a disorder that worries and grows day by day

Sofía, 9 years old, shared a room with her brother. But, despite the company, she felt alone. She woke up distraught and ran to her parents’ bed.. Apparently, he was afraid that something bad would happen. A form of anxiety. This girl’s case is not a rarity. It is part of a very common phenomenon these days. The 21st century seems to be the century of anxiety in children and young people.

This disorder is defined as excessive worry about the future. It goes hand in hand with anguish. Around one in seven children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 suffer from mental disorders, the most common being anxiety, depression and behavioral disorders, according to a recent report by the World Health Organization and the World Health Organization. United Nations for Children.

But let’s go back to Sofía’s case. Psychology graduate Romina Giuliano highlights some characteristics: “The transfer to the paternal bed draws attention due to age: At nine years old, children usually have a certain autonomy and independence from their parents. What you have to see is why it happens. What generates this behavior?

In therapy, it turned out that the family had moved into a two-story house. And that move had also involved a change of school and having to meet new people. Furthermore, that Sofia spent a lot of time at night watching TikTok.

“Everything appears in social media videos: from neutral things to some monster or an ugly movie. The mind stores all that information and does not contribute to peace of mind. The brain continues working and believes that it is still daytime. The head doesn’t stop”, says Giuliano.

Through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Sofía began to overcome the problem. It was detected that he had incorporated and made his own some of his mother’s fears (of storms, of darkness) and his cell phone was completely removed before going to sleep. “Sometimes parents don’t realize it, but they transmit their own fears to their children.”, adds Giuliano.

Maria, 6 years old, had adjusted well to first grade. And just in March, too, his parents abruptly separated. The mother was very distraught. The months passed and, in the middle of the year, School began to become more demanding and María’s performance dropped.. It was difficult for her to finish copying things from the board and that frustrated her a lot.

Little by little, the girl began to alter some of her habits at home. I no longer hung my backpack on the rack when I got home from school and I didn’t put together the pencil case alone.

Paula Preve, psychotherapist and coordinator of Child and Youth Admissions at the Aiglé Foundation, analyzes the case like this: “Faced with a school demand that feels very strong, the child may feel anxiety that, at the same time, generates worry. There is something threatening about not being able to deliver what is expected. Then an avoidance mechanism appears: you tend to avoid the situation because you don’t want to have a bad time. Something like: ‘I don’t want to be told again that I didn’t manage to do things right.’”

Anxiety recognizes more than one cause. In María’s case, the separation of her parents was added. In therapy, the difficulty of copying everything the teacher put on the board surfaced, but also concerns related to her new family situation, like not being able to spend the summer with both parents together.

Preve maintains that at ages like María’s, “self-esteem is threatened in front of the group if one, in this case the teacher, exposes the child and tells him: ‘You didn’t finish again.’” The point, the therapist says, is to address the child’s anxiety beyond the triggering behavior. “It’s not that: ‘He doesn’t want to go to school’ and then he’s misbehaving. Or she doesn’t want to dress herself and is making a whim. If we look at it from there, we can’t help it,” he details.

Ezekiel, 8 years old, He lived quite angry. They had given him a cell phone and when the time came to take it out, he would explode with fury. When doing a school assignment, he would get angry with his mother. Bath time was a problem. He showed a lot of irritability.

All of this behavior, which was relatively new, coincided with the death of his paternal grandfather, with whom he had a very close bond. In fact, the boy began to express that he did not want to have a birthday because he was going to get old.. Too much worry for a boy of only 8.

“At that age they are not prepared for losses. So this situation of grief, of crisis, can awaken anxiety, irritability and worry.”, explains Ms. Giuliano. In these cases, he adds, the therapist’s job is to “identify the things that make the child angry or sad and help him grieve satisfactorily.”

But, in general terms, where does anxiety come from? There are several factors that contribute to it triggering or developing. “Teverything has to do with early childhood, even from pregnancy. Everything will depend on how the mother has gone through this pregnancy, if there is also a history of any preceding mental or psychiatric issue. The history is important because there is a hereditary component to any mental disorder. But it also has to do with the first years of life and what type of mother or father this child had. Or two mothers or two fathers. That is crucial,” Giuliano points out.

“There are many parents who, unintentionally, because they are overprotective or because of their own fears, anxieties or worries, convey to the child that the world is dangerous or that someone is going to hurt them,” he adds.

The therapists consulted by Viva agree that one of the reasons for the increase in anxiety cases is technology. There is a lot of information that children cannot always process or situations that they cannot resolve. Too much stimulation.

On the other hand, the pandemic, they say, was a before and after. Since confinement, There are many cases of boys with issues of overflowing, of not accepting no or the limit. As if nothing intimidates them and nothing reaches them.

Anxiety also manifests itself with physical symptoms. Some children have stomach pains or feelings of suffocation due to frustration.. Especially in older children, agitation and difficulty breathing appear.

Preve recommends, in these cases, consulting the pediatrician: “We don’t know if the manifestations have to do with something that is happening in the body. You may need medical treatment. There is a lot of emotion, but it could be that diabetes is setting in and you didn’t realize it.”.

Adds Giuliano: “Anxiety medication has to be very short-term. It is not the same as for adults. And it can be prescribed by a neurologist or a child psychiatrist.”