Anxiety Disorder in Children
Children occasionally experience worry or anxiety, especially when starting kindergarten or school or relocating to a new place. However, depression interferes with some kids’ daily behavior, thinking, and social, academic, and home lives.
When this happens, you might require assistance from a specialist.
Symptoms indicating anxiety disorder in children
signs to monitor in your child;
- Finding it difficult to focus
- Quickly becoming agitated or enraged and losing control when doing so
- Worrying or thinking all the time negatively
- Feeling tight and fidgety or often needing the restroom
- Constant sobbing
- Becoming clingy
- Expressing complaints of stomach pain and being ill
Younger children frequently experience separation anxiety, whereas older kids and teens are more likely to worry about school or have social anxiety.
Anxiety in children causes
Some kids are just more nervous and less able to handle stress from birth than other kids.
Furthermore, being around nervous adults might cause children to exhibit anxious behaviors.
Following stressful situations, some kids experience anxiety, for example:
- Regularly changing residences or schools
- Parents quarreling or fighting
- The death of a family or close friend
- Being very ill or hurting in an accident
- Concerns relating to schools, such as tests or bullying
- Being mistreated or ignored
How to help a child facing anxiety disorders?
It’s essential to discuss your child’s anxieties and worries with them.
Many kids of all ages could experience concerns that, with your reassurance, will pass.
However, it’s always better to seek professional aid.
If your youngster exhibits persistent anxiety and:
- It’s either growing worse or not improving
- Self-help is ineffective.
- It has an impact on their friendships, family, or school.
Treatments for anxiety disorders in children
Your child’s age and the source of their anxiety will determine the kind of treatment provided.
Counseling can help your child identify the source of their anxiety and give them the tools they need to deal with it.
Talking treatment named cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help your kid control their anxiety by modifying the way they think and act. Find out more about CBT.
Medications are advised if your child’s anxiety is severe or does not improve with talk therapy. Only physicians with expertise in the mental health of children and adolescents often prescribe.
Reviewed by – Dr. Priyanka, MBBS MD Microbiology
Page last reviewed: 16 JULY 2022