Excerpt from Chapter 2: The Red Flags
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Anxiety
Anxiety that comes and goes is normal. When mild or moderate, anxiety raises a child's level of alertness for dealing with new, demanding, or dangerous situations. However, anxiety may be elevated to such a high degree or be so persistent that it interferes with everyday life. Your child's high level of anxiety may show up in a range of behaviors. Most symptoms have some element of anxiety, so refer to the specific symptom that seems to accompany the anxiety: for example Obsessions, Compulsions, School avoidance, etc.
Possible intervention:
You must walk the line between two different approaches to anxiety. First, help your child tolerate anxiety and learn that he can put up with it and that it passes. Second, help your child move away from anxiety through constructive distractions and use of coping mechanisms.
- Help your child not feel so alone. If he experiences your empathy for what he's going through, he may feel significantly better.
- Help him make sense of what he is experiencing by identifying anxiety as a normal emotion that each person must learn to cope with, and learn what triggers it.
- Help your child learn a range of relaxation techniques that have been developed by psychologists. There are many audiotapes and CDs for learning progressive relaxation and mindfulness. See the Appendix for specific references.
- If your child's anxiety, or the accompanying symptoms, seem unusually intense or interfere with relationships or work, seek professional consultation.
- Psychotherapy, with elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (see Chapter 8), helps by identifying and challenging irrational thoughts that increase anxiety.
- At times, medication can dramatically reduce your child's disabling anxiety.
More excerpts:
- From the Introduction
- From the Introduction to Section I, Parents' Interventions
- From Chapter 1: What to Do When You Think Your Child Has a Problem
- From Chapter 2: The Red Flags
- From Chapter 4: Ten Steps to Help Your Child Get Back on Track
- From Chapter 5: Coping with Your Feelings When Your Child Suffers
- From the Introduction to Section II: Professional Interventions
- From Chapter 6: Evaluation and Testing, Why, What, Who, and Where?
- From Chapter 7: Questions about the Helpers: Who Are They and Where Are They?
- From Chapter 8: Psychotherapy and Its Side Effects
- From Chapter 9: Medications and Their Side Effects
- From Chapter 11: The Role of Play in Individual Psychotherapy From Childhood to Adolescence
- From Chapter 12: Costs of Treatment: Money, Energy, and Time