Child Anxiety

Do you suspect that your son or daughter is suffering from child anxiety?

With child anxiety, you may notice that your child, who used to be happy, full of joy, and carefree, now she seems stressed, timid, scared, nervous, afraid, worried, or anxious all the time.

Or your child may not be wanting to do the things they used to do. They may rely heavily on a common symptom of anxiety known as avoidance, perhaps not wanting to go to school, be around people, or try new things. They may ask for reassurance…a lot…that everything is okay.

Anxiety in kids can also…not look like anxiety.

It can look like your child is just being difficult. Maybe they fight you on every little thing…but that might be because they are scared or anxious. Parenting can sure be confusing! The truth is, your child’s difficult behavior is not designed just to give you a hard time…it’s to fight off anxiety. To fight off having to do things that are scary or uncertain. For them, the anxiety is wildly upsetting and best to be avoided, and sometimes that comes out in the form of a fight with you.

As you can see, child anxiety can take on numerous forms, including :

• Refusing to go to school, frequent complaints of being sick or not feeling well
• Clinginess, difficulty separating from the parent
• Temper tantrums, outbursts
• Extreme shyness
• Fear of new people and new situations
• Unwillingness to speak in certain social settings
• Unusual repetitive or compulsive behavior (a symptom of OCD)

• Worries about contamination, safety of pets and loved ones, health
• Excessive reassurance seeking
• Avoidance of social situations
• Overly self-conscious ways, excessive fear of embarrassment (a symptom of social anxiety)
• Unwillingness to try new things
• Perfectionism, and shame around not living up to very high standards
• Being preoccupied, having difficulty paying attention in school

The good news is that child anxiety is highly treatable

The earlier you get help for your child, the easier it will be to get them back on track…at home, in their relationships, and at school.

It’s hard to watch your child suffer, and you and your entire family are likely impacted by your child’s anxiety. You’d just like to get your happy kid back again so that your family can find that sense of fun and happiness and joy again.

At Life Counseling Institute, we have child specialists with expertise in treating anxiety in kids. We use evidence-based strategies that are known to work, including:

• Play therapy
• Games
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

• Exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy
• Mindfulness strategies
• Acceptance and commitment (ACT) therapy

Counseling can help your child :

• Cope with new situations and uncertainty
• Identify anxiety triggers and learn to cope with them
• Talk back to anxiety effectively
• Feel empowered, like they are in charge of anxiety and not the other way around
• Be calm in the face of stress
• Get back on track in school, so they can meet their goals and succeed in life
• Meet life challenges effectively
• Become more flexible and resilient in times of change, stress, and transition
• Have great self-esteem and self-acceptance

If you’re ready to help your son or daughter end their struggle with child anxiety, give us a call (630) 269-2886. We’d love to help them regain the freedom from anxiety that they deserve.