and hence serious health conditions in older children. With the help of eating disorder, they feel coping up with their anxiety, stress or trauma.
What are the factors causing anxiety in children
Children feel anxious for different reasons at different age and it is a part of them growing up.
There are many factors like contributing towards anxiety in children.
- Biological factors due to genes
- Environmental factors such as troubled childhood
- Psychological factors such as temperament and coping mechanism with fear
Common types of Anxiety:
Separation anxiety: Very irritable and anxious and upset when parted from parents and caregivers.
Specific phobia: Severe feelings against some specific situation or object, irrational fear such as thunderstorms, worry about vomiting, or insects.
Social anxiety: Very anxious and self-conscious around others; strong fear of social situations, fearful about being judged or humiliated.
For example, they go through separation anxiety from around 6 months to 3 years. If they are separated from their parents at that age, they may become clingy and they might cry also.
Preschool children develop fear and phobia against some situation or say animals, insects. Situations can be a tub full of water, height, darkness etc.
Sometimes children find it difficult to cope with change. Going to new school, shifting to new house, some tests or exams or social gatherings are the events making children anxious. Most of the time all these fears are a part of normal growth diminishing by age but in case of anything left abnormal, parents need to be careful. If these symptoms are persistent, children’s emotional health and self esteem will be at risk.
Common symptoms of anxiety in children:
Parents need to notice these for their very young children as they cannot express their feelings too clearly:
- Irritable, fearful or clingy
- Having difficult sleep
- Waking in the night
- Wetting their bed
- Having bad dreams
For grownup children you need to notice:
- Not able to concentrate on the tasks in hand, studies
- Having angry outbursts
- Sleep problems
- Eating disorders
- Negative thinking
- Lack confidence in trying new things
- Problem in facing daily life challenges, going to school
- Lack of interest in social gatherings, difficulty making friends
Why your child is feeling anxious
Children having traumatic experience may feel anxious. For example, accidents or fire in the house can make them feel traumatic. Lots of family arguments and conflicts also does not have good effect on them. These events make them develop a feeling of insecurities and anxiousness. Any unlikeable change can affect them negatively. Teenagers might find it difficult to enjoy social gatherings.
How you can help your child in case of anxiety
You need to help them and for this you need to talk to older children convincingly and suggest them right approach to face their reason of anxiety. For example, if the child is avoiding social gatherings, you can suggest how to manage over there without being too reactive. Try to distract them from the cause of anxiety and keep them motivated. Make them do some relaxation exercises and get involved with their activities in a convincing way. Never become overprotective.
Manage symptoms to stay mentally strong and prevent anxiety
Here are the tips to manage the symptoms:
- Develop a good eating plan
- Workout to get a good sleep
- Get into a physical activity
- Practice relaxation and mindful meditation
- Slowly in a controlled manner expose of your child to the possible event of anxiety and make them take charge of it. If they are conscious about facing their friends, then give them manage and control a task like some puzzle solving exercises with the friends.
How to treat anxiety in children
For anxiety in children more than natural limit then it is time to go for counselling. Delaying this situation will limit their mental growth and they will find difficulty facing world.
Counsellor may treat them through Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). It is a highly recommended practice to treat the cases of anxiety in children. This is talk therapy and tracks the thinking and behavioural pattern of the children and works on to remove any kind of fear or anxiety.