Anxiety: Signs and Symptoms in Children and Teens
- Apr 17, 2024
- 2 min read
Understanding Anxiety:
Anxiety is a normal emotion that everyone experiences.
It helps recognize threats, motivates tasks, and aids in making adjustments like driving cautiously in a snowstorm.
Excessive, ongoing anxiety can indicate an anxiety disorder.
Signs and Symptoms in Children and Teens:
Similar worries to adults but may also include school performance, fitting in, social experiences, safety, future, and natural disasters.
Signs include fatigue, sleep changes, irritability, anger, concentration issues, lack of confidence, reassurance seeking, avoidance, and decreased grades.
Physical symptoms: stomachaches, headaches, increased heart rate, rapid breathing, restlessness, trembling, dizziness, diarrhea, nausea, chest tightness or pain.
Development of Anxiety Associations:
Anxiety can develop from paired associations, where non-anxious situations become associated with anxiety due to past experiences.
Example: Panic attack during a school presentation can lead to associating school with intense anxiety.
Do’s to Ease Anxiety:
Identify Triggers: Recognize what causes intense anxiety.
2. Validate and Empathize: Acknowledge children's feelings and experiences.
3. Challenge Unhelpful Thinking: Help children identify and change negative thoughts.
4. Practice Deep Breathing: Teach deep belly breathing to calm down.
5. Break Down Tasks: Divide tasks into smaller steps to make them less daunting.
6. Role-play: Practice feared situations through role-play.
7. Build Confidence: Allow children to face challenges and contribute to family tasks.
8. Don’ts to Ease Anxiety: 8. Label Emotions as Bad: Avoid classifying thoughts or emotions as good or bad.
9. Minimize Anxiety: Don’t tell children to “just do it” or “suck it up,” instead meet them with empathy and understanding.
Support and Additional Resources:
If confident, use the mentioned tools to help children manage anxiety.
If unsure or needing more support, consult with a primary care physician who may refer to a mental health clinician.
Physicians or clinicians can offer additional tools and strategies not listed here.
Overall Reminder:
Anxiety is common and manageable.
You and your children are not alone in navigating this; support is available to help all children thrive.
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