Anxiety Disorders In Childhood

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.

“Anxiety is the signal of danger which mobilizes the human organism’s resources at all levels of functioning in the interests of conservation, defense, and self- preservation.” (Anxiety 1) If a person suffers from anxiety there is a major loss of control and then an attempt to regain that control because of a fear that they have. Anxiety disorders are one of the most frequently occurring mental disorders in the United States. However, anxiety disorders are not only found in the United States. They are found throughout the world. They just happen to be most predominating in the United States. In this paper, I will be discussing the generalized anxiety disorder and how if effects society today.

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

To experience any form of anxiety, such as interviews, a drive in traffic, or even a first date is a natural- human experience. For instance, one begins to undergo a feeling of failure regarding specific class. Nevertheless, sometimes, the emotion, keeps us motivated and school work-orientated. Yet, now and then, anxiety can take a hold on one when intense fear and distress becomes too overwhelming; it can prevent one from doing everyday thing. As a result, anxiety disorder can be the cause (B. T. Anxiety Disorders, 2016). According to National Alliance of Mental Illness, known as NAMI (2016), anxiety disorders are a common mental health concern in the United States. Roughly, forty million adults in the United States, and eight percent of children and teenagers face some sort of a negative impact of an anxiety disorder. Consequently, people develop symptoms of anxiety disorder before the age twenty-one.

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).

Anxiety is a psychological disorder that affects many people, both mentally and physically. There are many different types of people who live with this disorder, from the young adults to the older generations and from female to male. There are various ways that the disorder may transform the life of the individual who go through the everyday effects of anxiety. A recent study from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America shows that “Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S, affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18% of the population.”(ADAA), with it being the most common disorder, it is also the most expensive disorder since people need a lot of help. People think of anxiety as just the usual small form of anxiety like when you drive and get nervous but it can be a lot more than extreme for some people. There are many different forms of anxiety that people can experience, for example social anxiety and various phobias. People have been researching ways to assist people with anxiety and attempt to help find the best methods to help them cope. Studies have been done on how anxiety runs in different cultural groups in america, these studies and more have shown that anxiety and depression usually go together.

Describe the norm group (Size, age, geographical area, diversity, etc.). The data collected from normative samples match the census data of U.S. and Canadian census in relation to race/ethnicity, education level, and geographic region (). The norm group for this scale are separated into three different age groups:8–11 years, 12–15 years, and 16–19 years (March, 2013).

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

She finds herself constantly worrying about the status of her home, being late to work despite waking up an hour before departure, any possible accidents which may lead to her death, and various scenarios which lead to unfortunate events. She states that she has been married for about 10 years to her college sweetheart. She has no children due to her worries of complications during childbearing and raising children. She explains that she worries whether her children will be considered normal, pretty, or crazy. She describes her marriage as ‘hell’ because she feels like her husband does not support her. She does not mention any other family member besides her husband when asked about her family. Janine holds a job as a tax accountant. She works from 6am to 11pm, and recently she has been bringing her work home. This is due to her thoughts constantly interfering with her concentration on tasks. Recently work has been overwhelming for her since there is no method for relieving stress. She states that her husband does not help her with housework, which adds to the stress from work. In fact, she does not see her husband often which prompts her to worry if her husband is having an affair. She is not on medication at the moment; however, she used to take Xanax once every morning for 2 years. As for meals, she states that she only eats quarry, animals hunted for food, and that she does not eat vegetables.

Described by Michael Treanor, author of the article “Generalized Anxiety disorder”, anxiety is a disorder that is centrally characterized by excessive, pervasive, and chronic worry. Meaning that a lot of what goes on in the victim’s head is repetitive thinking of potential negative future…This disorder could last up to a little of six months or could last up to a lifetime. It all depends on the sevreness of it. What differentness an anxiety disorder from the normal human emotion ‘anxiety’ is that the disorder can cause distress that interferes with a person’s ability to live a normal life. Also, an anxiety disorder can be crippling unlike the emotion version which can go away in a matter of minutes.

Sara (pseudonym) is a sweet and lively nine-year-old girl who loves soccer and softball. She is bright and does well in all her school subjects, except reading. In reading, she had been hovering around the first-grade level for two years, frustrating and vexing Sara, as well as her teachers and her parents. Sara is an adopted child with anxiety and attachment issues that often come up in stressful situations. This learning deficit led her to become increasingly stressed and frustrated about her ability to read. In one effort to help, Sara’s parents enrolled her in an Assisted-Animal Therapy program for students struggling with reading. Lo and behold, after a few months, Sara’s teachers noted that her reading improved markedly. During in class reading assessments, Sara’s reading level jumped an entire grade level with the dog present. The teachers called in her parents for a conference, happy to share their findings. Sara’s parents decided to adopt a therapy dog for their home. Soon after, her family adopted “Elsa” a six-year-old chihuahua. Sara’s school therapist was impressed with her reduced anxiety levels and how her therapy dog positively affected her life, and her reading confidence. It is obvious that in the transformation from a struggling reader to a confident student, a large amount was in fact due to her interactions with the dogs.

This paper is going to be about anxiety disorders. I am going to explain what anxiety is and the different types of anxiety disorders. The types of anxiety I am going to talk about are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress, Panic Disorder and Social Phobia.

Anxiety refers to a combination of emotions that include fear, apprehension, and worry. Since anxiety entails an expectation of uncertain threat, it plays an obvious role in the experience of parents when confronted with the life-threatening diagnosis of cancer in their child. The feeling of uncertainty in parents is a manifestation of anxiety which stems from fear of possible disease consequences like relapse or death (Yeh, 2002). Three studies have shown a relationship between pediatric cancer and anxiety in parents as a result (Moore & Mosher, 1997; Yeh, 2002; Santacroce, 2002). These studies have similar findings in that it was found that frequency of anxiety occurs more often around the time of the diagnosis of cancer and tends to decrease

The topic and layout of this paper follow the text from Ronald Comer, fundamentals of abnormal psychology (Seventh edition). Specifically covering phobias, specific phobias, and agoraphobia. Further, exploring the causes and treatments of phobias (Comer, 2014). The topic of phobias in the authors opinion is a way for a greater understanding of their surroundings. That allows for a greater understanding of children and their fear through phobias.

Hudson, J. (2014, December 1). Parenting skills | Parent-Child Relationships in Early Childhood and Development of Anxiety & Depression | Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. Retrieved November 16, 2015, from http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/parenting-skills/according-experts/parent-child-relationships-early-childhood-and-development.