Although anxiety is an emotion experienced by most individuals, it can be quite debilitating for children and adolescents. They will come up with strategies to try and avoid the situations that trigger anxiety which will assist them in the short term, but only make it harder to manage long term. Parents try so hard to help their children through the experience, however children need to experience anxiety and the ‘fight or flight response’ to learn how to manage uncomfortable feelings and learn how to self-regulate.
Physical symptoms are the body’s way of letting us know we feel uncomfortable and that we need to implement strategies to help ourselves feel better. These strategies will also help us manage any future anxiety. Children need to know they are in control and not rely on others to ‘make it go away’. At Wishing Wellness, we focus on assisting children to read their body, self-monitor their emotions, and learn strategies to help manage uncomfortable feelings such as anxiety, to enable them to cope with these feelings throughout life, and be able to self-regulate. Learning how to manage uncomfortable feelings early in life, gives children and adolescents a chance to feel confident and control of their emotions throughout life. Happy children thrive!
Signs:
• Seeking reassurance
• Avoiding situations
• Asking others to do things for them
• Requiring a parent to be present to help them fall asleep
• Stomach pains or headaches
• Complains about being bullied or teased
• Tantrums without any obvious cause
• Rigidity and perfectionism
• Avoiding taking risks or trying new things
• Phobias / fears
• Clinging to parents
• School refusal
• Lots of questions
• Worried thoughts