Separation Anxiety Disorders And Children Essay

The “father of psychoanalysis”, Sigmund Freud, was next to reveal the amazing discovery during the early 1930s throughout psychotherapy sessions. Although his view on the therapeutic benefits of human-animal interactions were not recognized for over two decades after the time of his death in 1939-- he is also a component to the beginning of animal-assisted therapy in mental health treatments. Freud believed that his dog—Jofi-- could “sense” tension from the patients and used distance as a method of signaling the occurrence. The farther away that Jofi would stand from the patient indicated the amount of tension that he felt from them and vice versa.

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.

In the field of therapy, there are numerous of therapy available out there for different type of individuals and situations as well. There is one type of therapy that usually contains people and animal, it is animal-assisted therapy is a therapeutic approach that brings animals and individuals with physical and/or emotional needs together to perform the therapy. Animal-assisted therapy tend to be focused on individuals either children or elderly for them to be able to connect with the animal thus feeling comfortable talking with the therapist. Pet therapy works for all ages, whether sick or not (Lanchnit, 2011). Although, this paper, most of the focus is on animal-assisted therapy towards children using dogs.

Emotional support animals can take on a multitude of jobs that “may include reminding the handler to take medicine, providing safety checks or room searches, or turning on lights for persons with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, interrupting self-mutilation by persons with dissociative identity disorders, and keeping disoriented individuals from danger,” (Brennan). These animals are often considered pets but are actually so much more than that, emotional support animals have a very important role in protecting the mental health of their owners and keep them safe. Not only do these animals protect people’s mental health but they also give people a purpose. Taking care of one of these dogs or other animals gives people something to take care of and focus on. Knowing that there is another living thing that relies on them can be very grounding and keep people connected to something outside of themselves.

A 2015 study found that 16.1 million adults in the United States had experienced at least one major episode of depression in the past year. This is one of the most common mental illnesses in the country. Anxiety is another common disorder, with about 40 million people suffering from it. It is important that such patients seek treatment early to keep their mental condition from taking a turn for the worse. Another thing that can be of immense help to such people is getting psychiatric service dogs to help them in this battle. Let’s take a look at how such dogs can help patients with depression and anxiety.

Ainsworth (1978) developed the Strange Situation Theory, which is how one is able to view the different levels of attachment (Groh, Roisman, Booth-LaForce, Flaley, Owen, Cox, & Burchinal, 2014). The first attachment is secure attachment, which is when a child is able to greet and seek out contact with the caregiver upon arrival after a stressful separation (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). The next is anxious-avoidant/resistant (insecure) attachment, when the child has no want to contact with the caregiver while showing signs of resistance upon the return (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). The last and the most crucial to child development is disoriented/ disorganized attachment; conflicting responses from the child which show hostile and aggressive behavior toward the caregiver (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). All of these attachements show the different types of ways that a child can communicate with their caregiver. These actions are the representations of their early attachment and experiences with the caregiver (Siebert & Kerns, 2015). If there are no changes toward the environment, the attention

A child wants to be liked and is bonding with their caregivers. This bonding is called “attachment.

When a child is removed from their home at a young age, the consequences can be more severe. During the ages three and four it is not good for a child to be moved but if they do get moved it is good to have a strong bond with their caregivers. If they get moved repeatedly, it makes their attachment issues more sever. Attachment issues create the following troubles such as; poor eye contact, antisocial, problems with learning and lack of physical affection. Theses are not abnormal for a child with theses issues(“Attachment”). There are two different types of attachment issues and they are the one that babies have which is insecure attachment and for older children it is also called Reactive Attachment Disorder. An infant with this disorder may not smile , or coo or make any sounds , or even does not reach out for you to hold them , they may also reject your affection like trying to soothe

Today, the exact cause of Separation Anxiety Disorder is unknown (According to an article by Psychology Today). Although the exact cause is unknown, we do know of some risk factors. According to various articles, kids that come from very united families are more likely to develop SAD if separation from a parent occurs or a traumatic event such as, physical assault occurs. Boston Children’s Hospital says that, “…a child can also inherit that parent’s anxiety…” and that “…anxiety may be learned from family members and others who are noticeably stressed or anxious around a child.” Those are only some ways a kid might end up developing SAD. Various articles also suggest that a factor that seems to be common in kids with Separation Anxiety

Very young children who are removed face an additional danger added by the experience itself, which is separation. The emotional and developmental harm that may come to them is related to how they perceive the reason for the

Anxious-Resistant Insecure Attachment – When the child is left in the room with the stranger they are very unsettled and do not want to carry on exploring or playing in their environment and when their primary caregiver comes to collect the child they may push them away because they have been left with a stranger.

According to Bowlby, the founder of attachment theory, a dependable, safe, and caring relationship with a primary caregiver is vital to an infant’s psychological health (Bowlby, 1951). In particular, children lacking a secure attachment with their primary caregivers are at risk of developing emotional and behavioral issues (Blakely & Dziadosz, 2015). Unfortunately, the human bonds normally formed in infancy are fractured in neglected and abused children suffering from RAD (Shi, 2014). As a result, these children become withdrawn, distrustful, and fearful of the world (Shi, 2014).

The client’s mother referred her son to the agency because he was suffering from anxiety. He was resisting going to go to school and becoming distressed when his parents tried to leave him at home.

Anxiety is a common reaction in the human body. So becoming a little scared when watching a movie, or beginning to become nervous right before a test, or maybe even a little shy talking to your crush is completely normal. It starts to become a problem when anxiety takes control and cuts out important things in our life. Children with anxiety might start to feel more often than usual fear, nervousness, shyness, and often will try to avoid social events. Anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and usually the child is just going through a phase and will grow out of it. But when it continuously keeps recurring it begins to become a problem. There are a multitude of anxiety disorder ranging from General Anxiety Disorder(G.A.D), Panic Disorder, Social

SAD is one of the most commonly diagnosed anxiety disorders among children. It is completely normal for adolescents, especially in very young adolescents, to experience some degree of separation anxiety. In comparison, separation anxiety disorder is excessive worry or anxiety that goes beyond the expected amount for the child's developmental level. SAD is characterized by excessive anxiety concerning separation from home or from those to whom a child is attached. While some tend to believe that this anxiety disorder is more common among females than males, it has been determined that SAD occurs at approximately the same rate in males and females (Eisen & Schaefer, 2005). Separation Anxiety Disorder is not permanent. It can be cured; however children with SAD are at higher risk for the development of other anxiety disorders and depression not only in adolescence, but in adulthood as well. Studies have shown that children who are diagnosed with SAD are much more likely to have are much more likely to develop panic disorder, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and several others later in life. Studies have also shown that children diagnosed with SAD have similar symptoms that occur among them. Primary symptoms include excessive worry about potential harm to self or major attachment figures, frequent nightmares about separation, physical ailments such as nausea, headaches, stomach pains, as well as