Anxiety In Children

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses. The children who deal with anxiety are overcome with fear and worry and are constantly dismissed as acting out for attention. Childhood anxiety disorders affect the child and the people involved in the child’s life, yet there is not enough treatment or awareness in today’s society. There are many different types of anxiety disorders that affect children including; selective mutism, separation anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, generalized anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and specific phobias. Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder that makes the child incapable of talking in certain situations, such as school or social activities, due to
When a child has this disorder they may refuse to go to school, sports teams, etc. that will affect them and should be assessed immediately. Panic disorder is when the child suffers from common anxiety attacks, which involve screaming, inability to breath, dizziness, lightheadedness, crying, shaking, and a racing heart. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is when a child worries over a variety of everyday activities and experiences. Children with generalized anxiety can overthink situations producing their fears and worries and ask many questions. When a child has a need to perform tasks and spend hours doing the tasks or thinking about them, it is possible it is obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Children with OCD sometimes are not aware on how extreme their obsessions and compulsions are unlike adults and they are typically diagnosed with it around age ten. If not treated the intrusive thoughts can affect the child’s life because they give into compulsions which can last hours. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect the child after witnessing a serious traumatic event, such as a parent dying or natural disaster, that causes fear, nervousness, and in some cases
Anxiety can be passed down through genes or can be caused by the environment the child lives in such as abusive parents or foster care and other unfortunate events a child should not have to endure. Anxiety disorders can sometimes be genetic and run in families and may be a cause for anxiety in a child if the child has not endured a traumatic event and has an attentive caring family, basically a good life. If multiple family members suffer from anxiety and so does a child, genetics are a possible explanation for the mental illness. The environment the child lives is a likely cause of anxiety and usually the first thing professionals look at when trying to diagnose the cause for the disorder. When I say environment, I mean the child’s personal life and family and whether or not there is neglect or abuse. It can also mean how controlling or protective the parents or guardians are towards the child because that can affect the child. Post-traumatic stress disorder is the main type of anxiety that can be explained by the environment the child lives in, although, any anxiety can be caused by the environment. In certain cases, there is not a known cause of the anxiety which can make treatment a little more difficult but not untreatable. I had selective mutism when I was a child and in my case there does not seem to be a cause for my anxiety; my life is good, I never had any traumatic event happen to me, and it