Child Anxiety



Causes of Child Anxiety

Child anxiety is usually caused by multiple factors.



Some of those factors are: genetic predisposition, traumatic event, insufficient parental care, child abuse (physical, emotional and sexual), use or abuse of substances such as alcohol or drugs, maladaptive skills, insecurity, low self-esteem, certain temperament traits, etc.

The general exact cause of anxiety in children is not known. However there are many cases of anxiety in a child where the cause is revealed, explored and worked on in psychotherapy. Sometimes causes of anxiety in child are difficult to recognize however this does not mean that they do not exist.

Knowing what caused child anxiety in a certain child is a crucial part of successful treatment. Many health care professionals, especially psychotherapists believe that finding what had caused anxiety in child is a pivot point of his or her treatment.

Signs of Child Anxiety

  • Aggressive behavior
  • Excessive crying
  • Insomnia
  • Irritability
  • Refusing to separate from parent or guardian
  • Panic attack
  • Compulsive eating
  • Blushing
  • Skin picking
  • Hear pulling
  • Rocking
  • Ticks
  • Object swallowing
  • Hyperactivity
  • Muscle twitching
  • Unexplained abdominal pain
  • Social phobia
  • Specific phobia
  • Eating disorder
  • Frequent accidental self injuries
  • Vomiting
  • Sweating a lot
  • Dramatic mood swings

    There are many other signs of anxiety in children and parents should be familiar with all of them in order to be able to recognize anxiety disorder in their child. However parents should also know that only a health care professional can properly diagnose their child. This means that parents can suspect their child to suffer from anxiety but they cannot know it for sure without consulting with the child’s physician or psychologist.

    Symptoms of Anxiety in Child

  • Repetitive and obsessive thoughts
  • Fear from a certain object or situation
  • Muscle tension
  • Headache
  • Intrusive thoughts
  • Feeling agitated
  • Sore muscles
  • Tendency to predict the worst

    Child Anxiety Treatment

    Anxiety in children is treated in psychotherapy alone or, in severe cases, together with certain anxiety medication and antidepressants.

    Parents should know that psychotherapy for a child includes psychotherapy for parents as well. This is because parents have great influence on child and its wellbeing and they are inseparable from child needs. This however doesn’t mean that parents cause anxiety in their child but it does mean that they can help their child get better.

    Parents should be very careful when considering giving medication for anxiety to their child. Before making this very important decision, they need to educate themselves about the effects, side effects and contraindications of that certain medication.

    Prognosis for Anxiety in Children

    Prognosis for child anxiety is very optimistic when child is appropriately treated for its disorder. This means that he or she should be in psychotherapy and that his or her parents should take part in family therapy. This is because when child is treated for certain mental condition all family members that child lives with should be part of his or her treatment.

    On the other side children that are not treated or mistreated for their anxiety disorder are very likely to develop even more severe type of mental disorder. Frequent example of child mistreatment is medicating a child with antidepressants or anxiety medication without psychotherapy.

    Many children are literally drugged with numerous medications just for being children; meaning that children are medicated for their hyperactivity, lack of patience, or their attention deficit all of which are a normal part of childhood.

    If you have a child that has great deal of energy, lack of patience and is unable to keep his or her attention as an adult you may very well have a healthy child with great potential. Of course hyperactivity, lack of patience and attention deficit can be signs of certain hardships your child goes through or even mental disorder.

    This is why if you suspect your child to suffer from anxiety disorder you should take your child to psychologist for proper testing and diagnoses.

    You should consider the use of medication for your child only when you are certain of the correctness of his or her diagnoses and necessity of its use. Finally it should be emphasized that psychotherapy is the place where the real healing process takes place. In other words, medication is not a cure for child anxiety, psychotherapy is.




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