The start of the school year is a good reminder to care for the physical and mental health of ourselves and our families. Let’s spend a little time talking about anxiety and how it might affect the health of your child.
When we think about anxiety, we need to remember that anxiety and fear are normal emotions and are often helpful. A little anxiety about doing well in school can keep us on track and able to finish assignments on time. However, too much anxiety can start to take away from our overall quality of life.
What is too much anxiety? The answer is not always straightforward. It is time to consider working to reduce anxiety when it becomes uncontrollable keeping us from activities that we would otherwise enjoy, negatively affects our overall happiness, or causes a parent or child to feel that it is time to make a change.
If we find ourselves in one of these situations, what should we do next?
Don’t ignore it.
If anxiety is a problem, it is unlikely to get better unless we work on it. It may be tempting to think children may ”grow out” of anxiety, but the response to fear or stress is a learned behavior. We have tools to improve that response and reduce anxiety.
Don’t let anxiety control your life.
There is a well-recognized cycle of anxiety and avoidance-learning where we learn to avoid the source, so that we don’t feel those negative feelings. For children dealing with anxiety, this might mean avoiding school and stressors experienced there. If children are allowed to avoid their triggers, they will start a feedback cycle making it harder to face those fears. When a child stays home from school because of anxiety, it makes it that much harder to return to the school setting.
Work through anxiety together.
This is often a journey for the whole family. Anxiety runs in families and certainly affects the entire household. When we recognize that anxiety is causing a problem, we should name it and then start working on that journey together.
Anxiety is a common challenge in life which often improves with support. Family involvement allows parents to model a healthy response to stress for their children.
