Child Anxiety & Child Trauma

Childhood Anxiety Disorders are the different types of anxiety that a child may experience. The most common Child Anxiety Disorders are:

General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - When there is an everyday anxiety or worry over a variety of issues.

Separation Anxiety - Being away (separated) from a key person such as a parent or loved one who the child is attached to.

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) - This often contains or creates a higher level of anxiety or worry about many situations.

ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) - A child's ASD can increase the likelihood and level of anxiety and their reactions to it.

Epigenetic Anxiety - The child has anxiety programmed into them via their DNA due to a parent carrying the gene.

Vicarious Anxiety - The child has learnt to be anxious due to a parent or person of influence displaying anxiety. This creates a learned pattern of behaviour in the child.

Child anxiety or child worry can take many forms. The child can become agitated with shallow breathing that may be increased in rate. They can also become reserved as they try to hide their anxiety or emotions, avoiding any interaction. There may be a trigger that causes them to suddenly become agitated or emotional while they display the 'fight or flight' response.

Other symptoms can be a change in appetite, self-harming or an increase in OCD (Obsessive Compulsion Disorder). Sleep can be affected as the child can over-think situations. This lack of sleep can lead to tiredness and lethargy, so an indicator may be regular yawning and lower than normal energy levels.

Remember that the child may not understand what is happening to them, so it is important to empathise with them. Creating a scene that draws attention to their situation may make it worse. It can be difficult to spot the signs and so do not force the issue with the child. Support and understanding is vital to prevent further issues or an increase in severity of symptoms. Use the anxiety checklist that's available to download on the Resources page to assist you recognising potential child anxiety.

Anxiety is a reaction to an event that was perceived as traumatic. Anxiety is the brain's defence mechanism turned up to high-sensitivity. Think of it as a radar of safety that is scanning for anything that can be seen as a potential threat to being 'safe'. When anxious, the radar is analysing every little thing, just in case there's the potental for danger and then creating the worst case scenario. This means that the child is on high alert and has stress chemicals being released by the brain in preparation of having to fight or flight.

Anticipatory anxiety is the fear of 'what might be' and is in the future, rather than what is happening 'in the now'.

As a child grows, they encounter changes in their body during puberty. This can create further stress due to hormone changes and may amplify a situation. Situations that you may perceive in life as normal, they may be experiencing for the first time and this can create discomfort, stress or trauma.

Watch The Trauma Tree video as this will help you to understand more about child anxiety.

Yes and No, but it depends... Everyone is different and unique, so there are a few factors on whether and how easily the child anxiety goes away. It depends on the nature of the anxiety, the child's age, the severity of the anxiety and trauma and also what is required to enable the child to overcome the anxiety. If it is short-term and mild, then there is the potential for the anxiety to dissipate by itself. How long this takes will vary.

If the child anxiety or trauma is deep rooted, then the likelihood of it going away is highly unlikely and if there is no intervention, then that trauma can stay throughout their life and can cause other issues or be manifested as Eating disorders, change in temperament or change in personality. This is known as the refractory period.

Yes it can. There are a variety of methods available depending on the child's situation, age and nature of the issue. These range from GP/Doctor referral and medication to a multitude of different therapies and methodologies. The most important factor when choosing a treatment is what the child is comfortable with that isn't going to distress them further or cause other issues. Some methodologies may cause the child to re-live or recount the trauma, some may not actually remove or release the trauma and may only teach 'coping mechanisms', which means they continue to carry the issue. How effective is it? Some may take a multitude of sessions and some may have a long waiting list before being seen through the 'usual' channels. Bear in mind that a child's concept of time can be much greater than ours. When you were a child, how long did the summer holidays, Christmas or a celebration seem to take to come around?! How long must a child wait before their trauma and anxiety can be taken away? Ideally look for a rapid and effective treatment that doesn't cause distress.

It is certainly possible to to treat child anxiety naturally. There are a variety of treatments, therapies and methods available. These will all happen without the need for medication, however, your Doctor/GP may prescribe based on the situation.

There are talking based therapies, Counselling, Hypnosis and CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). You may wish to assess them all to decide if these are an appropriate fit for your anxious child.

Naturally, on this page, the passion is with the work that I do and have done with children from 9 years old upwards. The method I use and qualified in to Trainer level (1 of only 5 licensed trainers in the world) is wonderful for children. I limit the waiting time as much as possible by giving a child priority. I understand children, having taught so many in my previous career in education. I make the session as easy and effortless as possible and get the work done as quickly as we can, often we are done in just one session. Another benefit for any child and family with child trauma is that I can be just as effective working with them via video call, so they can feel safe being at home. This means that it keeps distress to a minimum. The methods are rapid and effective. The child has experienced enough suffering and trauma. There's no way they should experience any additional trauma or distress. I do my best to use humour and fun within the session as this enables barriers to be lowered.

I wrote a children's story, 'Timid Turtle & His Bag Of Worries' which contains a simple method to aid the removal or relief of child worry or child anxiety. Be sure to check the Phuntec website (you'll find the link in the menu) and download your free e-book, mp3 or free audiobook. There's even a complete school's lesson pack so it can be taught in the classroom. We just ask for a donation to our adopted charity. You are welcome to try the story in the first instance.