Two Common Anxiety Disorders in Children and How to Treat Them

Try to remember a day when you felt particularly apprehensive and anxious. Perhaps it was day one of your new job or a time when you had to go for medical tests.

In those situations, it is totally normal to experience some feelings of worry and concern. But imagine feeling like that every day. Imagine how different your life would look. Many children are living in a perpetual state of anxiety that affects them on a daily basis.

When a child in the family is experiencing symptoms of anxiety it can be hard on everyone. For the child, it is even tougher when someone close to them like a parent or close friend doesn’t comprehend what is really going on with them and is clueless as to how to help.

Teachers often underestimate the wide-ranging effects of anxiety disorders in children, both on the student and those around them. They may see the symptoms and think that the anxiety is something else. Teachers might just think the child is lazy or unnecessarily preoccupied. Many teachers do not really know how to recognize the symptoms of anxiety as it manifests in children.

Do you want to know how you can understand and help meet your child’s needs when they encounter situations that trigger their anxiety? In this article, we will address some of the key ways in which you can help your child deal with 10 key elements of anxiety.

We will explore the following symptoms in more detail throughout the article:

• Being misunderstood
• Lack of communication in social settings
• Loss of social experience
• Increased risk of developing other anxiety disorders or depression
• Inability to focus and concentrate
• Experiencing physical symptoms such as stomachaches and headaches
• Decline in education (school)
• Experiencing panic attacks
• Having nightmares and lacking sleep
• Extreme worry about themselves, their parents, or family members

What is the biggest difference between anxiety and anxiety disorders in children? Are any anxiety disorders unique to children? It is important to note that an anxiety disorder is much more than a few floating worries.

Two Common Anxiety Disorders in Children

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) defines anxiety disorders as being distinct from normal fear or anxiety — someone with an anxiety disorder will experience uncontrolled and excessive anxiety over a range of things — big and small.

Children suffering from anxiety disorders might become convinced that certain, everyday situations are dangerous and life-threatening; so, they may seek to avoid them completely.

Disorders such as separation anxiety and selective mutism usually start during the childhood years and continue to affect the individual throughout their adult years if left untreated. Panic attacks can occur in response to those anxiety-inducing situations that affect people who suffer from anxiety disorders.

Separation anxiety can make the child anxious about being separated from their attachment figure (likely a parent or caregiver) in a way that becomes inappropriate for their particular age.

Children suffering from separation anxiety disorder may experience horrible nightmares, or find that they are extremely concerned that something bad will happen to their attachment figure. They may become resistant to being away from their parents and if they must be apart from, they may show signs of severe physical and emotional distress.

Separation anxiety disorder can be defined as experiencing excessive worry over unlikely events that they believe have the potential to separate them from their attachment figure. They may fear traumatic and highly uncommon events such as kidnapping, being in an accident, getting lost, or getting sick.

The child may also want to avoid leaving the home to attend schooland may be unwilling to sleep away from home. Additional symptoms like headaches and stomach aches are common when the child is separated from their attachment figure.

Maybe you have noticed a clear shift in your child’s engagement with school, or that they have a difficult time making friends and keeping them.  If so, they may be suffering from anxiety. Separation anxiety is the most common anxiety disorder affecting children.

Estimates suggest that roughly 75% of children who have been formally diagnosed with separation anxiety disorder experience problems in school attendance due to their refusal to leave their home.

Even children who do go to school might still struggle since they cannot focus on their work due to a relentless dwelling on their own anxieties and as they worry about those they have left at home.

Children with separation anxiety may also be sleep-deprived as a result of experiencing nightmares, but they may also be experiencing physical symptoms of their anxiety that are keeping them awake, compounding their physical and emotional distress.

Bedtime may also be a challenge to parents. The child might find it difficult to go to sleep in their own bed due to fear of separation from their caregiver.

Other students and teachers may not understand the reason behind the child being overtired, and may simply label them as irresponsible and void of a good work ethic. This can cause confusion and frustration for the child who is suffering from anxiety, as they feel misunderstood and unfairly criticized.

As a parent, it can be incredibly difficult to know how to respond well to your child if they are suffering from anxiety. Many parents go to the extreme one way or another. For example, it can be easy for a parent to immediately withdraw their child from a situation that is making them anxious without dealing with the root cause of the issue.

Alternatively, some parents may see it as an opportunity to “train” their child by leaving them in situations that cause them anxiety – again, this is rarely helpful to the child and is likely to cause more emotional turmoil.

Separation anxiety can result in a very close child-parent bond that can sometimes affect the dynamic of a family in an unhealthy way. For example, if you are paying much more attention to your anxious child than the rest of your family, this can lead to relational issues in the family unit.

Separation anxiety can cause the child to experience relational difficulties in later life and can make it more difficult for them to be involved in stable relationships.

Children with separation anxiety disorder may also find themselves at a higher risk of developing other types of anxiety disorders along with depression as they grow into adulthood.

Children who suffer fromseparation anxiety may find social situations difficult. They may struggle to engage in conversation with people they don’t really know, or might only feel as if they can talk freely with immediate family and friends.

Selective mutism is rather uncommon, but it tends to manifest up in children before they reach the age of 5 and is not always recognized until the child goes to school. Commonly, children outgrow selective mutism, but it is still important to recognize some of its signs, symptoms, and effects.

Selective mutism may cause a child to feel as if they are unable to speak when it is appropriate, such as in school or church. These disturbances in speech are likely to last more than a month.

Children with selective mutism will frequently talk openly with members of their own family, but will refuse to speak in other settings; they may not even be able to speak to other family members outside of the home. Children suffering from this condition will also likely not talk to their friends.

Though they do not usually have diagnosable speech or language disorders, they will often be overcome with anxiety when placed in a situation where they must speak to someone outside of their immediate circle. This typically stems from high degrees of socially driven anxiety.

Selective mutism can lead to difficulties in a child’s educational progress, especially so when the teacher cannot interact with them regarding their work or when the child cannot voice their specific needs.

Children may also suffer socially. Although those suffering from selective mutism often discover modes of nonverbal communication, like pointing, they may still experience peer harassment because of their lack of speech, which may only increase their levels of social anxiety.

Parents who have children suffering from selective mutism are likely to be overly protective or controlling where their children areconcernedsince they feel a greater need to shield them from their peers and those who might cause them to feel more anxiety.

As a child, the first symptoms of an anxiety disorder can be incredibly frightening, and indeed, younger children might not even be able to understand what they are experiencing, simply believing that they are suffering from a serious physical problem.

As children progress into adolescence and begin to become more independent, they tend to become more aware of their anxiety disorder as it starts to affect their livesin greaterways. This may spark a drive within the child to engage in treatment so that they can live in greater freedom during these exciting years of their life.

All of the worry and stress related to such conditions as separation anxiety and selective mutism can be hard on the adults in the sufferer’s life. However, it is important to remember that this condition affects the child more than anyone. They are trying to navigate these terrifying symptoms while dealing with all of the regular pressures and expectations that our kids face today.

If you are wondering whether your own child may be having educational or social difficulties due to anxiety, then know that there is hope and there is help. Indeed, it is important to remember that these disorders can be successfully handled.

Children and their families may wish to participate in joint therapy to help them develop some key understanding of how to manage the anxiety as a family. Children can be given the help they need to cope with and even alter their thought patterns to help reduce their anxiety levels.

You may be in a place where you are unsure whether or not anxiety is the root cause of some of the difficulty your child has been experiencing. If this is your situation, scheduling an appointment with a counselor could be a fantastic first step to a greater level of healing for your child and your family.

Developing your understanding of your child’s anxiety can be a powerful step on the journey toward greater wholeness and freedom.