Helping children with anxiety

What is the best therapy for kids with anxiety? What to say to a child with anxiety? How to spot and treat anxiety in children? Are You Feeding your child food to help anxiety?

There are multiple ways you can help kids handle anxiety by letting them see how you cope with anxiety yourself.

When childhood anxiety is heightene it’s natural for parents to go into protection mode. Instea if a child faces his or her fears, the child will learn that the anxiety reduces naturally on its own over time. How can you help your child with anxiety ? Anxiety is an adaptive emotion. But anxiety becomes a problem when our body alarm is triggered too often, responds to harmless everyday situations or when the response is so intense that it affects how we function. Deep breathing can help reverse the nervous system response.

Your child wants to know that you get it. Don’t Dismiss His or Her Feelings Telling your child not to worry about her fears may only make her feel like she’s doing something wrong by feeling anxious.

Encourage your child to notice what makes them anxious. Talking it through can help but your child could also try keeping a diary or a ‘worry book’. Small children will enjoy decorating the box too.

What To Do When You Worry Too Much by Dawn Huebner, PhD This book goes through several ways that can help kids manage anxiety , including setting a time for worries , thinking about things that make you happy and resetting your body with activity or relaxation. There are some interactive places in this book, where a child can write down their worries , draw some images of things that might help , etc. Reassure them and show them you understand how they feel. If your child is old enough, it may help to explain what anxiety is and the physical effects it has on our bodies.

It may be helpful to describe anxiety as being like a wave that builds up and then ebbs away again. Online Therapy with a Licensed Counselor. Available Anytime, Anywhere You Need It. The Time is Now to Put Yourself First. The goal of treatment for anxiety is to help children learn to manage their emotional responses to their triggers.

Avoiding triggers won’t help kids learn to cope, and not all triggers can be avoided. In fact, though avoidance might help children feel better in the short-term, it can amplify the fears over time. I suffer from anxiety myself, and I have suspicions that one of my kids does too.

Many students I spoke with for this story feel misunderstood by the adults around them.

Their anxiety makes it difficult for them to complete assignments or be proactive, and that can look like procrastination. The PACE method stands for Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy. These four reactions or methods of interaction help to release some of the anxiety associated with a situation by letting the child know that you are calm, relaxe and able to understand and help them.

A kiss on the palm and a palm to the heart can remind kids that families love them even when they are apart! We are an unstoppable team. Sometimes really basic relaxation exercises are necessary to help your child to reduce their stress and anxiety.

Here are things you can do at home to help your child manage his or her anxiety disorder: Pay attention to your child’s feelings. Stay calm when your child becomes anxious about a situation or event. Recognize and praise small accomplishments. Hey Warrior’ is the book I’ve written for children to help them understand anxiety and to find their ‘brave’. It explains why anxiety feels the way it does, and it will teach them how they can ‘be the boss of their brains’ during anxiety , to feel calm.

For other accommodations for kids who struggle with anxiety , check out this list from Worry Wise Kids. The good news about anxiety is that it is one of the most manageable mental-health struggles that children face in the classroom. An Award-winning Program.