Anxiety In Children
"Always take Anxiety Symptoms in Children serious"
Anxiety attacks can be embarrassing and painful for adults but even more so for children. Their first instinct is to avoid feeling bad so they may start making decisions out of fear or avoidance of situations in which they may feel anxious.
A child will usually tell you how they feel when you ask, unless you grow impatient with them telling you they are afraid or nervous. Then they will begin to hide their anxiety attacks and try to compensate for it in other, possibly harmful, ways. Anxiety in children isn’t rare, since there are many things in their life that pose challenges. A new school, trouble with friends or difficulty in class may trigger anxiety attacks if they don’t know how to handle these situations. This is another reason why it’s so important to be available to your child and lend a sympathetic ear when needed.
Anxiety in children, if left untreated or ignored, can have terrible consequences. If the anxiety attacks continue, many children will try to make themselves feel better by avoiding people and isolating themselves. They may find that joining a tough group of kids makes them more confident or they may even turn to drugs or thrill seeking to escape their bad feelings. Many people feel that children have no reason to worry or feel anxious but often they have even more reason to do so than adults!
A child whose anxiety attacks go untreated and ignored will often replace their fears with anger because it’s much easier for them to blame others when they can’t escape their bad feelings. Or, they may blame themselves and their anxiety will be compounded by depression.
About one in ten children suffer from some type of anxiety disorder. Research in brain imaging has given doctors reason to believe that an anomaly in the brain could possibly be the cause of anxiety in children, giving some hope that medical treatment will be found for the condition.
If your child begins to do poorly in school, isolates them self, or shows changes in their sleeping or eating habits, it would be wise to have him or her examined by your family doctor to see if they are suffering from anxiety.
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