How to Relieve Anxiety in Children

by Angela Zaffer, MA, NCC, LPCC   August 8, 2016

With children going back to school after the summer break, stress associated with homework, taking a test and or social relationships, maybe something some parents are thinking about.  This article should help guide parents on how to help their child cope with these overwhelming feelings.

What is Anxiety?  Anxiety  is a thought that causes someone to worry or feel nervous or upset. Stressed out is a word people often use to describe anxiety.  Everyone feels anxious from time to time.  It’s a normal emotion. Many people feel nervous when faced with a problem at school or work, before taking a test or going to the doctor.  But for children with anxiety,  worry and fear are constant and can be overwhelming.  For some it can be disabling and lead to feelings of panic. But with simple interventions, children can learn to manage these feelings.

One in eight children has an anxiety disorder. Parents whose children show symptoms of anxiety want to help but don’t always know what to do or where to turn. This guide can help you make sense of the available treatment options and includes some easy tips you can start using right away.

Recommended Treatments for Children With Anxiety

 Recommended forms of Treatment

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most recommended treatment technique for anxiety in children.
• Acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT, uses strategies of acceptance and mindfulness (living in the moment and experiencing things without judgment) as a way to cope with unwanted thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
• Dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT, emphasizes taking responsibility for one’s problems and helps children examine how they deal with conflict and intense negative emotions.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

• Cognitive therapy examines how negative thoughts, or  Cognitions, contribute to anxiety.
• Behavior therapy examines how you behave and react in situations that trigger anxiety.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that can be used with children to teach interventions to identify and replace  negative thoughts. In cognitive behavioral therapy, children can learn different ways to calm themselves and learn to worry less.  CBT is effective in children as young as 6.  Most children need between 5 and 20 therapy sessions. Depending on the age of the child, a session typically last about 30 to 55 minutes

According to some studies, CBT is as effective as medication in treating anxiety. Unlike medication, CBT has no physical side effects. CBT does require practicing the interventions taught in each session.   Most counselors will teach the parent the interventions as well.  A parent can be quickly oriented in the last five or ten minutes of each session on what the child worked on learning in the session. Also, having the child teach the parent the interventions is also a good way for the child to remember the interventions taught.

Some Typical CBT Interventions include:

• What is Anxiety
• How  Anxiety gets started
• Physical Symptoms
• Breathing techniques
• Relaxation techniques
• Using logic to fight worry thoughts
• Thought stopping
• Redirecting thoughts-Distraction

Interventions to Use at Home

•  Help the child to recognize the physical symptoms of anxiety. A few physical symptoms of anxiety are—upset stomach, racing heart, out of breath, crying, sweaty hands, headache. Sometimes children with anxiety visit the school nurse for these symptoms. Teach your child to  use coping strategies, such as deep breathing when these symptoms occur.
• Listen and Validate  Let your child know you hear their worries and are empathetic to what that the child is feeling.  Let the child know they can share their worries for one time a day for fifteen minutes.  The late afternoon or early evening is usually in the best time.  After they have shared the worries, the child needs to know you will not discuss their worries again until the next day.  This helps the brain learn to re-wire itself from a worry brain to a non-worry brain.  The brain has to be trained to worry less.
• Worry Box:  Create a worry container  The child can write down the worries on a piece of paper and put them in a box or other container.  If they are worrying at school, a worry folder made to hold these  worry notes works really well. The child can also write positive notes and coping skills  on the front outside of the worry folder.
• Breathing Techniques:  Deep breathing can help decrease the stress response in the body.  Take a deep breathe with your child and breath the air out slowly.  Pretend you are breathing out through a straw.  You can also have the child blow the air out slowly on their hand.
• Excercise:  Go for a walk together.  Your child can use this time to discuss what they are worrying about during the walk.  Also, excercise is a great way to get ride of the stress chemicals that build up in the body.
• Modeling ways to cope with stress:  A child who sees his parents take some deep breaths to calm down may learn to do the same.
• Should Medication be Used?
• The  medications that are commonly used to treat anxiety in children are antidepressants. However, because all medications have side effects, medication is rarely prescribed as a first treatment for anxiety. Medication is most often used when other interventions have not been successful, or as a complement to therapy.Depending on your child’s level of anxiety,  professional counseling may be needed to find the treatment and coping strategies that work best for your child and your family.

Medications

Your doctor or counselor may recommend one or a combination of treatments.

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and Serotonin Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs):  These are commonly known as second generation antidepressants.

Another antidepressant that is commonly used is bupropion. Bupropion ,or Wellbutrin, is a third type of antidepressant which works differently than either SSRIs or SNRIs. Bupropion affects the dopamine neurotransmitters whereas SSRIs affect serotonin nerotransmitters.

SSRIs, SNRIs, and Bupropion are popular because they do not cause as many side effects as older classes of antidepressants, and seem to help a broader group of depressive and anxiety disorders. These medications are thought to work by targeting chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. These chemicals affect mood and emotion. Experts have traditionally thought that they restore a chemical imbalance.   But new research suggests that stress may actually destroy the connections between nerve cells — and even the cells themselves. They believe that antidepressants work by restoring these nerve pathways.  These medications take 4 to 6 weeks to reach their full effectiveness. Anyone taking an antidepressant should be closely monitored, especially children, in the first few weeks.

Medication may allow your child to participate in activities he or she would otherwise avoid. Medication can help get symptoms under control while a child is learning new coping techniques in therapy.  Ask your child’s doctor about the risks and benefits of any suggested medication. Also ask about follow-up appointments and medication monitoring.

Like other medical conditions, anxiety disorders tend to be chronic unless properly treated. Most kids find that they need professional guidance to successfully manage and overcome their anxiety.

Written by Angela Zaffer MA, NCC, LPCC

Angela Zaffer is a nationaly certified (NBCC) and Licensed Professional Clincal Mental Health Counselor in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.  She specializes in treating anxiety disorders in children.  Angela also treats children, teenagers and adults with depression, low self esteem, grief and trauma/PTSD.  She is the CEO and Clinical Director of Counseling Solutions.  Angela can be contacted at:  info@riorancho-counseling.com

Resources:

Counseling Solutions: Counseling and Psychotherapy for Children, Teenagers and Adults

www.Riorancho-counseling.com

http://www.webmd.com

What Happy People Do Differently

By Robert Biswas-Diener, Todd B. Kashdan,

The Real Rewards Of Risk: When anxiety is an optimal state

Truly happy people seem to have an intuitive grasp of the fact that sustained happiness is not just about doing things that you like. It also requires growth and adventuring beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone. Happy people, are, simply put, curious. In a 2007 study found that those who frequently felt curious on a given day also experienced the most satisfaction with their life—and engaged in the highest number of happiness-inducing activities, such as expressing gratitude to a colleague or volunteering to help others.

Curiosity, it seems, is largely about exploration—often at the price of momentary happiness. Curious people generally accept the notion that while being uncomfortable and vulnerable is not an easy path, it is the most direct route to becoming stronger and wiser. In fact, a closer look at the study by Kashdan and Steger suggests that curious people invest in activities that cause them discomfort as a springboard to higher psychological peaks.

Of course, there are plenty of instances in life where the best way to increase your satisfaction is to simply do what you know feels good, whether it’s putting your favorite song on the jukebox or making plans to see your best friend. But from time to time, it’s worth seeking out an experience that is novel, complicated, uncertain, or even upsetting—whether that means finally taking the leap and doing karaoke for the first time or hosting a screening of your college friend’s art-house film. The happiest people opt for both so that they can benefit, at various times, from each.

A Blind Eye To Life’s Vicissitudes:The benefit of seeing the forest but not the trees

A standard criticism of happy people is that they’re not realistic—they sail through life blissfully unaware of the world’s ills and problems. Satisfied people are less likely to be analytical and detail-oriented. A study led by University of New South Wales  found that dispositionally happy people—those who have a general leaning toward the positive—are less skeptical than others. They tend to be uncritically open toward strangers and thus can be particularly gullible to lies and deceit. Think of the happy granny who is overcharged at the car dealership by the smiling salesperson compared with more discerning, slightly less upbeat consumers.

Certainly having an eye for the finer points can be helpful when navigating the complicated social world of colleagues, acquaintances, and dates—and it’s something the less sunny among us bring to bear.  Depressed people are more likely than others to reflect on and process their experiences—and thereby gain insight into themselves or the human condition—albeit at an emotional price.

Yet too much attention to detail can interfere with basic day-to-day functioning, as evidenced by research from Queen’s University psychologist Kate Harkness, who found that people in a depressed mood were more likely to notice minute changes in facial expressions. Meanwhile, happy people tend to overlook such second-to-second alterations—a flash of annoyance, a sarcastic grin. You probably recognize this phenomenon from interactions you’ve had with your partner. While in a bad mood we tend to notice the tiniest shifts and often can’t seem to disengage from a fight (“I saw you roll your eyes at me! Why did you do that!?!”), whereas when we’re in a good mood, we tend to brush off tiny sleights (“You tease me, but I know you love being around me”). The happiest people have a natural emotional protection against getting sucked in by the intense gravitational pull of little details.

Similarly, the happiest people possess a devil-may-care attitude about performance. In a review of the research literature by Oishi and his colleagues, the happiest people—those who scored a 9 or 10 out of 10 on measures of life satisfaction—tended to perform less well than moderately happy people in accomplishments such as grades, class attendance, or work salaries. In short, they were less conscientious about their performance; to them, sacrificing some degree of achievement seems to be a small price to pay for not having to sweat the small stuff.

This is not to say that we should take a laissez-faire attitude to all our responsibilities; paying attention to detail is helpful. But too much focus on minutiae can be exhausting and paralyzing. The happiest among us (cheerfully) accept that striving for perfection—and a perfectly smooth interaction with everyone at all times—is a loser’s bet.

The Unjealous Friend: We’re buoyed by others’ good fortune

The happiest people are the ones who are present when things go right for others—and whose own wins are regularly celebrated by their friends as well.

Support for this idea comes from psychologist Shelly Gable, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her colleagues, whose research revealed that when romantic partners fail to make a big deal out of each other’s success, the couple is more likely to break up. On the flipside, when partners celebrate each other’s accomplishments, they’re more likely to be satisfied and committed to their relationship, enjoying greater love and happiness.

The process of discussing a positive experience with a responsive listener actually changes the memory of the event—so after telling you about it, your friend will remember that night with the model as even more positive than it was, and the encounter will be easier for him to recall a few years down the line when he’s been dumped. But equally important, you’ll get to “piggyback” on your friend’s positivity. Just as we feel happier when we spend money on gifts or charitable contributions rather than on ourselves, we feel happier after spending valuable time listening to the accomplishments of friends.

In life, it seems, there are an abundance of Florence Nightingales waiting to show their heroism. What’s precious and scarce are those people who can truly share in others’ joy and gains without envy. So while it might be kind to send flowers to your friend when she’s in the hospital for surgery, you’ll both derive more satisfaction out of the bouquet you send her when she finishes medical school or gets engaged.

A Time For Every Feeling: The upside of negative emotions

The most psychologically healthy people might inherently grasp the importance of letting some things roll off their backs, yet that doesn’t mean that they deny their own feelings or routinely sweep problems under the rug. Rather, they have an innate understanding that emotions serve as feedback—an internal radar system providing information about what’s happening (and about to happen) in our social world.

Happy, flourishing people don’t hide from negative emotions. They acknowledge that life is full of disappointments and confront them head on, often using feelings of anger effectively to stick up for themselves or those of guilt as motivation to change their own behavior. This nimble mental shifting between pleasure and pain, the ability to modify behavior to match a situation’s demands, is known as psychological flexibility.

For example, instead of letting quietly simmering jealousy over your girlfriend’s new buddy erode your satisfaction with your relationship, accept your feelings as a signal, which allows you to employ other strategies of reacting that are likely to offer greater dividends. These include compassion (recognizing that your girlfriend has unmet needs to be validated) and mindful listening (being curious about what interests her).

The ability to shift mental states as circumstances demand turns out to be a fundamental aspect of well-being. Columbia University psychologist George Bonanno found, for instance, that in the aftermath of 9/11, the most flexible people living in New York City during the attacks—those who were angry at times but could also conceal their emotions when necessary—bounced back more quickly and enjoyed greater psychological and physical health than their less adaptable counterparts.

Opportunities for flexible responding are everywhere: A newlywed who has just learned that she is infertile may hide her sense of hopelessness from her mother but come clean to her best friend; people who have experienced a trauma might express their anger around others who share similar sentiments but conceal it from friends who abide by an attitude of forgiveness. The ability to tolerate the discomfort that comes from switching mind-sets depending on whom we’re with and what we’re doing allows us to get optimal results in every situation.

Similar to training for a triathlon, learning the skill of emotional discomfort is a task best taken on in increasing increments. For example, instead of immediately distracting yourself with an episode of The Walking Dead or pouring yourself a whiskey the next time you have a heated disagreement with your teenage son, try simply tolerating the emotion for a few minutes. Over time, your ability to withstand day-to-day negative emotions will expand.

The Well-Being Balancing Act

Pleasure and purpose work together

Even the most ardent strivers will agree that a life of purpose that is devoid of pleasures is, frankly, no fun. Happy people know that allowing yourself to enjoy easy momentary indulgences that are personally rewarding—taking a long, leisurely bath, vegging out with your daughter’s copy of The Hunger Games, or occasionally skipping your Saturday workout in favor of catching the soccer match on TV—is a crucial aspect of living a satisfying life. Still, if you’re primarily focused on activities that feel good in the moment, you may miss out on the benefits of developing a clear purpose. Purpose is what drives us to take risks and make changes—even in the face of hardship and when sacrificing short-term happiness.

Working to uncover how happy people balance pleasure and purpose, Colorado State’s Steger and his colleagues have shown that the act of trying to comprehend and navigate our world generally causes us to deviate from happiness. After all, this mission is fraught with tension, uncertainty, complexity, short bursts of intrigue and excitement, and conflicts between the desire to feel good and the desire to make progress toward what we care about most. Yet overall, people who are the happiest tend to be superior at sacrificing short-term pleasures when there is a good opportunity to make progress toward what they aspire to become in life.

If you want to envision a happy person’s stance, imagine one foot rooted in the present with mindful appreciation of what one has—and the other foot reaching toward the future for yet-to-be-uncovered sources of meaning. Indeed, research by neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison has revealed that making advances toward achievement of our goals not only causes us to feel more engaged, it actually helps us tolerate any negative feelings that arise during the journey.

Nobody would pretend that finding purpose is easy or that it can be done in a simple exercise, but thinking about which activities you found most rewarding and meaningful in the past week, what you’re good at and often recognized for, what experiences you’d be unwilling to give up, and which ones you crave more time for can help. Also, notice whether your answers reflect something you feel that you ought to say as opposed to what you truly love. For example, being a parent doesn’t necessarily mean that spending time with your children is the most energizing, meaningful part of your life—and it’s important to accept that. Lying to yourself is one of the biggest barriers to creating purpose. The happiest people have a knack for being honest about what does and does not energize them—and in addition to building in time for sensory pleasures each day, they are able to integrate the activities they most care about into a life of purpose and satisfaction.

There’s More To Life Than Being Happy

Critics argue that the pursuit of happiness is a misguided goal—it’s fleeting, superficial, and hedonistic.

Research backs up some of these claims. People actually pay an emotional price for intensely positive events because later ones—even moderately pleasant ones—seem less shiny by contrast. (Sure, getting a raise feels terrific, but it might mean you fail to fully appreciate your son’s performance in the school play that afternoon.)

Perhaps more damning is a series of studies led by University of California, which revealed that people who place a premium on being happy report feeling more lonely. Yes, being happy might be healthy—but craving happiness is a slippery slope.

A well-lived life is more than just one in which you feel “up.” The good life is best construed as a matrix that includes happiness, occasional sadness, a sense of purpose, playfulness, and psychological flexibility, as well autonomy, mastery, and belonging.

While some people will rank high in happiness and social belonging, others will find they’ve attained a sense of mastery and achievement. This approach appreciates that not only do people differ in their happiness matrices—but they can shift in their own respective matrices from moment to moment.

By Robert Biswas-Diener, Todd B. Kashdan, published on July 02, 2013 – last reviewed on July 08, 2013

For the entire article go to PsychologyToday.com

Re-posted by Angela Zaffer:  Riorancho-counseling.com