Anxious feelings, worries, or fears are common among children
and adolescents. Many children experience a normal amount of apprehension in
certain situations, whether it's an upcoming test at school or a thunderstorm.
Some children, however, experience these types of situations
with an overwhelming sense of fear and dread. Others can't seem to stop thinking
about these situations and their accompanying fears. No amount of reassurance
seems to help. These children may tend to get "stuck" on their worried thoughts
and have a hard time doing normal daily functions like going to school, playing,
falling asleep, or trying new things. This is what separates normal, fluctuating
worries of childhood from an anxiety disorder that requires professional
intervention.
All anxiety-related problems share four common features:
- The anxiety is often an inexplicable fear or preoccupation that
interferes with the child's or adolescent's ability to enjoy life or to
complete daily routines or to do the things they are expected to do
- The anxiety is often as puzzling to the child as it is to his or her
parents
- The anxiety does not respond to or diminish after logical explanations,
since anxiety symptoms often defy logic
- The anxiety problem can be helped
What are anxiety disorders?
There are many different types of anxiety disorders,
including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, separation anxiety,
obsessive-compulsive symptoms, phobias, and panic. All of these disorders cause
significant distress and a reduced level of functioning and competency for
children and adolescents. Some common symptoms of anxiety include:
- Feeling nervous or "on edge"
- Unfounded or unrealistic fears
- Trouble separating from parents
- Sleep disturbance
- Obsessive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors
- Trembling, sweating, shortness of breath, and other physical symptoms
associated with anxious feelings
Often, the child or adolescent feels these symptoms are beyond
his/her control, which only adds to their concerns.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
Generalized anxiety disorder is an excessive worry and/or
apprehension about a number of events or activities. These feelings occur almost
all the time and are not triggered by any one specific thing. Rather, the worry
seems to float from one topic to the next. Some examples include: fear of
failure or poor performance, worries about what others will think of them, and
apprehension about new situations or meeting new people.
Phobias are highly specific and exclusive fears. The child
or adolescent functions normally until confronted by the dreaded object, event,
or situation. Some examples include fears of bugs, fears of heights, or fear of
flying in an airplane.