Anxiety is undoubtedly on the rise, not just for adults but for children. There’s little doubt that the pandemic has given kids a sense of unease and worry about the future. In order to discuss advice and techniques with their pediatrician to help your child more effectively deal with the problems they’re facing, it’s crucial to recognize the warning indications that your child may be experiencing anxiety.
What Symptoms and Signs Are Present?
These gestures or motions may be shown by anxious kids
- Avoidance
- Anger and violence
- Irritability
- Mood changes
- Nightmares
- Headaches
- Unexplained bodily signs such as stomach aches
- Biting one’s nails and other “nervous behaviors“
- Bed wetting Changes in appetite
- Insomnia
- Separation from society and isolation
- Problems with concentration or attention
What Can I Do to Help My Child?
In order to help your child, manage these feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, it’s critical to identify the sort of anxiety they are experiencing. You may start forming certain routines right away to assist your child deal with the effects of worry.
- When your child is anxious or panicked, resist the urge to try to reason with them.
- Encourage them to breathe deeply from their stomachs to balance their sympathetic nervous system.
- Never reject a child’s anxieties or encourage them to “buck up”; instead, validate them and pay attention to them.
- Instead of avoiding the fear, which frequently makes it worse, assist your child in overcoming it by taking tiny steps (discuss the best ways to do this with your child’s pediatrician).
How Are Childhood Anxiety Disorders Treated?
Most of the time, your best child specialist near me places will recommend a child psychotherapist. The therapist can get to know your child and establish whether they have an anxiety problem during the initial consultation, sometimes known as the intake session. The best form of treatment for children who are having trouble expressing their anxieties and finding healthy coping mechanisms is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Sometimes doctors will prescribe drugs together with treatment and lifestyle modifications.
Worried that your child might have an anxiety disorder? If so, this is the ideal time to speak with the best pediatrician near me to find out if they could benefit from additional diagnostic testing or talking to a mental health professional who works with children.