Anxious Child: Helping Your Child To Manage Anxiety & Fears
2008 April 21 by: Scott
Is your child afraid or anxious?
Parenting children who are anxious often makes the parent anxious too. Parents can help their anxious child develop the skills and confidence to overcome fears so that they don’t evolve into phobic reactions. The following techniques may be used by parents to assist the child in coping with his or her anxious behavior.
Symptoms of anxiousness include:
- constant thoughts and intense fears about the safety
- fears about school and other places
- frequent stomachaches and other physical complaints
- extreme worries about everyday tasks
- being overly cautious
- panic or tantrums
- sweating, fidgety, unable to physically relax
- trouble sleeping or nightmares
- fears of meeting or talking to people
- avoidance of social situations
- few friends outside the family
- many worries about things before they happen
- constant worries or concerns about family, school, friends, or activities
- repetitive, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or actions (compulsions)
- fears of embarrassment or making mistakes
- low self esteem and lack of self-confidence
Fear is Real
As trivial as a fear may seem, it feels real to the child and it is causing him or her to feel anxious and afraid. “Being able to talk about fears can help,” Dr. Manassis says:
“Words often take some of the power out of emotion; if you can give the fear a name it becomes more manageable. As with any negative feeling, the more you talk about it, the more it becomes less powerful.”
Im a single parent and my daughter is 5….i seperated from her dad when she was 2 and things havent been at all good with us. She still has contact with him through his mother. Lately she has become very withdrawn, not wanting to play out with her friends, visit relatives or anything social. She gets very upset and complains of tummy pains. Im extremely worried and I havent a clue what i can do about it. Shes in the middle of her school holidays at the moment and she seemed fine when she was in school interacting with lots of children and learning new things, Im wondering could this be the problem, could she maybe need to join a club or something. Please help, Im at my wits end
Amy.
my daughter is 13. She is always nervous.she has panic attacks in the beginning of the school year that she wont be able to keep up with the work. she is a nervous wreck. she also cannot tolerate noise well. she feels my 10 year old son breathes too loud and she cant be in the same room as him. When people whisper she sticks her fingers in her ears to block out the noise. Do you have any suggestions as to what I can do with her to relax her?
These two parents received help from “Ask A Counselor” listed under Online Parent Counselor in the feature box at the top of this Website. You can too!