Recognizing Separation Anxiety in Children

« « Stress Management Sydney – Stop Unhelpfulness To Restrict Hassle | Getting Relief With Anxiety Self Help » »

Recognizing Separation Anxiety in Children

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

It is normal for children to experience separation anxiety when they start leaving home for school. The symptoms experienced by children with separation anxiety are similar to the symptoms experienced by adults during a panic attack: extreme fear, inability to relax or sleep, shortness of breath and difficulty concentrating. There are some methods that are effective in coping with the condition, and you can easily teach these to your child.

Understanding the fundamental symptoms of separation anxiety in children is the first step to addressing the condition.Separation anxiety makes a child nervous and fearful, and it may condition them to think unrealistically.Other symptoms include refusal to leave the home, headaches, temper tantrums and even nightmares about being separated.

Experts at WebMD say that separation anxiety typically develops after a period of severe stress or a traumatic incident in the child’s life. The stressful even could be anything from being denied their wants to moving homes, so it is important to immediately identify any symptoms and treat them accordingly. Anxiety treatment methods may include medication and psychotherapy. Parents or caregivers also need to pay attention to the child’s diet and lifestyle habits to make sure the child is getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet, and is able to go through their day with as little stress as possible. Poor eating and resting habits produce more stress for the child and can actually do more harm and lead to the develop of other anxiety-related symptoms.

Psychotherapy, a type of counseling, is one of the most effective and proven ways for treating anxiety in adults, and is also used to treat separation anxiety in children. This type of therapy focuses on helping the child become comfortable with being separated from their caregiver for longer and longer periods of time, and encourages the child to develop appropriate behaviors for dealing with leaving their family. Medications and nutritional or herbal supplements may also be a viable option for separation anxiety. What these does is to lower the anxiety of a child allowing him or her to better handle the situation.

It is important to remember that there are no known methods for preventing separation anxiety. Your best recourse is just to help the child in managing the condition. A more complete approach can be used for difficult cases. Treating this condition as early as possible may probably save the child from future anxiety disorders.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.