All children have fears. Some fear strangers, others fear insects, and there are some who can’t stand dark rooms.
As a father, it’s always painful to watch a child suffer from anxiety. It’s normal for kids to be anxious from time to time, but there are times your child’s worries are a cause for concern. You need to watch him closely and do something about it too.
The difference between normal worry and an anxiety disorder is severity. Although feeling anxious is a natural reaction to a stressful or dangerous situation, a child may need help if his anxiety is out of proportion, if it persists, or if it interferes with his life and healthy development.
Children who have severe anxiety will try to avoid things that trigger it. If a child refuses to participate in activities other children enjoy, if he or she throws a tantrum before going to the hospital, if he or she gets sick on Sunday nights so as to avoid going to school on Monday, serious anxiety may be the culprit.
A child with separation anxiety might have an extremely difficult time saying goodbye to her parents, being alone at home, or going to sleep in a darkened room, because he or she is terrified that something bad might happen. Such children might avoid play dates and birthday parties that thrill other children.
If a child seems to worry too much about ordinary, everyday things, he might have something called generalized anxiety disorder. This kind of anxiety is often focused on performance in school. Such children worry incessantly about their ability to meet expectations. The stress they experience can lead to physical symptoms, including fatigue, stomachaches, and headaches.
There are also specific phobias. If a child isn’t anxious in general, but is excessively fearful of a particular object or situation, he may have a specific phobia. This crippling fear will manifest when he’s confronted by the thing such as dogs, clowns, loud noises, water and insects.
Children with specific phobias will anticipate and avoid things that trigger their fear, which can severely limit their activities. They may cry or throw tantrums to avoid the object of their distress, or experience physical symptoms like trembling, dizziness, and sweating.
Most children are occasionally shy or self-conscious, but when a child, usually a teenager, is excessively worried about doing something embarrassing, or being judged negatively, he or she may have social anxiety disorder. Fear of doing something that may cause humiliation may prompt a child to avoid school or other social situations. They will even cry or throw tantrums when pressured to go.
The first step in seeking help for a child is an evaluation. The doctor you need to see should have diagnostic expertise and should explain the sources of information they are going to use to help your child. It’s a good idea to keep track of the behaviours that worry you and when they occur, to help identify possible triggers.