Worrying About Anxiety
When symptoms of anxiety interfere with daily life activities, such as going to school, it is time to seek help for your child.
A counselor may use play therapy to help a young child cope with anxiety.
Anxiety disorders are common and range from 6 percent to 20 percent of children and teens. Girls are usually more likely than boys to report anxiety symptoms. Anxiety runs in families, due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Anxious parents may produce anxious children. When symptoms are so severe that they interfere with daily life activities, such as going to school or sleeping alone, it is time to seek an evaluation from a mental health professional. Treatments include cognitive behavior therapy, parent training, medication, and psychotherapy.
Consider the following example of a child who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Maria, age 9, was at her pediatrician's office awaiting her yearly checkup. A bullet from a gun battle in the next building tore through the adjoining wall and struck her mother in the shoulder, severely wounding her. The mother was rushed to the hospital, but Maria did not know her fate for several days.
Unable or unwilling to speak, visibly anxious and fearful, Maria was evaluated by a child and adolescent psychiatrist in the same hospital, several days later. She recommended brief psychotherapy and began by taking Maria to her mother's bedside.
Maria, reassured that her mother was alive, nevertheless could not be separated from her. During the following weeks she insisted on sleeping with her mother and would not let her out of her sight. Her mother was equally traumatized, wept much of the time, and told her daughter she was suffering great pain.
The doctor began a series of play therapy sessions using dolls and play surgical instruments in which Maria performed surgeries in her doll hospital. She began to get great pleasure in her sessions. Her mother did not recover so quickly, so the doctor recommended individual treatment for her.
The final sessions involved Maria performing the operation on not a doll, but her mother, who submitted to patient status once again. Playing out the traumatic theme was extremely therapeutic, and with a minimum of interpretation, both were back to their pre-trauma functioning by the month's end. Maria did not need any medication.
There are many ways of helping anxious children cope with their fears and worries. A careful evaluation and specific treatment plan can help these children get back on the path of normal development.
