The anxiety in children consists of the appearance of an intense feeling of discomfort without an objective reason to justify it, accompanied by feelings of apprehension and repetitive thoughts.
It is one of the psychological disorders that occur most frequently during childhood. Recent studies have shown that the prevalence rates of this type of psychological problems in children would be between 9 and 21%.
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Anxiety responses include both cognitive symptoms (referring to thinking) and somatic symptoms (referring to the body), which express an over-activation of the brain's autonomic system..
In children, the manifestations of anxiety will be different depending on the stage of development in which they are.
Younger children tend to present strident behaviors, excessive activity, call for attention, difficulties in moments of separation and affective disturbances when going to sleep.
In these cases, many times a poor evaluation of anxiety symptoms can lead to inappropriate diagnoses such as attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) or oppositional defiant disorder..
For their part, older children (adolescents and pre-adolescents) have a greater capacity to describe their subjective experiences, and are capable of experiencing certain symptoms such as fear, nervousness, tension or anger, as well as showing certain inappropriate behaviors or antisocial.
In addition, in childhood anxiety, the environment in which the child develops and, therefore, the context in which he expresses his symptoms takes on special importance..
While these factors may go unnoticed in adults, an environment that negatively influences a child's anxiety responses can lead to developmental problems.
If a child expresses his anxiety symptoms in a supportive environment in which parents or caregivers are able to use strategies that help the child to manage his nervous state, the child will be able to successfully manage his anxiety states.
However, if the child develops in an environment in which he is blamed for his symptoms or forced to confront them, when he still does not have the personal resources necessary to do so, his development may be greatly compromised..
Diagnostic manuals in psychopathology do not yet present a detailed classification of anxiety disorders that can present in childhood.
This fact is explained by the fact that most anxiety disorders that occur during childhood do not tend to last during adulthood, since the emotional alterations that children present tend to be less clearly differentiated than those that adults present.
However, just as adults do, children can also experience and suffer from anxiety symptoms and disorders. In fact, the prevalence of these disorders during childhood can reach 21%.
On the other hand, if a child experiences anxiety frequently, the chances of suffering an anxiety disorder in adulthood increase..
Below we will discuss the 7 anxiety disorders that occur most frequently and that are most relevant in children.
According to some studies, this is the most prevalent anxiety disorder during childhood. Separation anxiety consists of experiencing excessive feelings of anxiety when the child has to separate from their parents or caregivers.
Disgust when being separated from their parents is usually a common phenomenon among children, which is why it is considered a normal response during the first months of life..
However, from 3-4 years of age, the child already has the cognitive capacity to understand that separating from their parents does not mean losing them forever, so experiencing excessive separation anxiety from these ages configures a psychological alteration.
More specifically, children with separation anxiety disorder often experience the following symptoms when they are estranged from their parents:
The main characteristic of this disorder is the tendency to experience feelings of extreme anxiety when interacting or meeting strangers.
Although contact with strangers is usually a not very pleasant situation for most children, in childhood social hypersensitivity disorder the child experiences abnormally high levels of anxiety when this situation is encountered.
Likewise, the anxiety he experiences in these situations systematically leads him to avoid contact with strangers and significantly interferes with his social life..
Thus, social hypersensitivity disorder would not be defined by shyness or the absence of predisposition to interact with strangers, but in experiencing a state in which they are totally stunned and governed by their feelings of anxiety when the child is exposed to these situations.
This disorder usually appears at the beginning of schooling and is often combined with a high desire to have personal relationships with family and friends, showing many behaviors of affection and attachment towards these people.
As specified in the ICD-10 diagnostic manual, phobic anxiety disorder constitutes a specific psychopathology of childhood.
Fears are a manifestation that is considered normal during childhood. For example, many children may experience fears or anxieties during sleep or at bedtime..
Likewise, during these situations in which children manifest fears and fears, they may suffer perceptual illusions. For example, errors of recognition of a real stimulus, when perceiving the coat hanging behind the door of the room as a monster when there is little light.
However, these fears are considered normal and do not constitute an anxiety disorder..
We speak of phobias when irrational fears in certain situations and objects are accompanied by an avoidance of the stimulus that causes fear, causes a lot of anxiety and interferes with the child's daily functioning.
These types of phobias include fears of animals, lightning, the dark, flying, going to the doctor or indoors..
In this disorder, the child experiences an irrational fear of school, which is produced by a systematic avoidance of these situations and, therefore, a total or partial absenteeism to class.
Normally the onset of this disorder is usually gradual, the child does not begin to avoid school completely at once. Likewise, it usually affects children between 11 and 14 years old, although it can be seen in much younger children..
In general, the lack of attendance at school due to fear and dislike of these situations is usually a sufficient indication to consider the possibility that the child is suffering from an anxiety disorder and refer him to mental health services.
Social phobia usually occurs in adolescents and is characterized by experiencing excessive anxiety related to the possibility of saying something or acting in a certain way that can be humiliating or embarrassing.
In this way, the adolescent begins to avoid doing any activity in front of other people due to the excessive anxiety that they present in those situations and the fear they have of being embarrassed in front of others.
Actions such as talking, eating, writing, going to parties or speaking to authority figures are often greatly feared to such an extent that the person is unable to perform them.
Generalized anxiety is characterized by excessive nervousness and anxiety, extreme and uncontrolled worrying thoughts that occur most of the day, for several weeks.
Concerns tend to revolve around a large number of aspects and are often accompanied by physical symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, sweating, dry mouth, tremors, etc..
Likewise, anxiety occurs in a generalized and constant way, and is not restricted to a particular situation. Generalized anxiety tends to appear more in adults but children can also suffer from it..
Finally, panic disorder consists of witnessing anxiety attacks in a recurrent and unexpected way.
These seizures are based on episodes of extreme fear that begin suddenly and cause symptoms such as fear of dying or losing control, palpitations, a feeling of suffocation, excessive sweating, tremors, dizziness, nausea and other physical signs of anxiety..
This disorder could be very relevant among children. Recent studies show that up to 16% of young people between 12 and 17 years old could suffer some episode of this type.
Anxiety problems are explained today from the causal model of stress vulnerability. According to this model, children who suffer from this type of psychological disturbance would present a series of predisposing or risk factors for suffering from an anxiety disorder.
However, the disorder would not manifest itself until the appearance of an environmental factor that would trigger the presentation of anxiety.
The factors that may be involved with childhood anxiety disorders would be:
The treatment of anxiety usually encompasses both psychosocial interventions and psychopharmacological interventions. However, in children, drugs are usually used only in very serious cases that need some stabilization before starting psychotherapy.
In general, psychotherapy treatments usually include:
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