Anxiety Disorder In Children

Childhood anxiety is quickly becoming the most challenging of all childhood problems. As the root of most problems, anxiety covers a long range of stressors that spread quickly if not treated or relieved early in life. Anxious feelings in children varies from children of all backgrounds. All people feel anxious at one point or another, and it is only when children are affected daily and unable to be calmed when people should become concerned. Many times, children are feeling overwhelmed and cannot express themselves or struggle to understand his/her feelings. Social and emotional development then plays a big part when facing concerns like anxiety in a young childhood environment. Teachers and caregivers need to take a step back and focus on what the child needs rather than what he/she can do to make children calm down. Through interventions, patience, and caring teachers, a young child does not need to be known as "The Child Who is Anxious", he/she can just be a child.

Current epidemiological data suggest anxiety disorders are the most prevalent type of childhood psychological disorders. Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD is described by excessive worrying about a variety of events, including those in the past, present, and future. Children with this disorder worry excessively about a number of issues, including past conversations or actions, upcoming events, school, family health, their own health, competence in sports or academics, and world events. Typically, children experiencing such excessive worry find it difficult to control the amount of time that they worry, and the worrying interferes in their daily life. Sometimes children don’t realize their anxiety is excessive considering the situation.

Adolescence is a difficult time period in a young person’s transition into their later stage of both physical and mental development. Mood disorders are often overlooked during this time for the brain becoming more developed; however among children, anxiety disorders seem to be the most common disorders to be experienced (Nelson; Israel, pg 112). Barlow (2002) defines anxiety as a future-oriented emotion that is characterized by the inability to be in control and predict future events that can be potentially dangerous to the individual. Anxiety shares commonalities with fear, but the difference between the two being that fear is the initial response made from a present threat, where anxiety is due to a unknown future event. A common

While anxiety disorders seem to be among the most common of childhood disorders, most children with a diagnosable anxiety disorder are not receiving any assistance (Stallard et al., 2014). Further, many studies indicate that anxiety disorders in children do not tend to dissipate without treatment; rather, these disorders continue to affect a child’s well-being and functioning as they grow and can have negative consequences on school performance and social functioning in later years (Saavedra, Silverman, Morgan-Lopez & Kurtines, 2010). It appears that if effective interventions are not implemented to address diagnosable childhood anxieties, the symptoms can progressively become more severe and debilitating (Girling-Butcher & Ronan, 2009).

There were two studies that examined the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). The Hale III et al. (2014) prospective cohort study was conducted to determine if frequent administration of the SCARED further distinguished between false positives and true positives with regard to DSM-5 diagnostic symptoms of anxiety disorder. While the Simon et al. (2009) prospective study was conducted to determine if results relating to high-anxious and median-anxious on the SCARED could be used to distinguish and predict various anxiety disorders. Both authors believe that anxiety disorders can take a serious toll on the quality of life and can financially drain the society. Simon et al. goes on to say that anxiety disorders that

The concept of “pediatric anxiety” emerged as a central theme in a study of pediatric patients in the Pediatric Emergency Department in order to better care for the pediatric population, determine the source of the patient’s fears, along with providing all encompassing care to pediatric patients. Therefore, I decided to examine the concept of pediatric anxiety. Pediatric patients often attribute hospitals, nurses, and doctors with needles as most often the healthy child sees their pediatrician for well child check ups and immunizations. Some pediatric patients have been diagnosed with anxiety and deal with anxiety on a daily basis while others ' anxiety arises with emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Pediatric anxiety in the hospital can be a result of a multitude of factors and can be demonstrated in a multitude of ways. While some patients may scream and cry, others may become withdrawn. Walking into the doors of an unknown place while feeling sick or experiencing pain, can certainly produce anxiety for patients of all ages. Particularly pediatric patients, with their fear of strangers, inability to comprehend the rationale behind illness or providing care for such illnesses and diseases, and fear of "getting hurt or needles" can all be contributors to anxiety. “Hospitalization can be a threatening and stressful experience for children. Because of unfamiliar with the environment and medical procedures and unaware

The author, utilizes Dr.Julius Richmond who is a surgeon who talks about how Americans aged 15-24 have a higher death rate in 1979 because the adolescents are beginning to be very experimental with things around them. Nardo begins with explaining how anxiety and fear are very similar with one another yet the sources of the feelings contrasts them. Experts identified various factors involved in how individuals develop anxiety including; modeling, insecurity with how parents have high standards both in school and home for their children. Therapists, psychiatrists, and other doctors use many different methods of treatment in how each individual is different from one another. In most cases they will help the patient in some ways examples: logical

anxiety disorders may begin in childhood and eventually reach syndromal levels many years later, perhaps due to inevitable role changes

National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) defines Panic disorder as characterized by recurring, unforeseen panic attacks followed by at least 1 month of persistent worry about having another attack and concern about its consequences, or a significant change in behavior related to panic attacks.

General anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent, debilitating disorder recognized by the DSM-5. Some of the symptoms that are associated with GAD are restlessness/ feeling keyed up, being easily fatigues, difficulty concentrating/ having a blank mind, irritability, muscle tension, and disturbed sleep. Excessive anxiety, the most common mental health problem experienced in average youth, causes individual distress and functional impairment throughout children’s lives (Gross & Hen, 2004). Anxiety is also a mental status that is elicited in anticipation of threat of some kind. Sensations of anxiety are a normal part of human experiences, but excessive or inappropriate anxiety can become an illness. High levels of anxiety can be accompanied by a set of behavioral and physiological responses including avoidance, vigilance and arousal from a stimuli or stimulus. Children and adolescence of both genders usually experience anxiety symptoms at different levels of intensity that frequently afflicts their everyday life. Anxiety has been treated with drug therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), relaxation training and even systematic desensitization. To diagnose general anxiety disorder, one would look for many presenting symptoms, characteristics, and treatments.

The diagnoses were determined by an interview of the parent and child with a clinician using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Aged Children (K-SADS-PL). The youths were enlisted from five locations classified as Research Units in Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP): New York University, New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and University of California, Los Angeles. All youths were signed up for a double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of FLV for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders.

As a result of these feelings, children with SAD have been shown to have high levels of school-refusal (Brandibas, Jeunier, Clanet & Fouraste, 2004). Research has shown that when SAD is present in a child and persists into adolescence there is increased risk for the development of adult equivalent disorders such as panic disorder (Casat, 1988). Research by Albano, Cholpita and Barlow (2003) has argued that the presence of SAD is not just an increased risk factor for the child’s development of panic disorder but is actually the early manifestation for panic disorder, marking the importance of early intervention for this population in order to provide them with the best possible

One out of every twenty teenagers in the United States suffers from an anxiety disorder. Everyone becomes anxious once in awhile, but a teen with an anxiety disorder is constantly anxious. Teenagers who suffer from an anxiety disorder have excessive worry or fear. In today’s society, teenagers suffering from an anxiety disorder are becoming more frequent. Unfortunately, not all teenagers with an anxiety disorder are not diagnosed. Most parents don’t see that their child is struggling, leaving the teen to continue down this lonely, rocky slope. There are multiple anxiety disorder commonly found in teenagers, such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder.

Panic disorder is something that develops for no apparent reason. It causes repeated and unexpected attacks of intense fear. It can last for a few minutes or even hours. The people that have this disorder usually live in fear of having another attack. They are afraid to be alone, or to be far from medical help. The feelings of intense fear can trigger severe physical reactions. This disorder is very real and treatable.

All children experience some type of anxiety. For example, when a child is left alone at preschool for the first time, many children will show distress. Another example could be when a child has his or her own room, this could develop a fear of the dark. Now normally these aren’t problems but, such anxiety could become a problem when it interrupts a child’s normal activities, like attending school and making friends or sleeping. Persistent or intense anxiety that disrupts daily routine is a mental health problem that requires attention.