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Anxiety in Adolescents and Children

Children, adolescents, and adults often experience health problems differently.  Anxiety disorders are no exception.  Generally, symptoms are the same no matter what the patient's age.  What differs by age-group, usually, is the way in which symptoms are displayed.  When determining whether or not treatment is needed, parents and professionals must decide if the youngster is "in a phase" that he or she eventually will outgrow or if deeper problems exist that disrupt the child's life.

A child suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder may spend hours doing and redoing homework or other tasks that most of their peers would dash off in a short period. Restlessness, tiredness, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, sleep disturbance and feeling on edge all characterize the disorder.  In severe cases they may refuse to go to school.

Compulsions like washing, checking, counting, praying, hoarding and arranging rituals are particularly common in young people with OCD.  It is estimated that 1 to 3 percent of children and adolescents suffer from OCD.  Some studies suggest young boys are about twice as likely as young girls to suffer from this disorder.  Many boys with OCD also have tic disorders.

PTSD can occur at any age even childhood.  In young people, the response may be expressed as agitated behavior.  Most young people with PTSD avoid things that remind them of what happened.  Many have physical symptoms as well, such as startling easily. In young children, the traumatic event may be relived by repetitive play that expresses aspects of the trauma; frightening dreams; and re-enacting the traumatic event.

Anxiousness over separation from familiar people and situations is a normal part of growing up. But, this anxiety should lessen as the child grows older.  A young child or adolescent who experiences excessive anxiety (lasting at least four weeks) on routine separation from parents, other caregivers, home or other familiar situations may be suffering from Separation Anxiety Disorder.  Crying, clinging, or panic on separation are common reactions of small children from separation anxiety. Unrealistic worry about harm to loved ones or fear they will not return home; a reluctance to sleep alone; refusal to attend school; and physical symptoms, such as a stomachache or headache, are signs of separation anxiety disorder in older children and adolescents.

Most youngsters in their mid-teens experience periods of shyness and may, at times, feel uneasy around strangers. In Social Phobia the desire to avoid strangers, including people their own age, becomes so extreme that it interferes with the development of normal social relations. Eventually, this may lead to a sense of isolation and/or depression.

Fears are common among children, but specific, intense and debilitating fear of animals or insects, storms, heights, or water; blood or injury as well as extreme fear of shots or other invasive medical procedures; and situations like crossing a bridge border on phobia. Common among young children, these phobias generally are not debilitating and tend to disappear as the child grows older. In addition, specific phobias usually don't require treatment.

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