All kids have fears and worries, but if these become excessive, interfere with their daily activities or cause physical symptoms such as stomachaches or headaches, it may be time to seek treatment. A qualified professional can help children with anxiety disorders through talking therapies or medications. In some cases, young people can be referred to a specialist service called Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS). If the problem is not serious, it may be easier for kids to get help from a community counsellor, GP or a school counsellor.
Children with anxiety can experience a wide range of symptoms, including excessive fear and worry, physical symptoms, difficulty sleeping and difficulty with concentration. Often, these symptoms will be linked to specific situations or circumstances. For example, some kids may only feel anxious when they go to school or in certain social situations. Others will experience them in everyday life, such as during a test or when they meet someone new.
Anxiety is associated with poor academic performance and underachievement, as well as future mental health conditions. It can also interfere with a child’s normal functioning and impact on their family life. This means that it is important to get treatment as soon as possible.
When a child is suffering from an anxiety disorder, it can be difficult for them to express their feelings, so their parents or teachers might be the ones who pick up on the signs. For example, a child might lash out at their siblings or avoid social interaction in school and other places. They might also develop headaches, stomachaches or have trouble with their memory.
The most common treatment for child anxiety is cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a talk therapy that can change the way a person thinks and behaves to reduce their anxiety. It can be taught to kids in group or individual sessions. The most recent research on CBT for child anxiety shows that it is very effective. It is particularly effective for children with social anxiety and phobias.
In addition, some studies have shown that teaching parents how to respond to their children’s anxiety can reduce their symptoms as well. One study randomly assigned 124 families to receive either the frontline CBT or SPACE, an approach that teaches parents to lessen their accommodation of their child’s distress and to respond to them in a way that conveys both acceptance of their child’s genuine anxiety and confidence in their ability to cope with it.
Both approaches reduced children’s anxiety and parents’ accommodation, but SPACE was more effective than CBT at reducing children’s anxieties. The level of therapist expertise did not have an effect on the outcomes, suggesting that this type of intervention can be delivered effectively by novice therapists.
If a child does not make significant progress with talking treatments, some clinicians will suggest anti-anxiety medication. Although no clinician wants to put a child on medication, this can be very helpful for some kids if the anxiety is debilitating or is not responding to other treatments.