Anxiety Symptoms in Children

How to Recognize and Help a Child with an Anxiety Disorder

© Emily Rogers

Oct 7, 2009
Anxiety in Children Can Be Hard to Diagnose, doriana_s
When a child has an anxiety disorder, it may be overlooked or misdiagnosed. This article talks about how to recognize and help a child with anxiety symptoms.

Anxiety symptoms are extremely common, as they are the number one cause of health issues throughout America. When it comes to adults, it’s a lot easier to discover anxiety symptoms, although anxiety in children can be a completely different story.

Anxiety Disorder in Adults

Anxiety in children is often overlooked or misdiagnosed and this leads to psychological disorders that persist into adulthood. Many adults who suffer from severe anxiety symptoms have actually been suffering with an anxiety disorder since they were a young child. The anxiety symptoms may have only worsened as they were left untreated as a child.

Causes of Anxiety Disorders in Children

Anxiety symptoms cause a strong sense of anxiousness, hesitation, panic and distress. It may be normal for individuals to feel some of these types of feelings occasionally, although when individuals feel these anxiety symptoms often, it is commonly associated with having an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety in children may occur do to stressful situations such as school, the loss of a loved one or moving. These are some of many different causes of anxiety in children. If parents believe that a child is suffering from anxiety symptoms, it is very important to get a prompt diagnosis and to identify the source of the issue as early as possible.

According to Anxiety Disorders Association of America, if left untreated, children with an anxiety disorder are at a high risk of performing poorly in school, developing poor social skills and possibly turning to substance abuse. This is why it is crucial that parents do everything they can to help their children with anxiety symptoms.

Treating Anxiety in Children

Even though children often have the same anxiety symptoms as many adults do, they may often display and react to these symptoms very differently. This is why it may become difficult for doctors to diagnose an anxiety disorder in a child, or even for parents to recognize the anxiety symptoms in their own child.

Parents usually understand their children better than anyone. If parents notice anxiety symptoms in their child, they should first try talking openly to their child. Parents should ask their child questions about their daily stresses and address each one of their child’s concerns. Make sure that the child understands that he or she can come to their parents with any issue and that their parents will be willing to help them through stressful or difficult situations.

Another way for parents to help their children through anxiety symptoms is to prepare the youth for what lies ahead. As soon as a parent realizes there will be a change in their child’s life, the parent can address that change in a positive manner. This means, if the family is planning to move, parents should talk to their child about how they can work together to redecorate the child’s new bedroom. Parents should try to make the new change fun and exciting, in every way possible.

When it comes to anxiety in children, they often begin to show anxiety symptoms as soon as they realize something is going to change. Since life is all about change, it’s important for parents to do all that they can to make each change in a child’s life easier, by making it fun and talking about the change before it occurs when possible. This is where individuals may realize that maintaining a positive attitude goes a long way.

Helping Children Through Their Anxiety Symptoms

Anxiety in children can be very difficult to diagnose. This is why it’s always smart for parents to get a professional opinion. Parents may even want to visit more than one doctor in order to have a better chance at diagnosing an anxiety disorder in their child.

Overall, children who suffer from an anxiety disorder experience many different emotions and anxiety symptoms. This can be very scary for a child to deal with. If anxiety in children is left untreated, it can continue on into a child's adult life, only becoming more severe. This is why parents who recognize any type of anxiety symptoms in their child, should seek professional guidance, and do all that they can to help treat their child’s anxiety symptoms.


The copyright of the article Anxiety Symptoms in Children in Child Psychology is owned by Emily Rogers. Permission to republish Anxiety Symptoms in Children in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.


Anxiety in Children Can Be Hard to Diagnose, doriana_s
       


Post this Article to facebook Add this Article to del.icio.us! Digg this Article furl this Article Add this Article to Reddit Add this Article to Technorati Add this Article to Newsvine Add this Article to Windows Live Add this Article to Yahoo Add this Article to StumbleUpon Add this Article to BlinkLists Add this Article to Spurl Add this Article to Google Add this Article to Ask Add this Article to Squidoo