Anxiety in children widespread

Australia’s Dr. Marilyn Campbell, of the Queensland University of Technology, has said as many as one in five children suffer from anxiety disorders but their parents are unaware.

Children as young as five worried about the deaths of their parents, hurting themselves and seeming stupid at school. They also worried about worrying too much.

Dr. Campbell said adults often underestimate children’s strong feelings of fear and worry. She has worked as a specialist counselor of anxious children for 15 years and has written a number of books to help children overcome their fears.

Campbell said all children had normal fears, like monsters under the bed etc, but studies have shown that between 10% and 17% of children were worrying to the point that it was disrupting their lives.

She said teachers and parents are often unaware because they simply did not recognize the signs. Campbell said shyness was often thought of as the only symptom of anxiety and other signs, like tantrums or refusing to go to school were dismissed as unruly behavior.

“But manipulation to get out of what you’re afraid of is a strategy that most anxious kids use,” she explained. She continued, saying that children knew it “wasn’t cool” to be anxious, which kept them from confiding in peers.

Learning disorders were often misdiagnosed among children suffering from anxiety disorders, because a fear of making mistakes at school stunted their learning, Campbell said.

“They won’t even start writing on the page because they’ll ruin the page,” she continued.

Dr. Campbell said anxiety disorders led to other health concerns like lack of sleep, constant nausea and even eating disorders.

“A lot of kids feel very sick…and they feel as if they can’t eat in front of other people because they might be sick,” she said. “And so they can’t get on buses, they can’t even sometimes get into a car because of it.”

Campbell said it’s no use telling children not to worry, and that parents and teachers would be better served by learning to work together to show kids they can discuss their problems and explain why they didn’t need to worry.

Anxiety disorders that are not treated could lead to problems like eating disorders, depression, substance abuse and worsened anxiety problems later in life, during adolescence and adulthood, Campbell concluded.

© Copyright 2007 Insight Journal Online Magazine.

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