![\"Helping](\"http:\/\/image.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/152-2.jpg\" "\\"Helping")
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Imagine you are on the stage in a large crowded room. You are to give a presentation. On a topic you know nothing about. As the audience stares you down, you feel your heart begin to beat a bit faster. Your stomach starts to knot up. Your chest tightens, so much it feels like someone is sitting on you. You can’t breathe. Your palms sweat. The dizziness sets in. And worse, you hear your inner voice saying “what are you doing here?”, “why would you have agreed to this?”, “everyone thinks you’re an idiot”. Suddenly, every small sound is magnified — a pen falling to the floor sounds like someone dropped a pot lid onto ceramic, your eyes dart around the room as the buzzing of phone notifications sound like a swarm of angry bees. People are staring at you, waiting for you to speak, and all you can see is their angry faces. You stand there thinking, “where can I run?”<\/span><\/p>\n Now imagine if even the smallest of tasks made you feel this way. Thinking about having to talk to your boss, taking a crowded bus, driving on an unfamiliar route all make you feel intense nervousness. Even walking into the grocery store to get milk and seeing everyone staring at you – but they’re not. This is living with anxiety.<\/span><\/p>\n What is anxiety?<\/b><\/p>\n Anxiety is a relatively common mental health challenge. According the the National Institute of Mental health, 18% of adults live with an anxiety disorder<\/a>. Anxiety is a natural state and all of us will have some anxiety in our lives. However, for those with an anxiety disorder, the worry is persistent enough that the distress it causes interferes with everyday life. They may go to great lengths to engineer their lives to avoid common everyday events which cause them anxiety, which paradoxically worsens the stress and fatigue.<\/span><\/p>\n Anxiety affects not only adults, but also children<\/strong>.<\/em> <\/i> Tweet this <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If your child struggles with anxiety, there are several things that you may notice, including:<\/span> Watching your child struggle this way is difficult for parents. Thankfully, there are things that you can do to help your child manage their anxiety symptoms. <\/span><\/p>\n Teach your child effective strategies to help them overcome anxiety<\/i><\/b><\/i> Tweet this <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n With time and patience, your child can learn how to manage when stressors feel overwhelming. It is important to take your time with each strategy and not be discouraged if some don’t work for your child. When you do find the right strategy for you, it will work like a charm! Don’t be discouraged if you don’t find your “magic bullet” early in the process. <\/span><\/p>\n The critical part of these techniques is that you practice it with your child regularly. In order for your child to integrate the learning, the practice must occur when they are feeling relatively calm. When they have really mastered it when they are feeling well, they will have greater chance of relying coping tools when they are not feeling well. <\/span><\/p>\n Most importantly, it is important to empathize with your child. Never minimize their feelings or reactions. If you are constantly telling your child to “calm down,” the underlying message is that their reaction is not valid, increasing anxiety in the long run and teaching them that they cannot rely on themselves to manage when life gets tough. Say to them “I understand that this is difficult for you. I know you are working hard to make these things easier. And I think that you can do it.”<\/span><\/p>\n Anxiety is tough, especially for little ones. But many people go on to live successful lives and even translate anxiety into a strong drive to achieve as adults. With time and patience your family can devise strategies that can help your child overcome anxiety and strengthen your family as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imagine you are on the stage in a large crowded room. You are to give a presentation. On a topic you know nothing about. As the audience stares you down, you feel your heart begin to beat a bit faster. Your stomach starts to knot up. Your chest tightens, so much it feels like someone is sitting on you. You can’t breathe. Your palms sweat. The dizziness sets in. And worse, you hear your inner voice saying “what are you doing here?”, “why would you have agreed to this?”, “everyone thinks you’re an idiot”. Suddenly, every small sound is magnified <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":12026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[93],"tags":[2717],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12024"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12155,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12024\/revisions\/12155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriage.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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