Sunday, 18 June 2017
Help for anxiety in children and andolescents
Help for anxiety in
children and adolescents.
One in three children now have a formal diagnosis of anxiety
in Australia.This is a worrying
statistic, considering also that anxiety can contribute to other diseases and
physical conditions, such as obesity, heart disease and an array of other
mental and physical ailments.>
Most of the children diagnosed have been found to have
anxiety due to the pressures on them in the school system. I have always believed in Australia that we
send our children too early to school. I
myself have done it! I sent my first and second child to school at four and a
half with the kindergarten teacher’s advice that they were ready, only to find
later that they along with many other undiagnosed children with anxiety back 10
to 20 years ago, were struggling in a system they were not ready for. Later I realised the best thing to do for my
second child was to repeat grade 6 in a different school and catch up and start
over to restore her faith in herself and lift her self-esteem so she could
start learning again.
However, all children are different, and what works for one
child may not work for the next.
Research has shown that, like Sweden and other parts of Europe, where
they start their children in school at around six or seven years of age,
actually have more high achieving students and lowest rates of learning
disorders and school drop-outs. With
these statistics I find it hard to understand why we in Australia still put our
children in school so early. I understand
that often children have been in the same child-care environment since they
were babies and they may need a different environment to start to thrive again with
different stimulus’s, which is why I thought of a new idea of a ‘pre-pre prep’
environment as an option? Or at least
Government support incentives for parents to stay home longer with their
children from the start with community supports to assist them in Prep-
readiness ideas for their own children.
Neuroscientists have found that play is the central
mechanism for children’s learning, particularly in early childhood. Despite the evidence, an extended period of
high- quality, play-based preschool education in early childhood is still
undervalued in Australia, England and other western societies.
Now back to the topic of anxiety. What is anxiety?
It is a normal response to a perceived threat.
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It is a physical, behavioural and cognitive
response in the body.
Humans have it to protect us from danger and
some stress is good for us, but when it is out of control it can cause
debilitating effects to an individual.
Some level of anxiety is good for us as it gives
us energy and motivation to do our best and get things done.
Children, adolescents and adults alike can present with
different physical and behavioural characteristics when dealing with
anxiety. Some will be shy, clingy,
withdrawn, teary when dealing with anxiety and surprisingly for some parents,
their child will present as oppositional, irritable and aggressive. These
behaviours can result in fear, avoidance of a situation, sleep problems.
Additional physical signs can be sweaty palms, feeling that
your heart is racing, crying, feeling sick and nausea. Cognitive responses can manifest as lack of
attention, speaking fast, stutter, memory problems, worrying
Development of anxiety can come from
biological/genetic influences and general temperament, a stress or trauma that
has occurred in a child’s life and/or environmental learning influences, that
is; >can role model positive responses to anxiety
or negative ones.
Changes in the teenage brain.
Daniel Siegal (2016) talks about
the teenage brain in his youtube video from the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and
Education.
In teenagers, their seemingly hyper
rational thinking is not just from their hormones. Re-modelling of the brain is taking place,
which sparks significant changes in their behaviour and how they feel. On the down side the increase in dopamine can
make them feel moody and irrational, but on the up-side they can be filled with
passion and creative ideas. We have all
seen the wonderful ideas brought forward by teen entrepreneurs
These changes in the brain
encourage them to move away from their peers and want to be with their friends
more.; This is a normal part of human
evolution as teens begin to feel safety in association with other teens. This can spark an urgency in being accepted
and liked by their peers and an irrational response if feeling rejected. I had a peer in high school commit suicide
and wrote a note to her parents stating that ‘without any friends, there was no
point to living’. The ABS statistics
reveal that, the number of teenage girls who die by suicide has risen. In 2015,
56 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 ended their lives, up from 38 in 2014
It’s important that we as mentors
show compassion and empathy as teens go through this necessary faze of human
development. We can encourage positive
social engagement which teaches them connection in their relationships and in the
community
>
These changes in the brain
encourage them to move away from their peers and want to be with their friends
more. This is a normal part of human
evolution as teens begin to feel safety in association with other teens. This can spark an urgency in being excepted
and liked by their peers and an irrational response if feeling rejected. I had a peer in high school commit suicide
and wrote a note to her parents stating that ‘without any friends, there was no
point to living’. The ABS statistics
reveal that, the number of teenage girls who die by suicide has risen. In 2015,
56 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 ended their lives, up from 38 in 2014.
How yoga and mindfulness can help.
">Yoga is recommended as a complementary therapy for people with anxiety
or eating disorders. Yoga reduces cortisol levels which is a stress hormone and
on-going practice can work at levelling out an ongoing mental health issue
where cortisol has increased over time. Yoga helps to make participants more
aware of their mind and body connection. As you move through postures and
breathe noticing how you move and feel at the same time heightens. Responding
to feelings relating to anxiety and registering all sensations in the body are
enhanced. It then becomes ‘a mindful meditation.’
>Mindfulness practices and exercises can also help with anxiety, stress,
pain and illness.
I read a lovely Chinese quote to explain mindfulness:
Mindfulness means; ‘presence of heart’.
Compassion and mindfulness go together as the quality of mindfulness can
bring feelings of gratitude and simplifies understanding ourselves. It is a core universal emotion and derives
from an innate ability to want to care for our young with presence of
Mindfulness can serve to remind
ourselves that we should be grateful for being here and make it a real presence
of mind experience and trust this is where we ought to be in our journey. Spaciousness of awareness can be explained as
compassion, as we open our awareness to the wider community and support each
other and recognise we are all connected in some way in this world. ‘Ahimsa’
(non-violence) in yoga philosophy includes compassion and (many other religions
have a similar word for being kind to all living things).
In addition, yoga poses coupled with mindfulness and
breathing practices assists children to take control of their ‘monkey mind’ and
learn to be still for a moment. The John
Hopkins University (USA) found in a study that, ‘mindfulness meditation reduced
the symptoms of anxiety to some degree across studies’, 2014, JAMA Internal
Medicine.
Exercises
>Tighten and
release into different parts of their body.
Breath in as you tighten and squeeze your hands, shoulders, legs,
stomach, feet and face, then breath out as you release.
Shake out
your worries: stand on one foot and shake other leg out counting up to six or
seven, then switch legs. Next, shake again alternative legs, but this time
counting down from seven to one.
Pay
attention to your thoughts and label them: ‘Is this my anxiety talking that is
making my body feel the way it does?’ label those feelings then chose a
strategy to deal with them.
Think of
three things you are grateful for? In particular if teens, have trouble
thinking of three good things then brainstorm with them to get them
started. Keep a journal of these each
day. Explain to children even when they
are feeling worried they can still think of good things too and have more then
one feeling at a time.
>A
study found that adults that practised gratitude showed more emotional support
to others as a result of journaling gratitude. (University of California and
University of Miami, R. Emmons Ph.D and M. McCullough). The university of Texas Health Science Centre
found in another study that, 'a growing body of research shows gratitude is
truly amazing in its physical and psychosocial benefits.’
So,
practice gratitude with your children for a healthy heart, mind and body and in
turn the world may become a more kind society overall for everyone.Go for a
‘mindful’ walk. Notice five things you
can see, four things you can smell and three things you can touch or notice
five things in different colours. Next
time take a camera and encourage child to take photos of the things they find.
You could make a little, ‘mindfulness book’ of beautiful things to look at
together or frame them for calming their minds in the bedroom.
We
practice mindfulness in order to have contentment and calm in our lives. Positive
role modelling in stress and anxiety control is so important as parents.
And.. of course don’t forget to calm your mind with some deep
breathing. Remember also to think about
what is the worse thing that could happen in any given situation and anything
up from that is a good thing right?
I tell my clients, young and old, I know this is true, as I’ve dealt with anxiety
taking over in my younger days with embarrassing results to say the least, but
I’m still here and can actually laugh about it now. Sometimes sharing these stories with children
is a good idea to so they know they are not alone and not abnormal and maybe
have a good belly laugh too!
But on a more serious note the rates of anxiety in young children, domestic violence involving
children, suicide in teenagers, addiction to ‘screens’, and obesity in our
nation, should be enough encouragement to do something and gift our children
with repeated practices and strategies to support anxiety control.
"Einstein: ‘Free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion’… for
ourselves and others.
<
<
Ford, M. Australian suicide deaths rising among
women and teenage girls, ABS figures show.
Updated, Sept. 29, 2016. Retrieved from abc.net.au on 5/01/17.
Daniel Siegal (2016) Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and
Education. Retrieved, 4/01/17.
– Zinn, Founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic and
the centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care.
Waters, L. Sept -November 2014, ‘Yoga for eating issues: anecdotes and
evidence’, Australian Yoga Life.>Whitebread, D. 2014, ‘Hard Evidence: at what age are children ready for
school’. The Conversation.com.
(Tracey holds a Bach. Of Early Childhood, Bach. Of Education, Yoga cert
and kid’s yoga training. She offers yoga
for anxiety in children and other public and private classes and workshops, as
well as massage therapy. Visit Yogamotorkills.com, f: yogamotorskills, Pinterest:
Yogamotorskills and kidscreativeashdown/maclayblog.)
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