What Is Child Anxiety And How To Deal With It?

Anxiety is a phase people go through when they have feelings of worry, fear, nervousness, discomfort and dismay. It is perfectly normal to feel this way, however, this becomes a disorder if it becomes too much and doesn't go away even if you, as a parent, tries to comfort your son or daughter.

Anxiety in children is said to be a normal phase that kids go through and experience in childhood, however, it has become a common problem, somehow, in today's generation of children. Child anxiety may occur when they first start going to preschool or kindergarten. Many would suddenly generate a sense of fear when they see new faces, which, therefore, will make them afraid of trying new things that they may end up not wanting to go to school yet.

Types of Anxiety Disorders in Children

1. Obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD. Infants and kids with OCD are those that can't control their obsessions, such as, constantly repeating certain words, always counting, frequently washing hands and many more, which is what they do when they want to control their thoughts and feelings and focus their mind on something else.

2. Phobias or fears. Phobia means being extremely scared of something. For children, this could be dogs, hospitals, blood, water, heights or the dark.

3. Generalized anxiety disorder or GAD. GAD is an illness wherein kids have uncontrollable fears all the time about normal, everyday events, for example, certain family issues, grades, good performance in school, bullies and many more. They want everything in their life to be perfect, for example, regarding grades, they will want it to be the highest possible. This illness and its effect on kids make most of them become perfectionists when they grow older.

4. Separation anxiety disease. This is common among toddlers and infants, as they don't want to be separated from their mother or father. When they are old enough to go to school and parents have to leave them behind, they would usually cry, throw tantrums and demand that their parents stay with them and not leave them behind, or, they would insist for their parents to take them along. Those with this disease fear that something bad will happen to their parents whenever they are not around.

How to help your child in dealing with these diseases

1. Make sure that they stay healthy. Make certain that whatever your child eats is healthy for him or her. Make sure that he or she eats more vegetables than meat, and, completely avoid those that contain fats and other unhealthy substances. Also, make sure that your son or daughter sleeps early at night and gets at least 10 hours of sleep every night.

2. Show your kid how to stay calm. It may be hard for you to show them how to stay calm, especially since there are so many things in the world nowadays that make life extremely stressful. However, you need to do this for them. Show them how it is to stay calm. You should know that they look up only to you for help and comfort. Set a mood and feel of calmness into your home. Don't show any feelings of stress and frustration in front of your kids. If you can do this properly, then, anxiety in children won't be a problem in your family anymore.

3. Consult professional help. If you feel that your children are suffering from child anxiety, you may seek for professional help, such as, going to the pediatrician or visiting your child's school counselor or a child therapist.

For more information about anxiety in children and child anxiety, visit our website childanxietymom.com.

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How to Prevent Anxiety Attacks From Ruling Your Life

If you have ever experienced a panic attack, you know just how debilitating they can be. They can make you freeze up, they can cause you to feel like vomiting, and you can even pass out in some cases. Some people have mild panic attacks and others avoid social and other situations completely for fear that another serious attack will occur. Fortunately, there is help. But it's not pharmaceutical help. This country is quickly becoming addicted to too many pharmaceutical drugs. The following are ways to stop a panic attack without the use of medication entirely.

Medication

If you currently take medication for your anxiety and panic attacks, keep taking them. Do not listen to anyone about whether or not you should take your medicine except your doctor. Only he or she can tell you with authority that you should stop taking your meds. That being said, hopefully you'll get to a point where you can tell your doctor you know longer need them. Keep up with the following tips and you may get to that point.

Deep Breathing

It may sound cliché to tell someone to breathe deeply in order to calm a panic attack, but this technique really works. However, for it to be effective you have to really concentrate. You can't just take in a few deep breaths and expect to be fine without doing a little mental work. You need to close your eyes and picture you are somewhere else while you do your deep breathing exercises. For this exercise, it's important that you have that spot picked out before hand. It could be the beach; it could be an image of you and your loved one at the park, or anything else that brings happy thoughts to your mind. Then, whenever you feel a panic attack coming on, you just breathe as deeply as you can while imagining you are somewhere else entirely. This is very effective at calming even the worst of panic attacks.

A Comedy

This may sound like a funny tip but whenever you find yourself in a situation that typically brings on panic attacks, imagine it's a scene in a comedy. You should even go so far as to imagine a laugh track. This isn't as easy as it sounds, but it's terribly effective at calming panic attacks. If you can picture yourself watching the situation through a TV or movie screen, things don't seem as serious as they did before. This really works so it's recommended that you try it whenever you feel an attack coming on to stop the panic attacks from occurring.

Practice with a Reminder

If you suffer from anxiety attacks, it's recommended that you work on curing them every night before you go to bed. You need to imagine yourself in a happy place while you meditate and focus on everything positive in your life. It's at this time that you will probably feel most calm. You will want to preserve that feeling for the real world so that you can use your new found confidence to stop panic attacks from controlling your life forever. So the next time you're practicing, use a reminder in your meditations. This could be a special stone, a rubber band, or anything small you can carry with you that will remind you of your nightly practice sessions. Then, whenever you feel an attack coming on, touch the stone, or look at the rubber band around your wrist and you'll instantly calm down.

The above tips will take practice but with time you'll be able to stall and even stifle panic attacks completely so that they no longer affect you.

Anxiety doesn't have to rule your life. Click Here and read about my battle with Anxiety attacks and how came out the winner.

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Everything I Needed To Know I Learned at the Gym!

For those who don't remember Silken's physically & emotionally brutal journey - in May 1992 at the world rowing competition, 10 weeks before the 1992 Barcelona Olympics - Silken was in a horrific rowing accident. Sparing you the gore & mangled muscles, Silken required 5 surgeries & weeks of intensive rehab- and she was told she would never row competitively again. Silken in perfectly Olympic physical & emotional fitness refused to succumb to such a diagnosis. She fought back - and won the bronze for Canada. She shared with me the many ways her physical and emotional strength continue to propel her through life's inevitable hardships. She co parents a profoundly autistic daughter, work demands, personal challenges. Life's hardships seem endless but our ultimate training is deflecting the many daily Katyusha rockets launched our way.

A quick physiological reminder here - our immune system - that is there to protect us from the common cold to cancer - is a pumpless system. It is reliant on strong muscles to pump it through the body. We often refer to a person who is of stronger emotional resilience as "thicker skinned" - impervious to the barrage of daily darts. And that oh so yummy muscle mass is the body's best method of managing insulin. When insulin whacks out - so does our moods!

The key aspects of building emotional strength are:

*Self discipline - Self Control
*Effective Stress Management Skills

We build our thick skin the same way we build our muscle mass.

Reach.....Push......Reach....Push...... Feel burned out....Step it up a notch!

That surge of empowering hormones deflects those killer Katyushas.

Doing cardio respiratory fitness is the very best way to open the mind and envisage new ideas. Have a serious stressor causing you to lose sleep? Get on a treadmill or elliptical & fly. The sweatier & filthier the workout - the more the mind opens & thinks unstoppably. It forces us to breathe & oxygenate - & yes - rattle those hormones into a melodious harmony of power & creativity. Our racing heartbeat not only brings in fresh oxygen - it brings in a fresh outlook. BTW - I always recommend resistance based cardio respiratory fitness. Work those power pump muscles - really pump that blood, hard, back to the heart!

Those of us who are resistance training junkies know the infinite, truly indescribable rewards of graduating to a new level. Man or woman - and btw if you are a woman who worries 'bout "getting ripped" - you are missing out. My blessing for you that you get "too ripped" - is your biggest problem in life.

We fitness fanatics know factually there is a direct correlation between our reach in exercise - and our reach in our emotional, spiritual & intellectual lives. The harder we push ourselves in a workout - the harder we push ourselves through life's challenges. Exercise is the very best form of stress management. Turning to typical indulgences to relieve stress - smoking, alcohol, bingeing......these are all known physiological stressors - which by definition only increases stress. The bodily damage from these assailants ultimately makes us look & feel worse - because they are destroying us. Exercise - now you feel empowered and in control - we control our lives - our lives are not controlling us. Letting physiologically addictive substances - alcohol, cigarettes, sugar, saturated fat, salt govern behavior is breeding helplessness.

Helplessness is debilitating & metastatic, however, treatable with exercise....feeling strong, pumped & focused is extremely invigorating.

We also know that not all workouts are created equally - fact is some days we are more energized than others...and some days we have to push a lot harder. Our daily lives are no different. Even if we have a day where we just take an easier walk on the treadmill - we feel we put in effort, oxygenated & toned - which equates to "ready"mode for our daily dilemmas. Remember to always give yourself a shout out for even smaller accomplishments:

I got up to go to the gym before work
I took Fido for a long walk
I added 5 pounds to the leg press
I added 2 reps to the set
I brought a healthy lunch to work and didn't eat fast food
I did not touch the cookies at work
I went for a workout instead of drinks after work
I cut back on cigarettes daily - until I stop
I controlled the lowering of that weight (eccentric movement) at the gym and defied the force of gravity - - just as I control my behavior and destiny

Everything I need to know about life coping skills - I learned getting fit!

Shira Litwack
Medical Fitness Professional,Lifestyle & Weight Management Coach,Fitness & Nutrition for chronic illness recovery, Radio Talk Show Host/Producer bestinhealthradio
http://www.bestinhealthradio.com/
http://www.fitfan4fun.com/

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