Mental illness in children

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Different Anxiety Types that can Affect Children’s Mental Health

Agree or not, childhood itself is a stressful and anxious process. Kids are tasked with learning new skills, building new friendships, overcoming fear, and stepping onto the first ladder of understanding work issues. Add an ongoing pandemic, and academic and extracurricular pressure to the mix, and kids can ruin their mental well-being or become vulnerable to mental health. Sometimes, the tensions are too much to handle, and the usual comforts that parents can provide don’t quite seem to be enough for kids. As a result, kids push themselves onto the web of anxiety.

Being the most commonly experienced mental illness in the United States, children are no exception. As per the research, roughly one n eight children may struggle with anxiety disorder, but most children who qualify for diagnosis are not seeking the medical treatment they need. Neglecting the mental treatment worsens the situation and leaves a child socially isolated. Hence, it is advised for parents to look for signs. If anything looks weird or your kid’s disinterest in activities seems to be increasing, seek medical health. Before that, know about the different types of childhood anxiety disorders for better understanding.

If your kids are worried about things or experience excessive anxiety, it may be problematic as it results in fatigue, sleep disorders, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and muscle tension. That’s all happen due to generalized anxiety disorder. The anxiety may be about anything from school performance to family relationships or friendships.

It’s not easy to notice social anxiety disorder, mainly when parents take social anxiety as their kid’s introverted nature. But there is a difference between social anxiety disorder and introverted nature.

If your kid is introverted, they might keep to themselves as they enjoy solitude and their me-time. However, with social anxiety, kids are interested in joining other kids or events but afraid or nervous because of potential rejection.

Children may showcase their fears by throwing tantrums, clinging to adults, crying, or refusing to speak. Besides, they may tend to avoid any such social situations that incite this fear.

Some separation anxiety can generally seem between 1-3 years old. But for older kids, if they experience excessive anxiety about being separated from their parents or caregivers, they may be suitable for a diagnosis. Children struggling with separation anxiety disorder may frequently worry about losing their parents. They may refuse to go out or school, have nightmares about separation or experience physical symptoms like headaches or nausea due to anxiety disorder.

Children struggling with selective mutism may find it challenging to speak in specific social situations (even when they are talkative at home), such as with classmates at school or relatives; they are not comfortable with it because they do not see them very often. Children around the age of 5 are mostly diagnosed with this selective mutism. The disorder usually starts with school, and if left untreated, can persist into adulthood.

Children with panic disorder experience unexpected and repeated periods of intense fear or discomfort, along with systems like feeling short of breath, racing heartbeat, choking sensation, dizziness, nausea, chill, fear or dying, or fear of going crazy.

Some kinds get anxious or scared when they experience a specific object or situation. If their fear of a particular situation or thing lasts long and is unreasonable to the actual danger posed, fear may be categorized as a phobia. Kids will feel short of   breath, get anxious, cry, freeze up, cling to an adult when they face their fear. These phobias included but are not limited to animals, thundering sensation, loud sensation, and enclosed spaces.