Childhood Anxiety: Phobias
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All children have a certain amount of fear as they grow up. There is fear of the dark, fear of the bogeyman, fear of the closet, fear of clowns, fear of strangers, etc. Because young children like to explore the world around them, they will be confronted with new challenges, anxieties and different experiences. In general this is just a part of growing up.
The faster it grows into phobia…
-Aditi Prabhu
According to Healthy Children (https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions), they mentioned a study that showed that 43% of children between 6 and 12 have many fears like a fear of darkness, especially when left alone, which is the most common fear of this age group. There was also a fear of animals, fires, high places and thunderstorms. Others had concerns about burglars, kidnappers and war due to exposure to the news. The article went on to mention that by middle school age, these fears tended to subside on their own.
in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror.
I can take the next thing that comes along.'
You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
While these fears mentioned above are fairly common, it should be noted that, sometimes for many children, fears can become so extreme and excessive, that it becomes uncontrollable fear of certain objects or situations. This extreme level of fear then triggers so much anxiety that the child is no longer able to function in daily activities as the primary focus is transferred to this obsession with fear.
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What Are Phobias?
According to Stanford Children’s Health (http://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=phobias-in-children-and-adolescent), “A phobia is an identifiable and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable and is triggered by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation. Children and adolescents with one or more phobias consistently experience anxiety when exposed to the specific object or situation. Common phobias include fear of animals, insects, blood, heights, closed spaces, or flying. In children and adolescents, the identified fear must last at least six months to be considered a phobia rather than a transient fear.”
must come face to face with them.
How we handle our fears will determine
where we go with the rest of our lives.
To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it."
-Judy Blume
Phobia Facts
Anxiety BC (https://www.anxietybc.com/parenting/specific-phobia) listed a number of facts about phobias as follow:
- On average, specific phobias begin in childhood, between seven to eleven years with most cases starting before age ten
- Approximately 5% of children and 16% of adolescents will have a specific phobia in their lifetime
- Girls are more likely to experience a phobia than boys at a rate of 2:1
- Phobias are different than common childhood fears. While young children generally become less afraid of things such as strangers, the bath, or the boogie monster, as they mature, children with phobias typically become more afraid as they mature. Furthermore, phobias rarely go away on their own
- Phobias do not decrease with appropriate reassurance and provision of information. For example, a dog phobia persists despite telling your child that grandmas dog is kind, has no teeth to bite because it is old, and will not scratch
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Signs & Symptoms
Anxiety BC listed in their article the various signs and symptoms according to thoughts, physical sensation, emotions, & behaviors. These are the signs as follow:
- Thoughts: “It’s going to bite/sting me.”, “I can’t handle it.”, “It’ll be awful.”, “What if I vomit?”
- Physical Sensations: Increased heart rate, sweating, trembling or shaking, shortness of breath, feeling of choking, chest pain or discomfort, upset stomach, numbness, chills or hot flashes, looking flushed
- Emotions: Anxiety/fear, embarrassment, shame, helplessness, sadness, anger
- Behaviors: Avoiding the feared stimuli or locations where the stimuli might exist, making parents check things first (e.g. make sure a room is free of bugs before bedtime), asking a parent to be present or available, running away, crying, clinging, tantrums
- Common Situations or Affected Areas: School refusal if known feared stimuli might exist, avoiding parks, recreational areas, and outdoor space, refusal to attend appointments at doctors, dentists, hospitals, etc., avoiding playing in gardens, beaches, and other locations where insects might exist, missing field trips if known feared stimuli will be present (e.g. trip to the park because of fear of dogs)
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Types
There are a number of types of phobias seen in children and adolescents that include specific phobia, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder and selective mutism. I’ve covered social anxiety, separation anxiety and selective mutism in previous articles so I won’t go into these types again.
Specific Phobia is anxiety that is associated with a specific object or situation. Objects can include all sorts of things like buttons, a certain toy, ball, etc. The child will avoid the specific object due to anticipated fear that it triggers. Situations that are often feared is going to school, being out in the yard, flying in an airplane, being in a dark room, etc. Again, the child will avoid that specific situation because of the fear and anxiety that it causes.
Panic Disorder is an unpredictable, sudden and unexpected period of intense fear that is usually accompanied by shortness of breath, increased heart rate, dizziness, lightheadedness, shaking, a complete sense that can only be described as shear panic. These symptoms can occur while driving, while watching TV, why reading a book. It literally comes out of nowhere and can last for 10 minutes or for hours.
Agoraphobia is generally defined as a fear of open and wide spaces such as being outside of the home. The individual who suffers from this condition tends to stay securely in their home for fear of having a panic attack or sometimes can be related to the other phobias described above.
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What Causes Phobias?
As stated in previous Childhood Anxiety articles, studies have shown a genetic and environmental factors that contribute to most anxiety problems in children, including phobias. In many cases at least one of the parents has a history of anxiety which seems to be a high correlation for the anxiety. Environmental factors can be many different situations like, the child being exposed to an anxious role model, having experienced a loss of someone significant, a traumatic event, divorce, etc. According to many articles on phobias there is still the question of whether these anxiety disorders are due to a predisposition due to genetics or whether it takes a certain external event to trigger it. As research continues it is hoped that there will be more answers in the near future.
but he who conquers that fear."
-Nelson Mandela
Treatments For Phobias?
Many articles stated that most phobias are quite treatable. It is believed that they are not a sign of serious mental illness requiring many months or years of therapy. One article by Healthy Children described a process called desensitization which tries to decrease the child’s level of anxiety by exposing the child to the fear and with repeated opportunities, the child will become a little less sensitive to it. They did stress that this technique should only be done by a professional or with supervision.
Therapy can also involve psychotherapy where they learn to become more self-assured. Sometimes breathing exercises can be taught which may assist the child during stressful situations. Some doctors prescribe medication but parents again should weigh all the pros and cons before deciding.
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What Parents Can Do?
According to Healthy Children (https://www.healthychildren.org) there are some things parents might find useful to do for their children with fears and phobias:
- Talk with your child about his anxieties, and be sympathetic. Explain to him that many children have fears, but with your support he can learn to put them behind him.
- Do not belittle or ridicule your child's fears, particularly in front of his peers.
- Do not try to coerce your youngster into being brave. It will take time for him to confront and gradually overcome his anxieties. You can, however, encourage (but not force) him to progressively come face-to-face with whatever he fears.
then you set yourself free.”
-Stephen Richards
The article went on to advise parents to be reassuring and supportive since the child’s fears are his/her response to a real or perceived threat. Parents should talk with their children but don’t increase or reinforce their child’s concerns. The article also suggested that parents should point out what is already being done to protect the child and also have the child participate by having him/her make suggestions on how to make the situation better.
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This concludes the last article on the types of Childhood Anxiety Disorders. But because of the lack of awareness and knowledge of Panic Attack I felt it was important to do a final segment on this area. Many people suffer from Panic Disorder which literally destroys their lives if not dealt with. So in my next article, I will cover this area in detail.
then you have mastered all.”
-Stephen Richards
Thank-you for joining me in this journey about Childhood Anxiety. If you would like to follow me, please check HERE.
These are my previous articles on Childhood Anxiety if you are interested in reading it:
Childhood Anxiety: The Anxious Child
https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@cabbagepatch/childhood-anxiety-the-anxious-child
Childhood Anxiety: What Types of Disorders Do Children Have to Deal With https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@cabbagepatch/childhood-anxiety-what-types-of-disorders-do-children-have-to-deal-with
Childhood Anxiety: Selective Mutism Disorder
https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@cabbagepatch/childhood-anxiety-selective-mutism-disorder
Childhood Anxiety: Separation Disorder:
https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@cabbagepatch/childhood-anxiety-separation-disorder
Childhood Anxiety: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Children:
https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@cabbagepatch/childhood-anxiety-obsessive-compulsive-disorder-in-children
A very important article. Thank you. Resteeming
Thank-you so much @amirl! I am deeply touched by your comment and support. I write because I want to educate as many people I can about things that are not always known. Children and people suffer when others don't understand what they are going through. Thank-you so much for the resteem. I am very appreciative for your kindness. Have a great new week ahead! :D
This was excellent & very comprehensive. I'm someone with a lot of phobias & anxieties & as you mentioned it did destroy my life because I didn't deal with it. I grew up in the 'tough love' era where bullying to get people over things was the norm, nobody in my orbit knew of such things. I was just lazy, making excuses, ect.
I'm so thankful that kids now have all these resource & knowledge to hopefully not have their lives derailed. It makes me very thankful that therapy & just being believing people has become slightly more mainstream. I'm still struggling at (nearly) 41 to have the words to get help.
Thanks for a great read, off to follow your links to the other articles. :)
Hi @largelyuseless! Never think that it was your fault because unfortunately any type of anxiety was never treated as an actual medical issue. They thought you could just grow out of it or grow up. If they knew then what they know now, the symptoms could have been minimized for you. You are definitely not alone. You'd be surprised at the number of people suffering from this.
I feel that there is a possibility to help many people with neuroplasticity. There is more research that suggests that with various experiences, the brain can actually regenerate and create new pathways to unused areas. It has the potential to help a lot of people that have brain related disorders. In my future research I want to look into neuroplasticity to see if there are more areas that it can actually help with.
One promising theory is that audio sounds like music can stimulate the entire brain thereby making new circuits throughout. I'm thinking that there is definitely some hope even for you. It is never too late to do something. I really appreciate you sharing your situation with me. Don't ever think that you can't get better. I truly think you can but it has to start within yourself. Thank-you for giving me some more thoughts about future articles.
Please take care and be very positive because I know if you can be on a higher level of happiness, things do and can get better. Thank-you@largelyuseless. I'm glad you read my post!!! :D
Yes! I love neural plasticity & sound therapy! They've both done SO much to help. It's exhausting creating new neural pathways, but so worthwhile. From the different Solfreggio frequencies to ASMR, they really do help, but it also requires having the means to self-soothe when sounds may trigger past areas that hold trauma.
To some extent I almost have to disassociate from my panic & be my own internal good mom/best friend. I'm so thankful I got to that point. I'm still disabled by my crazy, but I'm on the path to getting better. I finally started treated myself as if I believe me & it's made all the difference.
I'm glad I read your post too. Thanks for replying. <3
@largelyuseless I think you should take this opportunity and write about what you went through as a child and now. Your story would be such an important journey for people to see first hand what it is like for someone to experience all the challenges you faced. Writing is your power tool to channel all your pains and obstacles. Plus I truly feel that by writing you can release some of the frustration and anger that you have buried within.
My writing has had many purposes for me. One is to spread the word about areas that are often put aside or not written about. Another reason is because it has helped me to help others. When I was younger, I too faced many challenges and I always wondered what would have happened if I had then what I am writing today. What a difference it would have been for me. Thirdly, I am also able to release inner turmoil of past experiences.
So @largelyuseless I think you should write and also change your name to @largelyhopeful, @largelyhelpful, @largelyknowing, @largelyamazing, or @largelydetermined. Stop leaning toward the negative because you are not!
Finally, I am so glad that you found Neuroplasticity. I do feel it will help and if it helps you, you should write about your journey involving it. It would really help others. Thank-you for validating that my efforts of writing about all of this made a difference for at least you. I am deeply touched! Please take care! ....Cabbagepatch!
@largelyuseless I have so much I want to say to you but right now it is 1:00 in the morning so I better go to bed. But I promise I will reply tomorrow when I wake up. I am deeply touched by your comments. You are on the right path! Never ever give up because you have so much to give!!! :D ...Cabbagepatch
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Wow @cabbagepatch, well done on a VERY informative post! I have a two year old and he is going through the typical separation anxiety phase, it's difficult but we are working through it!
Hi @sweetpea! Thank-you so much for your wonderful comments. It is deeply appreciated. You mentioned separation anxiety that your little one is going through. Just to let you know a few days ago I did a post on that subject ( https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@cabbagepatch/childhood-anxiety-separation-disorder). I'm not sure if it will help but because children are so vulnerable, parents have to handle this very carefully. During the time when my daughter was that age, there wasn't as much access to information so I probably didn't do a very good job with it. That is why my mission is to help others not make the mistakes I did.
It is so amazing how our little children get so impacted by everything so we have to handle every situation with a very gentle hand. I wish you the very best with your wonderful child. It must be great but also challenging because they are so smart and active. Again, thank-you for your support and wonderful comments! Have a great week ahead!
Thank you, heading of to read the post now, I appreciate the thought and I agree with you, we have to tread so lightly with our little souls, especially since they cannot yet communicate their feelings very well yet. And yes, it's very handy to have all this information around, but still it is often trial and error because what works for one, doesn't always work for the other. Thank you again for your heartfelt response!
I'm sure you will do great!!!
It's such an eye opening article, keep it up!
@mikasatraffic thank-you so much for you kind comments. Appreciate that you read my article. Have a great day!