Does Anxiety Grip Your Child

Thursday, August 23, 2012 | Unknown at 9:52 AM |

Statistics show that anxiety disorders are very common in the lifetime of a child. They are subject to a variety of different anxieties such as nerves before an exam or moving into a new neighborhood. On the positive side, usually these fears are rational and do not evolve into a full-blown panic attack or other mental disorder. However, because of mitigating factors, some children end up developing panic disorders.
Despite our natural tendency to protect our children and ensure that they lead a completely normal life, unfortunately this cannot always be the case. Anxiety disorders that afflict adults are also found to exist in children. Our young ones are not immune to many of the same stresses and anxieties we adults face. Plus, they have little or no experience in how to cope with these emotions. These disorders may manifest
themselves in children in a number of ways. It might exist in something as common as intense depression regarding day-to-day events at home or school. Children tend to be overly critical of their own selves as they strive for perfection, something which may be worsened by factors at home. They might be unhappy with whatever output their efforts reveal and undertake them again and again to achieve perfection. They are victims of insecurity and they are constantly looking for approval from people they look up to.
Another very common anxiety disorder among the young is OCD ( obsessive compulsive disorder). OCD tends to interfere with one's day-to-day lifestyle and the obsession and intrusive thoughts tend to greatly plague an individual. These children display a tendency to repeatedly perform tasks to ease their anxiety, stack their belongings in a certain way, walk through a doorway several times to get that right feeling, repeatedly ask for parental reassurance and repeating numbers or names over and over. There are many other physical manifestations. The majority of children who suffer from OCD are usually around the preteen age, sometimes children as young as the age of two can be diagnosed with it. Other telltale signs of OCD in children can be seen in acts such as repeated washing of hands, immense fear of mistakes and failure and constant checking over and over again.
Children are also very commonly subject to panic disorders. Normally children who experience two panic attacks in a given month are normally diagnosed with panic disorder. As a general observation, it is usually not seen in young children however it is very common in adolescents.
Anxiety disorders can become manifest in children through a number of phobias: irrational fears of certain places, items or scenarios. Some of the childhood fears such as those of monsters or the dark tend to fade away with time, if a fear is persistent for durations of almost half a year and inhibits the child's day-to-day activities, is said to result in a phobia. Tell tale signs include pains in the stomach or head, constant fussing, wanting to cling to the parent or feel immobilizing fear.
Childhood traumas such as the loss of a parent, a natural disaster, accidents, physical assaults or the witnessing of a traumatic event can bring about traumatic stress disorders in children. Signs of this trauma include insomnia, not eating, emotional numbness, or recurrent nightmares and even paranoia that the event may repeat itself.
Even though some of these disorders are also present in adults, the physical and emotional manifestations may be different in the case of children. To begin with, children do not understand the irrationality of their fears or are able to express them fully. They may express this through signs of crying, massive tantrums or the tendency to cling, especially to their parents or guardians. In case a child is believed to exhibit symptoms of such a disorder, they should be immediately referred to a specialist.
That is why we recommend the resource featured in this article. To give you, the parent, the most up to date information available today to conquer this anxiety enemy before it has a chance to gain mastery.

Our natural inclination is to protect our children from anything that can cause them harm or fear. When our young one has an anxiety disorder attack we often cannot identify the enemy to be able to effectively chase it away. That is what is so heart wrenching. Now, we have the answers. How to identify, neutralize and eradicate this anxiety enemy. This article is just a brief snippet of the scholarly resource now available at Anxiety Disorders in Children