When Michael got home and found his grandmother stitching up a pillow cover, he stood rooted to one spot. His heart started racing and his breathing became difficult. Sweat developed on his forehead and his body went numb. Michael's grandmother called for emergency. Michael is an example of a child with anxiety disorder.
The symptoms were triggered by the sight of the needle that grandmother was using. His brain had reacted to the experience he went through when he had a medical injection at the hospital one day. He feared needles because of the pain they caused. When his grandmother put the needles down and reassured him, his condition subsided.
Anxiety disorder can be termed as the individual sense of worry, distress and fear. This fear is often viewed as irrational. Anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders are the leading health problems in the United States. The situation is also similar in many other parts of the world although they are not well documented. Anyone can experience anxiety at any point in their life.
Children also have their anxieties about some things in life. However, many of these go unattended and the children continue to show anxiety symptoms even in adulthood. There are many ways to identify a child with anxiety disorder. These are mostly physical manifestations of what is going on in the mind. Some of the symptoms that can help one identify such a child are the following:
1. The inability to concentrate on one thing. Children are usually easily distracted by things in nature. However, in time, they are able to pay attention to one activity at a time. A child with anxiety disorder is always worrying about something. He will start on one activity and turn to another, minutes later.
2. A child concentrates on something too much. These children are perfectionists at what they do. They will spend hours working on something that should take minutes to complete. For example, washing of hands or brushing of teeth which should take at most three minutes takes them over 30 minutes to finish. The possible cause for this is what the adults tell the children while they are small.
3. A child who is often shy in many situations can be described as a child with anxiety disorder. It is okay for shyness to affect children at some point in their lives. However, there are some instances where it seems excessive. For example, when a child is asked his or her name and shies off, his or her brain is probably trying to figure out how exactly to say it well.
4. Another trait of a child with anxiety disorder is avoidance of situations, places and other things. This is commonly called phobia. These can be caused by previous experiences that were traumatic.
5. The inability to sleep is another way to identify a child with anxiety disorder. There are few reasons why a child is unable to sleep. If one of them is fear of something like the dark or anxiety about what will happen tomorrow, this is a child with anxiety disorder.
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