Shruti was a bright and creative nine-year-old who loved school. She loved playing with her friends, dancing, swimming, drawing – she loved everything about being nine. As the new school year began, she suddenly started feeling something very uncomfortable, very unfamiliar. All of a sudden, she was finding it hard to concentrate. Her sleep was disturbed, she was woken by bad dreams, she lost her appetite, and her mood was almost always irritable.
Little things made her angry, she became unpredictable, and her outbursts were out of control. She was consumed by worrying and negative thoughts. There was a constant feeling of dread, she was fidgety, had become clingy, had tummy aches, headaches, and often complained of not feeling well. Shruti was experiencing anxiety.
Among all mental health disorders, anxiety disorders are the most frequent disorders in children and adolescents affecting almost 7% of children worldwide. Anxiety affects 1 in 8 children. Some children are simply more anxious than others, and many of them are less able to cope with stress than others.
Sometimes anxious people in the environment can make you feel anxious, it could be a change of home, changes at school, the death of a loved one, prolonged illness, a serious injury, academic stress, bullying, abuse, or even neglect.
Children who are raised by parents who have a non-authoritative parenting style are more likely to experience anxiety. Being authoritarian, permissive, neglectful, or overprotective tends to have a style that is more exaggerated, harsh, inconsistent, and unpredictable.
Read the full article on TOI website.