Does My Child Suffer From Childhood Anxiety?

One of the most common disorders that children and adolescents suffer is childhood anxiety. This mental, emotional, and behavioral issue seems to have a greater influence on girls than boys. Depression usually comes with the anxiety too.

Most children who have this disorder have a difficult functioning because of the fears and worries that they have. Some children even carry this disorder into adulthood. When this happens, family life and work are affected.

There are a few different kinds of childhood anxiety disorders that children and adolescents can experience.

Anxiety disorders vary from an adjustment disorder to something more serious like posttraumatic stress syndrome and panic disorder. It is important that children get intervention so that they can learn and grow academically as well as socially and emotionally.

Other anxiety disorders that children can have include obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute stress disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder. There could also be phobias, or social phobias. If your child suffers from a medical condition, that could also lead to childhood anxiety.

For parents, it is important to know the difference between normal anxieties versus unhealthy levels of anxiety. An abnormal case of anxiety will usually be accompanied by headache, sweating, dizziness, nausea, nervousness, or fear. Not all symptoms have to be present.

In addition to the physical symptoms, there are also mental and emotional ones. Children with anxiety will usually have a difficult thinking clearly, making decisions, rationally perceiving their environment, learning efficiently, and focusing.

In severe cases of childhood anxiety, other symptoms may include diarrhea, tingling, shortness of breath, high blood pressure and heart rate, vomiting, and bodily pain.

If you notice that your child has any or some of these symptoms linked with situational crises, it is important that you get some help. For your child to function properly mentally, emotionally, and physically, your child will need some help working out their anxiety.

Medication is usually not administered to young children because of the inability to express the difference in how they feel with the medication. Instead, cognitive behavioral therapy is used to help children understand their thinking processes and to learn coping strategies.