Get away From Anxiety in Children with the help of Newporttherapy.com

Anxiety in Children





Parents often think over if their children with anxiety will outgrow their anxiety or if they will get worse over time. Some anxious children, if encouraged to face their fears, develop contending skills on their own as they mature. In that sense, they do outgrow their fears. On the other hand, children with anxiety that avoid their fears can become quite handicapped by them. With prolonged avoidance of age-appropriate activities, valuable skills are lost and the children with anxiety become increasingly symbiotic on the few people to whom they relate. Often, family conflicts result due to poor coping skills. With increased family conflict and diminished ability to keep up at school and with peers, their self-esteem plummets.





Fortunately, most 

children with anxiety can overcome their fears by gradually facing them. Each time a feared situation is faced, the child becomes a little less sensitive to it. After a child is repeatedly exposed to the feared situation and is helped to successfully master his or her anxiety, the fight-or-flight reaction to that situation will pass .





Over a lifetime, anxiety tends to come and go in those people who are inclined to it. Exacerbations tend to happen when supports are lost or a new stressor is faced. For example, the expectation for children to behave more independently at adolescence can be difficult for a sensitive child who has previously relied a great deal on parental support. However, for a child that has learned coping skills, this difficulty is not a cause for despair. Instead, it is a signal that previously learned coping skills need to be reviewed, and a few new ones may need to be added. Each time a new situation is mastered, confidence builds, allowing the child to face new challenges and live a productive, fulfilling life.





Deciding on the best method for encouraging your child with anxiety to face what is feared may require some thought. As a rule, whatever works and does not harm is best. If your child lacks the skills essential to face what is feared, some training by a psychologist in those skills may be needed before exposing the child to what is feared. For example, a chronically shy child that for years has not talked with friends may lack the social skills to do so. Once the essential skills have been taught, your child must face what is feared through repeated exposures to it.





Kaynaz Nasseri is a psychologist / therapist specializing in child anxiety. Her clinical psychology practice is located in Newport Beach, but she helps patients that visit her from all of Southern California, including OrangeCounty, San Diego, and Los Angeles.