Early childhood stages are crucial for a child’s social, cognitive, and personal development. Childhood is also the phase of life where kids learn a lot, which is why it is normal for children to feel anxious. As a matter of fact, anxiety is a quite common typical emotion when it is need.
We will never completely get rid of all anxiety, including children. Sometimes, anxiety helps us be prepare, be ready, and be careful. However, let us talk about what happens when children are having problems with anxiety – while anxiety is a big term, some areas indicate that kids may have issues with anxiety, and they might have something known as childhood social disorder.
Like adults, children may worry and may have loads of things going on in their minds and actually stress about it. They can also display physical reactions that can let parents know that they are feeling anxious, such as sweaty palms, a racing heart, or fast breathing.
Different Types of Childhood Anxiety
There are particular kinds of anxiety; one of the most commonly known anxiety is separation anxiety, where kids are overly worriey about being away from their parent(s) or caregivers. Children with separation anxiety feel like something terrible might occur to them or their parents if they are not together.
Some kids have something like social anxiety, where children worry when they are in a social situation or when they are around a lot of kids. Social anxiety also occurs when children find themselves in a new setting/ situation with friends where they (children) start worrying while thinking they might embarrass themselves by doing something wrong.
As adults, we are familiar with common anxiety. Where we are suppose to give a report and fear that we will make a fool of ourselves. You might be surprise to know that children can also have such feelings.
Children might also become phobic and develop fear about certain things, such as spiders or needles. And when we mention the term “phobia,” it means that. The fear has really gotten in the way of their functioning.
So, as a parent or primary caregiver, you know that anxiety isn’t only about. One thing – what happens is that childhood anxiety can be a problem when it becomes too intense to the extent that the child fails to calm down. Extreme anxiety can also interfere with the other parts of the affected child’s life. For instance, children would refuse to go to school, or they might refuse to fall asleep due to nightmares.
How to Help Your Anxious Child
Talking with your child about what anxiety is and asking them. About their thoughts when they appear anxious can help your child feel at ease, understood, and supported. Remember that the goal is not to get rid of anxiety, as this is impossible – all children are anxious. The objective is to make your child understand that they can manage and tolerate the stress linked with anxiety.
