Strategies for Helping Anxious Children

20 Pages·2012·2.85 MB·English

Strategies for Helping
Anxious Children
Greenwich Public Schools SES Workshop
Krystina Dawson, M.S.Ed.
Nancy McGraw, NCSP
1/7/15

Your brain is built to deal with stress that lasts about 30
seconds. The brain is not designed for long term stress when
you feel like you have no control.
The saber-toothed tiger ate you or you ran away but it was all
over in less than a minute.
If you have a bad boss, the saber-toothed tiger can be at your
door for years, and you begin to deregulate.
If you are in a bad marriage, the saber-toothed tiger can be in
your bed for years, and the same thing occurs.
Types of Anxiety
✧ GAD
✧ OCD
✧ Panic Disorder
✧ Separation Anxiety
✧ Social Anxiety
✧ Specific Phobias
✧ PTSD
Generalized
�Muscle tension
●
Anxiety Disorder
�Fatigue
●
(GAD)
�Restlessness
●
Definition: when a person worries �Difficulty sleeping
●
excessively about a variety of
�Irritability
●
everyday problems for at least 6
�Edginess
months. ●
Women 2x as likely as men to be �Chronic,
●
affected; GAD affects 6/8 million
unsubstantiated worry
adults (3.1% of the U.S. pop.)
Disorder comes on gradually; risk is
highest between childhood and
middle age
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml?rf=53414
and
http://www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad
Obsessive-
● Obsessions
Compulsive
● Frequent thoughts of
Disorder violence
● Thoughts of harming
Affects about 2.2 million American
loved ones
adults
● Thoughts prohibited by
religious beliefs
Both men and women impacted
● Preoccupation with order
equally; usually appears in
childhood, adolescence, or early and symmetry
adulthood
● Pounding heart
● Sweatiness
Panic Disorder ● Faintness
● Dizziness
Characterized by sudden attacks of
terror ● Weakness
● Chilled feeling
Usually produce a sense of
● Tingling hands/numbness
unreality, fear of losing control
● Nausea
● Chest pain
Twice as common in women as
men; attacks often begin in late
● Smothering sensations
adolescence or early adulthood
● Fear of these previously
experienced symptoms
≠
Panic attacks Panic Disorder
from reoccurring
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml?rf=53414
Post Traumatic
● May startle easily
Stress Disorder
● Emotionally numb
(PTSD)
● Lose interest in things
Develops after a terrifying
they used to enjoy
occurrence that involved physical
harm or the threat of physical harm
● Difficulty feeling affection
Traumatized person ≠ PTSD
● Irritability
Symptoms must last >1 month
● Aggressive/violent
behaviors
Women are more likely to develop
PTSD than men; affect approx. 7.7
million American adults
● Avoid reminders of the
original incident
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml?rf=53414
Types of Phobias
● Agoraphobia (open spaces
Specific Phobias
● Claustrophobia (tight
Intense, irrational fear of something spaces)
that poses little to no actual danger
● Bibliophobia (books)
2x more common in women than
● Germophobia (sicks)
men; 19.2 million adult Americans
affected
● Isolophobia (being alone)
● Enochlophobia (crowds)
● Laliophobia (speaking)
● Polyphobia (many things)
● Scolionophobia (school)
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml?
rf=53414