As part of my series of tips on parenting, I decided to delve deeper into the growing issue of anxiety in children. As the mother of a wonderfully sensitive child, who has challenged me to be that much better a parent because of her sensitivity, the topic is near and dear to my heart.
My daughter has a tendency towards anxiety. Fortunately, I have been able to help her to learn how to deal with her anxious thoughts through approaches that are like the cognitive behavioral therapy mentioned below. Not only has this saved us a lot of suffering now because she is able to be calm and deal with the issues that initially cause her anxiety, but we are preventing major suffering in the future that comes with having an anxiety disorder.
The article below on anxiety in children was written by Eddie Tobey. I found it very interesting to read about the correlation between fears of the dark and anxiety. I also love that she stresses the importance of helping our kids when they are small so that they don’t have to suffer from lifelong mental illness. It’s sad but true that our kids today are more anxious than ever before, so this article is very timely.
Anxiety attacks are quite common in children, but they are often overlooked. Nearly half of the individuals with prepubertal onset of anxiety do not receive treatment for at least 10 years, and recent research suggests that many of these children develop chronic and persistent anxiety as adults. Both pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic treatments are available for children with anxiety disorders and the outcome is good, but since this remains a widely misjudged entity, treatment is only initiated when these children grow and have frequent anxiety attacks. However, in children who have received cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety, the support has been empirical. The effect of cognitive behavioral therapy appears to be relatively well maintained over time.
Manifestations of anxiety in children alters as a child grows, and it is a known fact that most chronic mood and anxiety disorders in adults were preceded by anxiety disorders as a child. The link is strong.
Children who have a fear of the dark are at increased risk of developing anxiety attacks and depression as adults. Researchers warn that fears stem from a multitude of disorders rather than a variation of a single disorder.
In what may seem as a strange correlation, children with functional constipation have been observed to have more anxiety related to toileting behavior than healthy children. Painful bowel movements can make a child fearful of pain, and these children dread sitting on the toilet. This is called defecation anxiety. Some of these children develop generalized anxiety at later stages – the greater the defecation anxiety, the greater the generalized anxiety.
Anxiety Attacks provides detailed information on Anxiety Attacks, Physical Symptoms of Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Attacks in Children, Causes of Anxiety Attacks and more. Anxiety Attacks is affiliated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/273066
Please share this post with your family and friends so we can spread the word about this growing but preventable problem. Also share your comments on the article, and your experiences with anxiety in children. Also share your personal experience with anxiety.
Thanks for the excellent, timely blog. My vision therapy staff has been discussing this issue, as many of our young patients are either on meds for anxiety or suffering from anxiety symptoms. The anxiety may be triggered by a number of situations regarding school, tests, separation, perfectionism…and the list goes on.
When I discuss this with parents, some of the children are on anti-anxiety meds. However, it is infrequent that I have a patient who has been given specific strategies to deal with anxiety symptoms. Some of the most effective help that we have found for children is with proper breathing and visualization activities. We utilize many of these strategies in our vision therapy with children. Many of the parents also start using the strategies because they are effective for adults as well.
Of course some of the patients need referral for more in-depth psychological evaluation.
Why not do what the great athletes and performers do to prepare themselves for stressful competition or situations,,,breathe & visualize!
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Jacqueline Green Reply:
April 26th, 2011 at 7:02 am
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for your post! It sounds like you do great work with kids and parents. I couldn’t agree more that we should teach our kids to do what great athletes and performers do, breathe and visualize. It is so powerful to teach our kids active skills, and not just medicate them.
Thanks again for sharing.
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Jacqueline, I am so glad you’re writing about this. It is such a critical issue in these changing times. So many adults today are struggling with anxiety, and it has an impact on our kids. I’ve had the wonderful good fortune to work with neurofeedback pioneer Les Fehmi and his wife, Susan Shor Fehmi, who have developed a practice called “Open Focus Brain” that is based on his theory of attention, and designed to give our over-stressed and over-stimulated nervous systems a rest.
The two of them do a lot of neurofeedback work with children (who are anxious, or sad, or who struggle with ADD and ADHD), teaching them how to control their attention and how they feel by connecting them to a specially designed videogame. They learn to control the video game by changing their attention and thoughts. Susan has just develop ed a series of exercises for kids that they can listen to on their own, without neurofeedback,.
I found Dr. Fehmi when I was laid off from my job, and my anxiety levels were sky high. I wandered into a bookstore and found his book. By a series of coincidences, I have ended up working with the Fehmis, and the more I do, the more respect I have for their work. They have been saying that in our modern world, much of our stress comes from spending too much time in a type of attention that he calls “narrow, objective”. (Think left brain, list-making, getting it done, doing well on tests, logic.) When we learn to easily shift into the other types of attention, our nervous systems can release and we can connect to our imagination and unconscious mind. When children are young, they live in a state of imagination and a more open and diffused attention. Then they start school, and are increasingly rewarded for their ability to operate in the “narrow, objective” mode of attention.
I didn’t mean to go on for so long! I saw your wonderful post first thing this morning and somehow it wound me up and got me going… Thanks.
Louise Holmes recently posted..Real Artists Ship
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Jacqueline Green Reply:
April 13th, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Thanks so much for sharing Louise! I was away in San Francisco so my reply is delayed. I will definitely check out the Fehmi’s work. Can you recommend a particular website for their children’s work? If you’d like to post it on the great parenting facebook page, please do. That way I can recommend everyone check it out.
You are right that anxiety is a huge issue. Like you, I’ve had some anxiety issues of my own. I’m looking forward to finding out more about the Fehmi’s work to try myself.
Thanks for sharing so much detail. I look forward to learning more.
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Can definitely be really sad too see a child suffering from anxiety especially if the parent has no idea what it is.
Jett recently posted..Is there really a cure for anxiety
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I’m glad you pick this topic on anxiety in children. A lot of parents are looking for answers on this topic.
Thanks for including the article from Eddie Tobey. I will keep my eyes open for more information that Eddie puts out.
More informative material that parents can read the better.
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Leuke artikel!
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Thank you very much for your article, it’s very interesting. I think the Tobey article is very good, and it’s certainly not reassuring that many kids live with untreated anxiety for ten years or more. But it’s hardly surprising. I think society should have a greater awareness of anxiety in children, considering the negative long-term effects it can have.
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