4 Ways to help children with anxiety

[Michie]

Children are experiencing higher and higher levels of anxiety. Here's how parents can help.

When I was in my late teenage years, I experienced a bout of depression I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It was, for the most part, a medical issue caused by chemical imbalances in my brain. Nothing particularly bad or traumatic had happened to me, which made the experience all the more frustrating. It had no cause I could identify.

I will say, though, that I’ve always been melancholic, which leaves me prone to anxiety about my mortality. I think ahead to the idea of death and worry about the nature of existence. By the age of 35, I’d already had a mid-life crisis. Even as a teenager, I was already angst-ridden and in the grip of anxiety. By anxiety, I don’t mean I was fretful about anything in particular. It was more a state of dissatisfaction, a general unease that led to me questioning what my life was for and where it was heading. Meanwhile, most of my friends were blissfully partying, playing sports, and chasing girls. It seemed like I was the only one dealing with anxiety.

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4 Ways to help children with anxiety

 

[Larniavc]

Children are experiencing higher and higher levels of anxiety. Here's how parents can help.

When I was in my late teenage years, I experienced a bout of depression I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It was, for the most part, a medical issue caused by chemical imbalances in my brain. Nothing particularly bad or traumatic had happened to me, which made the experience all the more frustrating. It had no cause I could identify.

I will say, though, that I’ve always been melancholic, which leaves me prone to anxiety about my mortality. I think ahead to the idea of death and worry about the nature of existence. By the age of 35, I’d already had a mid-life crisis. Even as a teenager, I was already angst-ridden and in the grip of anxiety. By anxiety, I don’t mean I was fretful about anything in particular. It was more a state of dissatisfaction, a general unease that led to me questioning what my life was for and where it was heading. Meanwhile, most of my friends were blissfully partying, playing sports, and chasing girls. It seemed like I was the only one dealing with anxiety.

Continued below.
4 Ways to help children with anxiety

One to three are accurate.

Four is flawed. ANY way to foster hope will do the trick.

BTW: you may like to attribute your post to the author of the article. It looks as if you are describing yourself.

 

[keith99]

Talk about bad timing. One thing it reccomends is limiting social media! Not a good idea for a child or adult who is cut off from most other contact with the outside world.

One to three are accurate for some cases. But they all boil down to correcting one possible problem, parents that are pushing for success.

I'd replace those all with suggesting parents just listen. Then find the areas of academics the kid actually likes and help them explore that for its own sake. The same for sports. Same for other activities, physical and mental.

Oh and something from my youth. Measuring achievement against yourself, not against others. In sports breaking your best time, not how you place. No matter how good I was at sports there was always someone better. Same academically, though that is harder to measure.

And most important of all is how the parents act when there is a failure. Admitting it, if appropriate making a plan to do better next time. Definately NOT ignoring it. And even more NOT removing love because of it. And perhaps realizing that the kid is probably more dissapointed than you are.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

SHIFT FROM ACHIEVEMENT TO CHARACTER

Wow! our entire culture needs to make hat shift.

 

[LukeChester]

I hear quite often that children are anxious because they spend a lot of time on the web. But I always ask the same question - why they do it? Just because it is a trend? Or everything around is digitized? I suppose that the main reason hides in the lack of communication. With parents, friends, with just interesting people. But the fact is that parents spend a lot of time on the web too usually. So we can show our own good example - show all the benefits of real communication for our children.