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Childhood Anxiety
Hello. I’m Dr Brun. If you haven’t met me before, I’m one of the Drs at Elmham surgery. I’d like to talk to you briefly about childhood anxiety.
This is an increasingly common problem for many young people, particularly since the covid pandemic.
Understanding anxiety is very important, because it can have a significant impact on a child’s daily life, including their school life, interactions with friends and family and overall well being.
So what is childhood anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal emotion which we all feel from time to time. It becomes a mental health problem when it’s persistent and affects someone on a regular basis. The symptoms can vary person to person, but generally anxiety affects our behaviour, feelings, thoughts and bodies. For example; some children may feeling nervous, worried, fearful, on edge or panicky. For other they may think about bad things happening or imagine the worst. Perhaps about school, friendships or family situations. Others may experience physical symptoms such as stomach aches, nausea, dizziness, headaches and sleep disturbance. And for some children it may affect their behaviour and they may talk quickly, pace around and avoid doing things.
There are different types of anxiety which children and young people can experience. The common ones are;
- GAD – excessive worry about various aspects of life
- Social anxiety disorder – fear of social situations, perhaps being judged by others.
- Separation anxiety disorder – fear of being away from parents
- Phobias – e.g. fear of heights, spiders, the dark.
There are other types of anxiety related problems, such as OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) which there are resources I can sign post you to at the end of this article.
So why do we have these feelings? Well, as I said anxiety is a normal emotion that was originally there to protect us from harm. We sometimes call this the ‘flight, fright or fight response’ or ‘the alarm system’, which kicks in when something threatens us. Imagine how you’d feel walking down a back alley in the dark alone and hear footsteps behind you– that reaction you feel, that makes you suddenly run fast, may be helpful in those rare circumstances, but not all day everyday. It’s important to remember that the uncomfortable feelings and sensations we get when we feel anxious are not life threatening and can be managed.
Anxiety can happen because of our genetics – we are more likely to be anxious if our parents are, also environmental and psychological triggers, or life events, such as moving house, family breakdown, illness or death in the family.
One of the ways of helping anxiety is to try and work out when we feel anxious and why we may feel anxious in certain situations. Anxiety can go on and on and can worsen throughout life if not addressed. The feelings can quickly cause physical sensations which makes us think something must be wrong with us. This can worsen the fear and worry and so everything worsens. This is called the anxiety cycle.
There are lots of ways of helping children struggling with anxiety.
Open communication is important. Encourage your child to express their feelings. Listen to them without judging will help them feel safe and understood.
Many children and young people find their anxiety settles a little with a predictable daily routine and structure. This can make them feel more secure and reduce anxiety. Many anxieties we can’t control or prevent so it can be really helpful for children to have a list of activities that they know help to gently distract them and relax when anxious. These may be things like exercise, colouring, listening to music, playing with pets, cooking, being outside in nature, watching tv. Older children may benefit from using an app such as CALM or Headspace.
Interestingly too much sugar and caffeine (energy drinks, coke etc) can worsen anxiety symptoms so if your child struggles with anxiety, try to limit these in their diet. We all also know the negative impact social media and excessive screen usage can have on young minds too, so it’s important to keep an eye on screen time.
You may have heard of mindfulness and relaxation techniques. These are very simple but powerful practices that children can learn to help calm their minds as well as their bodies.
For some children gradually exposing them to their specific fear in a supportive way can help. For example, a child who is scared of the dark may be helped by sitting with them in the dark for short periods to start with, allowing them to talk through any fears, perhaps practising some relaxation techniques. They may then be able to sit for slightly longer periods and eventually alone, realising that no actual harm is coming to them.
Some children may have more complex or severe anxiety that has a profound effect on their daily lives. For these children, especially if it interferes with school, they may need some professional help to reduce the effect anxiety has on them. We would like to encourage you to self refer to Just One Norfolk, who have a range of different options for helping children with common mental health difficulties including anxiety. This includes talking therapy if needed. There are also a lot of really helpful websites with more information through CAMHS resources.
Some parents ask us about prescribing medication to help children with anxiety but this is not usually needed and certainly not something that is ever started or used by GPs.
We know anxiety is a common problem that can have a real impact on a childs day to day life. Thankfully the various strategies I’ve briefly mentioned do help a lot of young people and for those who need it, some talking therapy can really help too. We’ve put the contact details for both Just One Norfolk and CAMHS and links to the resources and the apps I mentioned below, which I’d encourage you to have a look at.
Good bye.