Emotional problems in children: aggression, anxiety, fears

• Defining and Explaining Anxiety Problems
• What are the dangers of increased anxiety?
• Types
• Causes
• Diagnostics
• What to do: advice for parents

Among all the problems in child psychology, increased anxiety in a child stands out.
More often than not, only behavioral disorders occur. Overall, clinical signs of anxiety can be identified in almost 10% of preschool and school-age children, and the numbers are steadily increasing. Anxiety is typical for children of both sexes, but there is a difference in the intensity of its experience and the range of possible factors. So, if we are talking about preschoolers and primary school, more anxiety is observed in boys, and in middle school and puberty, girls are more often anxious. For boys, the most worrying areas are violence and the possibility of punishment, for girls - relationships with loved ones and strangers. Source: I.I. Khaprenkov. The problem of studying anxiety in children from the point of view of developmental psychology // Eurasian Scientific Journal, 2016, pp. 302-303.

In adolescence, anxiety can have a mobilizing effect and motivate certain activities. But for preschoolers or children in primary school, increased anxiety only has a negative effect. If children are constantly afraid of mistakes and try to control themselves, this leads to problems in everyday activities. In addition, constant worry and anxiety in children can significantly affect the level of self-esteem, lowering it. Often, a child’s constant anxiety may indicate difficulties with emotional adjustment and an adequate response to certain social situations. This provokes lack of confidence in one’s strengths and capabilities.

What is anxiety

In recent years, the number of children suffering from some form of anxiety disorder has increased. This is due to many factors: a tense situation in families, immersion in the world of the Internet and gadgets, etc.

But for the most part, anxiety in children arises from the dissatisfaction of their age-related needs. Babies need a sense of security and the constant presence of their mother. Preschool children show increased anxiety in unfamiliar surroundings or are afraid of the dark. Teenagers need trust and respect, recognition of their right to their own opinion and freedom of choice.

Anxiety in psychological literature

This condition is described in many works of eminent psychologists. Thus, S. Freud identified three forms of anxiety:

• Real fear is a feeling of danger that some event or phenomenon carries.
• Neurotic anxiety is a fear of something unknown, irrational fear.
• Moral anxiety is a product of one’s own ego, that is, pangs of conscience, feelings of guilt, etc.

A. Adler considered the cause of increased anxiety to be a feeling of inferiority. But A. Prikhozhan explained this condition by the presence of emotional discomfort from a real or imaginary problem.

Introduction

Anxiety disorders (AD) are one of the most common reasons for visiting doctors and are often encountered in the clinical practice of pediatricians and pediatric neurologists.
It should be noted that until now, some specialists in the process of monitoring children and adolescents with TD continue to use such formulations as “neurotic conditions”, “neurotic reactions”, “neurosis-like syndrome”, and often incorrectly use the concepts of “asthenia”, “neurasthenia” , "asthenic neurosis". The listed terms do not correspond to the definitions of TR in the classifications of recent years [1, 2], as well as to modern ideas about the nature of TR. According to epidemiological studies, the overall incidence of all TDs in children and adolescents varies from 9 to 32% and is characterized by an increase as children grow older [3]. In the majority of adult patients with emotional and affective disorders, the first symptoms manifested in childhood or adolescence, and these were manifestations of TD [4, 5]. Thus, the formation of the clinical picture of TR occurs gradually. However, in many children and adolescents, TR remains unidentified for a long time, which leads to a lack of specialized care and drug therapy, and subsequently, the chronicity of TR.

Let us dwell on the features of the manifestations of TD in children and adolescents. It should be noted that some patients may simultaneously experience symptoms of not one, but several forms of TR. In addition, TD can act as both an independent and concomitant condition in many diseases of the nervous system in children, including disorders of speech development and school skills, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, primary headaches (especially tension headaches), epilepsy, consequences perinatal lesions of the nervous system, traumatic brain injuries, neuroinfections, autism spectrum disorder, etc.

TR is a group of syndromes of emotional disorders that are characterized by intense and prolonged anxiety, subjective feelings of anxiety, tension, gloomy forebodings, the experience of damage, as well as the appearance of unusually strong fear - irrational and not consistent with the content of the situations or objects that cause it [4, 6–9] .

Forms of increased anxiety

There are two forms of childhood anxiety:

1. Open. The child consciously experiences certain emotions and demonstrates them through his behavior.
2. Hidden. When the child himself does not realize that he is experiencing anxiety. This may manifest itself in excessive calmness, apathy, or even denial of any discomfort.

The second type of anxiety is much less common; its main symptom is considered to be the so-called “inadequate calm.” The child is so worried that he carefully hides it and demonstrates complete calm and detachment from the situation.

How to understand that a child has increased anxiety

To help parents - a small self-diagnosis test. Read these statements and think about how they apply to your child. Pay attention to the degree of expression of each point. Single manifestations do not indicate anything, but regular cases, and even with a tendency to worsen, indicate a problem.

So, increased anxiety is present if the child:

• afraid of everything new, unknown;
• tense, constrained, reacts sharply to any unpleasant little thing;
• not confident in himself;
• gets tired quickly;
• absent-minded, performs meaningless actions;
• prone to negativism, sees only the bad in people and events;
• passive, apathetic, difficult to captivate him with anything;
• reacts poorly to criticism;
• feels guilty even in cases where he is not objectively guilty;
• criticizes other people for the slightest mistake;
• complains of bad thoughts, scary dreams;
• sleeps poorly, has difficulty falling asleep;
• cries often;
• cannot bear waiting (for example, in a queue);
• avoids any difficulties

Sources and causes of anxiety

It is necessary to fight not only the manifestations of anxiety in children, but also the causes of its occurrence. Even correctly selected and timely psychotherapy will not bring results if the child is under the influence of stress factors every time. It will not be possible to get out of this state until the sources of anxiety are eliminated.

Family

— In dysfunctional families, children are anxious and aggressive, they have low self-esteem and at the same time a great desire to prove to the world that they are better than others.

— The child’s inconsistency with the aspirations and plans of his parents. The phrases “How you disappointed me!” or “Everyone in our family has a higher education, but you’re good for nothing” really hits the child’s self-esteem and makes him afraid of not conforming to family traditions.

“The anxiety of parents also infects their children. If a mother reacts violently to any wrongdoing, is afraid of everything and frightens the child with terrible consequences, he will begin to think the same way.

— Strict upbringing, inflexibility, and overprotection create in the child the feeling that nothing depends on him. All that remains for him is to be a doll of his domineering parents. This causes anxiety and internal protest, and with them anxiety.

School

— Poor performance is like a snowball. Having once again received a low grade, the child becomes convinced that he is not capable of studying well. This reduces motivation: “I’m a bad student, but oh well, not everyone can be smart.” But if at the same time the child has ambitions, he develops anxiety due to the discrepancy between the results of his studies and his aspirations.

— By scolding a child for bad grades, parents neutralize the value of knowledge. The very purpose of education is changing. It becomes only a tool for obtaining parental approval and a cause of anxiety if the grades are not as high as we would like.

Friends

— Some children communicate with peers for fun. Others do it to please their own fears and complexes. The fear of being rejected by a certain social group makes you become dependent on friends and their opinions.

— An anxious child may himself reject a group of children. It seems to him that he will be offended there and not understood, so he avoids any communication and feels uncomfortable in a group.

Tips for parents

Here are some more psychological tips for comprehensive work with anxiety and fears in children:

The basis of everything will be work in these three areas:

1. Increased self-esteem:

• Call your child by name often and maintain eye contact when speaking.
• Increase the number of tactile contacts. Affectionate touches help restore trust in the world.
• Celebrate his successes often and preferably publicly (for example, at a family dinner). Remember that there is always a reason for praise. It is enough to notice the little things that your child does better than yesterday.
• Organize parties at home and invite your classmates to them. Even your presence in another room will have a beneficial effect on an anxious child. He will feel more confident than all alone at school, and this will gradually change the opinion of his peers about him. Believe me, this is extremely important for him, even if he doesn’t admit it.
• Practice heart-to-heart conversations. This should be the time when you completely belong to the child and listen to him with all your attention, without being distracted by the phone or other family members. The time when he can tell you everything that worries and excites him. Your undivided attention will show him how important his feelings and he are to you.
• Separate the child's actions from the child himself. Don't tell him that he is bad if he got a bad mark and offended his younger sister. Discuss and condemn the act itself: “ I love you, you are very good, but now you did something wrong

  »

2. Teaching a child coping methods:

• Set an example of positive expectations for the future and demonstrate confident behavior.
• Teach him the methods listed in Chapter. 6
• Discuss learning and communication difficulties with your child, and jointly develop a strategy for moving towards success.
• Teach him breathing techniques and mindfulness

3. Relieve muscle tension:

• Create rituals, for example, every Saturday we dance,
• Give your child a massage before bed - it will also strengthen your relationship
• Play sports with him - it helps relieve tension and get rid of stress, and in addition, brings him closer together.
• Hug and kiss as much as possible - children (and adults, too) need tactile contact

How to quickly relieve anxiety in a child

Sometimes you need to overcome anxiety here and now. For example, getting ready before a performance or getting ready to go to the doctor. Use the method of the French teacher M. Borba for this. These are simple exercises to quickly relieve stress. Perform them in combination or separately:

• Come up with a phrase that increases self-confidence in a stressful situation. For example: “This will end soon,” “I can handle it,” “I’m safe,” or “Mom is here.”
• Do breathing exercises: take a deep breath through your nose, quickly exhale through your mouth. Teach your child to breathe alternately from the chest to the stomach. Use elevator breathing: after a few deep breaths, close your eyes and imagine that you are in an elevator going down. At this time, hold your breath. As soon as the elevator arrives, you can open your eyes, breathe in and feel that the tension has decreased.
• Teach your child to identify where his stress is. Usually this is the neck, head, lower jaw. Let him tense the muscles of this part of the body several times, and then relax.
• Visualize a comfortable place where the child feels good and calm. For example, in the dentist's chair, let him imagine that he is on a sunny beach, swimming and sunbathing. Taking your thoughts elsewhere will allow you to escape from reality and move through the procedure more calmly.

The solution to the problem is behavior modification technology 7Spsy

So, you have noticed increased anxiety in your child and are probably wondering how to get rid of it forever. In this case, it is necessary to work on his stress resistance. At the same time, it is not enough to simply remove the symptoms - a profound change in the established behavior pattern is necessary. The 7Spsy behavior modification course will help relieve your child of anxiety. A patented method of behavioral psychology helps to identify attitudes that led to increased anxiety and change them to positive ones.

We will teach you the ability to be calm and attentive

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The course is completed remotely and takes from 2 to 6 weeks. Throughout the entire program, your child will be accompanied by a professional psychologist. He will support you when difficulties arise on the path to developing stress resistance. Thanks to the 7Spsy method, your child will stop worrying about little things and learn to cope with stress on their own.

Sources:

1. Methodology of Lavrentyev G. P., Titarenko T. M., “The level of anxiety of a child” https://www.eti-deti.ru/det-test/75.html
2. Igor Savchenko, “Anxious child. What kind of help does he need? (https://eduface.ru/consultation/psiholog/trevozhnyj_rebenok_v_kakoj_pomowi_on_nuzhdaetsya)
3. Marina Osipenko, “Anxious child - what to do?” (https://medaboutme.ru/mat-i-ditya/publikacii/stati/psikhologiya_detey/trevozhnyy_rebenok_chto_delat/)