Anxiety Disorders | Symptoms & Causes
What are the symptoms of anxiety disorders?
Anxiety disorders can cause both and physical and emotional symptoms.
Physical symptoms Include:
- rapid heart rate
- quick breathing or difficulty catching one’s breath
- muscle aches (especially stomach and headaches)
- shaking, dizziness, tingling
- sweating
- fatigue
Emotional symptoms include:
- ongoing worries about friends, school, or activities
- worrying about things before they happen
- a need for everything to be “perfect”
- constant thoughts and fears about safety (of self or of others, such as parents and siblings)
- reluctance or refusal to go to school
- "clingy” behavior with parents
- inability to concentrate
- irritability
- trouble sleeping
- inability to relax
What causes anxiety disorders?
All of us are born with the natural “fight or flight” response that helped our ancestors escape predators and other threats. When we are afraid or stressed, the part of our brain in control of the fight or flight response will cause the nervous, fearful feeling we call anxiety.
While everyone experiences anxiety at times, people with anxiety disorders feel worry that is difficult to control and interferes with their functioning. There are biological, family, and environmental factors that may contribute to a child having an anxiety disorder.
The brain has special chemicals, called neurotransmitters, that send messages back and forth to control the way a person feels. Serotonin and dopamine are two important neurotransmitters that, when “out of whack,” can cause feelings of anxiety.
Just as a child can inherit a parent’s brown hair, green eyes, and nearsightedness, a child can also inherit that parent’s anxiety. In addition, anxiety may be learned from family members and others who are noticeably stressed or anxious around a child. For example, a child whose parent is a perfectionist may become a perfectionist too. Parents can also contribute to their child’s anxiety without realizing it by the way they respond to their child. For example, allowing a child to miss school when they are anxious about going likely causes the child to feel more anxious the next school day.
A traumatic experience (such as a divorce, illness, or death in the family) may also trigger the onset of an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety Disorders | Diagnosis & Treatments
How is an anxiety disorder diagnosed?
A child may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder if symptoms:
- are present for at least six months
- cause significant distress for the child
- do not go away, no matter how much the child tries to relax or stop worrying
- impair functioning at home, at school, or with peers
If my child is diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, what happens next?
The clinician who evaluated your child will likely recommend that your child participate in therapy and possibly take anti-anxiety medication.
How do we treat anxiety disorders?
Treatment for anxiety disorders usually includes therapy, medication, or a combination of both.
The most common and successful form of therapy used to treat anxiety disorders is called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT involves helping children to understand how their thoughts affect how they feel (emotionally and physically) and how they behave. For example, if they think dogs are mean and bite, they will feel afraid if they see a dog and may run away. Alternately if they think dogs are nice and friendly, they will feel happy if they see a dog and may approach it. CBT involves changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors through practicing different skills both in therapy and in daily life. These skills can be learned in individual therapy or as part of a therapy group with other children experiencing similar challenges. Treatment is usually structured and time-limited.
There are many different medications used to help control anxiety. A prescribing clinician (psychiatrist or nurse practitioner) will choose a medication that will work best to help your child.
What is the long-term outlook for a child with an anxiety disorder?
With proper treatment, the majority of children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder experience a reduction or elimination of symptoms within several months.