Anxiety facts for kids
Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state. It can include fear. Very often, people with anxiety also feel worries. There can also be physical symptoms, like having a headache or an upset stomach.
Some people suffer a lot of anxiety over a long period of time which controls them and makes their lives difficult. These conditions are called anxiety disorders and can be treated by therapy and medicine.
General anxiety is a disorder in which the victim is constantly worried or fearful about situations or things that normally wouldn’t bother them or others. When this continual anxious state starts to interfere with their social, family and work life, and prevents them functioning in a normal fashion, they may be said to have a General Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
General anxiety symptoms are things such as; continual tiredness / exhaustion, inability to relax, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, fear of public places, fear of socializing, frequent feelings of irrational anxiety / fear, compulsive behavior, worrying about making mistakes, regular nightmares, disturbed sleep patterns, excessive crying, headaches, stomach problems, diarrhea, nausea, aching muscles, and so on.
Symptoms of anxiety attacks are things like; sweating, shaking and tremors, palpitations, shortness of breath, hyperventilating, racing heart beat, tingling in hands and feet, feeling of impending doom, feeling you are having a heart attack. There are more, but these are the usual ones.
Medicine
These symptoms, more or less, define anxiety but they can also be signs of other problems, so your first port of call has to be your doctor or other health care professional. They will be able to define what your problem is exactly, and propose the appropriate treatment. Since the theme of this article is defining anxiety, we’ll assume that your doctor has diagnosed you with anxiety…
A doctor’s first line treatment is usually through drug-based medication.
Other non-drug therapies are becoming popular such as; self-hypnosis, meditation, yoga, cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, acupuncture, etc. These are therapies to help you ‘manage’ or ‘cope’ with your anxiety and / or anxiety attacks.
But what about the underlying cause(s) of anxiety? The two treatment types above focus on either reducing the symptoms of anxiety, or, helping you cope with your disorder. They don’t seem to do anything about the underlying condition(s) that are causing your anxiety.
And the very ‘fear’ of another anxiety attack can bring one on. As long as this irrational fear exists it’s very difficult to stop attacks and resolve your general anxiety. If you can eliminate this fear, you can prevent further attacks and get rid of your general anxiety much more effectively.
Images for kids
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Painting entitled Anxiety, 1894, by Edvard Munch
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A marble bust of the Roman Emperor Decius from the Capitoline Museum. This portrait "conveys an impression of anxiety and weariness, as of a man shouldering heavy [state] responsibilities".
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See also
In Spanish: Ansiedad para niños
