The occurrence of child anxiety attacks is unreported and under diagnosed. It is believed that the prevalence of child anxiety attacks is much more and can lead to depression later on in the teenage years or young adulthood. Children experiencing anxiety attacks feel many of the same symptoms adults feel in their own anxiety attacks. Child anxiety attacks experience both psychological and physical symptoms.
Child anxiety attacks start with a feeling of dread, worry and fear. Many children have these feelings regularly but when these symptoms become severe and often with accompanying physical symptoms it becomes a problem. Some of the physical symptoms that children feel are headaches, nausea, sweating, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, feel a tightening in the chest, stomach ailments such as diarrhea and stomach upset.
Child anxiety attacks can also effect children’s concentration and ability to stay in school. Children who experience regular anxiety attacks have a hard time making decisions and learning. Their perception of their environment is quite different from other children which can affect the way that the child acts in social situations.
Child anxiety attacks may be due to many different forms of anxiety disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Acute Stress Disorder, Social phobia and specific Phobia, Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety, Drug Induce Anxiety Disorder, Anxiety Disorder NOS (not otherwise specified). Many of these disorders involve the child having overwhelming anxiety over many different situations and objects. The child may experience worry and fear over specific objects or experience uncontrollable anxiety in social situations.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is when someone must perform the same behavior repeatedly or have the same thoughts. This can lead to anxiety since the behaviors usually prevent the person from living their daily life. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is when someone has been through a traumatic event and has trouble recovering from the event. This person will relive the moment in their mind and experience the reactions (physical and psychological) associated with the moment.
It’s like going through the same nightmare many times. Child anxiety attacks can also be due to medications. Some medications can cause anxiety so it is important for the child’s doctor to know the medications the child is taking. It is also believed that some children experience anxiety attacks due to the hormones of puberty.
Child anxiety attacks can be helped just as adult anxiety attacks are handled. Children will need to seek medical attention and a therapist. The doctor will be able to determine if the child is in need of medication. A therapist will be able to teach the child effective coping skills to decrease fear and worry in anxiety provoking situations. Some children have other issues they must address before working on their anxiety disorder and a therapist would be able to help with that through many different techniques.
Panic disorders or anxiety attacks in young boys do occur, but identifying them as such can be more difficult than in adults. Child anxiety or children with panic disorders are unfortunately often misdiagnosed as having attention deficit disorder. Sometimes they are diagnosed as having hyperactivity. The reason is because the symptoms of panic or anxiety attacks can mimic the symptoms of attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity.
Panic disorders are unexplained episodes that happen more than twice. Anxiety attacks are episodes that happen for a reason or can be identified as having a specific cause. The problem is identifying the cause. Anxiety attacks in young boys may or may not have a cause depending on the diagnosis, but either must be addressed. The difficulty lies in getting young children to adequately express themselves enough to make it clear what’s happening.
Children worry just like adults, but it’s when the worry turns into panic and begins to affect their ability to function, that it becomes a serious problem. Children may have panic attacks related to specific situations such as school or at home. They can also have panic disorders that are specifically related to anything in their young lives, but they are faced with the same problems as adults – learning to deal with and control the attacks. Panic disorders in boys require some patient analysis because children can act differently at home as compared to how they act in school.
Some of the more common reasons for panic disorders or anxiety attacks in young boys include separation anxiety and avoidance disorder. Young boys with panic disorders will have general anxiety that can’t be directly related to anything in particular, but in 5-11 year old boys it can be related to things like fear of going to school and being separated from parents or fear of getting in trouble. It’s sad to say that sometimes anxiety attacks are due to something the child is too embarrassed to talk about or is covering up such as abuse.
Anxiety attacks in young school boys can reveal themselves in a number of ways. Sometimes the attacks may have many physical symptoms such as sweating or difficulty breathing. Other times, the symptoms may be more psychological but it can be difficult to get children to explain their fears – especially if they don’t have a specific cause. Children can have agoraphobia or fear of social situations. It’s not unusual to know a parent who has had to talk a child out of a panic attack every occasion it’s time to go to a birthday party at someone else’s house.
When you become aware of panic disorders or anxiety attacks, the first and most important thing to understand is you want to avoid minimizing the problem. Just like adults, to solve the problem requires some patience in relaxation and emotional control.
