Anxiety Disorders - Anxiety Disorders Of Childhood And Adolescence

It has been seen that anxiety disorders can be caused in adults, but it is also true that these disorders can occur in children and adolescents also. The most common causes of these disorders in children and adolescents are related to their heredity and character attributes. It should be remembered that these anxiety disorders in children are very common, but usually they are overlooked or misjudged. Even though these disorders are very treatable conditions and are given persistent medical care, most parents fail to recognize these problems in their children.

The symptoms of anxiety disorders in children have been identified with various psychological and physiological disorders. Some of the most common symptoms faced by adolescents and children are known as sense of worry, apprehension, fear and distress. Usually it is very normal for children to have these sensations on some occasions. But again it is vital for the parents to understand the difference between normal levels of anxiety and unhealthy or pathologic levels of anxiety.

Usually subjective experience of anxiety includes two components and these are the physical sensations like headache, nausea and sweating. The other component is the emotions of nervousness and fear. It should be remembered that these anxiety disorders can affect a child's thinking and also alter its decision-making ability for life along with perceptions of the environment. Some of the other factors that are affected because of these disorders include learning and concentration and increase in blood pressure and heart rate.

This can lead to a multitude of bodily complaints and these include nausea, tingling, weakness, vomiting, stomach pain, ulcers, diarrhea, and shortness of breath. There are various kinds of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents and these are understood by diagnosis of normal versus abnormal anxiety. This largely depends on the degree of distress and functioning of the child in life. The common anxiety disorders here include the generalized anxiety disorder, which has been defined as excessive worry, apprehension, and anxiety.

This problem occurs on most days for a period of 6 months and the patient has trouble in controlling the anxiety that has been associated with symptoms of restlessness, being easily fatigued and difficulty concentrating. The anxiety disorder can be followed by panic attacks also, but this is not Panic Disorder and it is different from Panic Attacks. These panic disorders are a kind of anxiety disorder that occurs in children and is manifested with an intense desire to escape, feeling of doom or dread in most of the cases.

Then there is the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, which has been defined by persistent obsessive behaviors including intrusive, unwanted thoughts and related images and ideas. The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is a type of anxiety disorder where the child is exposed to a traumatic event, where they are confronted or involved actual in threat of death or serious bodily injury. There are various other kinds of anxiety disorders too and these include social phobia, specific phobia, adjustment disorder, drug induced anxiety and various other forms of anxiety disorders. However anxiety disorders are treatable with the adequate care and treatment for adolescents.

• Juliana Breckinridge
• 13/05/2009, 12:59 AM
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