Anxiety and Children

Anxiety in children is not uncommon, in fact the number of children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder has risen dramatically in recent years. This could be due to the stress put on children by the pressures of modern western society or could be due to the current fad of labeling everything; ten years ago feeking shy, awkward, and edgy was just part of being a teenager, now it has to be “social anxiety disorder“.

Much childhood anxiety is actually separation anxiety. It seems that it is removal from the comfortable familiarity of younger years is the most painful time. The changing relationship between children and parents is often a major cause of stress and therefore anxiety and depression. In the 24/7 modern western world family relationships seem to have all but gone out of the window, this may be one reason why the natural trials of life are appearing as anxiety in children.

In most cases I would argue against labeling children as having “Social anxiety” or “generalized anxiety disorder” (GAD). Instead it may be better to look at it as children experiencing
anxiety attacks, which then pass as all anxiety does. Rather than being overly concerned and exacerbating the problem with medical/psychiatric labels it should just be a time to make children feel more secure and more loved, anything else, particularly anything with the idea of toughening a child up by being harsh, is likely to be counter productive.

Anxiety in children can be helped with the same treatment as adult anxiety (CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy), but in recent years it has become apparent that SSRIs such as Prozac and Paxil should not be prescribed to children due to an increased risk of suicide. Anxiety in children passes with time and love. Drugs not normally necessary.