Friday, November 20, 2015

Childhood Depression and Generalized Anxiety

I’ve written about the struggles of children with social anxiety and separation anxiety but some depressed children can be anxious about many different situations and experiences.  Children with generalized anxiety may be afraid of many things. 

 

Children with generalized anxiety often have an intense fear of rejection.  They are constantly trying to please everybody.  They may be afraid if they don’t please everyone all the time no one will love them and losing a parent’s love can be one of their main concerns.

 

Children who are anxious about many situations often put a lot of pressure on themselves to be perfect.  They may do things like homework or other tasks over and over because if it’s not perfect it’s not good enough.  That’s another big fear; that they’re not good enough to be loved, liked or accepted.  They may think they don’t deserve love, family or friendship.  These children may need constant reassurance that they are good and that they are loved because they can have very low self-esteem and be lacking in self-confidence. 

 

These children are often very hard on themselves.  They can be their own worst enemy, their own worse critic.  They may think if they’re not a straight A student then they’re not smart enough, if they make mistakes then they have no value.  All the stress and pressure they put on themselves can lead to very negative views of the world, the future and themselves.  They may feel like they’ll never be happy, they’ll never be like anyone else, they’ll never be normal. 

 

Children with generalized anxiety worry about a lot of different things.  They may be worried that they’ll mess up and look foolish.  They may worry about natural or man made disasters like floods, tornadoes or terrorist attacks.  They may worry about getting an illness.  They seem to be worried about something all the time because they can’t control their worry.

 

Children with generalized anxiety can have a hard time concentrating or focusing on school work and other tasks but then again they may focus too much on the little details of school work and tasks to make sure they’re perfect.    

 

These children can be very forgetful.  Sometimes they are so anxious that their mind freezes up or goes blank. 

 

Children with generalized anxiety are often restless and on guard all the time because they are so afraid something bad will happen.  They play a lot of “what if” scenarios in their head, “What if I mess up? What if I look stupid?  What if everybody hates me and makes fun of me?  What if I get hurt?” 

 

These children can be very jumpy.  They can startle easily.  They may be clumsy.  They can be very uptight.  They may overreact to any accidents they have or mistakes they make, thinking it’s the worst thing in the world. 

 

Children with generalized anxiety can be irritable at times.  They may have trouble sleeping.  They may always be tight and tense.  This can cause muscle aches or soreness and may cause the child to clench their teeth which can cause jaw pain and earaches.  They have a tendency to tire easily.  Fear, anxiety and tension can be exhausting. 

 

These children may show physical signs of anxiety like a red, sweaty face or trembling hands or nausea and vomiting.  Being anxious all the time about everything and nothing is someone’s own personal hell but with help children can learn how to shut down their negative thoughts and live a relatively normal life.

 

Thank you so much for reading my posts.  I hope they are helpful in some way.  I welcome any comments.  I just ask that you be respectful.             



  never be normal.yone else, they'very negative views of the world, the future and themnselves  iences      

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