Helping your child deal with Anxiety Disorder

CTV Ottawa and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario are running weekly children's health segments until March.

All kids can feel nervous sometimes -- about the first day of school or speaking in front of the class.

But when the worry starts to overwhelm a child: that can be a sign of an anxiety disorder. It is the most common mental disorder affecting about 6.5% of children and teens and can have devastating and lasting consequences if it isn't addressed. For seven years, Cassandra Rousseau had such worrying thoughts, it made her sick.

“When it got bad,” says the 14-year-old, “I ended pulling at my eyebrows, my eyelashes and my hair and I scratched my legs.” Rousseau says anxiety would take over her body and she couldn’t do anything about it.It started in Grade 2 she says when a teacher yelled and her.

“I started telling my mom I didn't want to go to school. I feel sick.” Once her mother let her stay home, Rousseau says the symptoms disappeared. By Grade 7, the anxiety disorder was controlling her life.

“She was somebody I didn't recognize anymore,” recalls her mother Lisa Rousseau, “the crying, the screaming. She was asking for help but didn't know what was wrong with her.”

Cassandra was diagnosed with anxiety disorder and was referred to CHEO’s outpatient “Mood and Anxiety Team” for cognitive behavioral therapy in a group setting.

“Anxious kids go around in a kind of persistent state of fear and worry,” says Dr. Lauren Humphreys, a child psychologist at CHEO. “They tend to see danger when there isn't any and it can affect their lives in various ways.”

CHEO psychologists say children with anxiety disorders complain of stomach-aches, have problems sleeping, express worrying statements out loud and want to avoid stressful situations like school.

“If your child is really suffering, crying really seems tormented by worrying, and you can't control them,” says CHEO clinical psychologist Dr. Margaret Flintoff, “you need to do something about that.”

Cognitive behavioral therapy has helped Cassandra handle her anxiety.

“I use coping strategies where you talk yourself out of feeling anxious and into doing whatever you're doing,” says Cassandra, “Say you're writing a test and you're nervous. You just say oh you're going to pass anyway.”

Her mother says the difference in her daughter after 18 months of therapy is remarkable.

“It was a long road, a very scary road because I didn't know where it was going to end up,” recalls Lisa Rousseau. “I'm just glad she's back to being my daughter.”

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario has some suggestions on how to help children deal with their fears and anxious feelings.

CHEO also has a number of useful resources:

Websites:

The Child Anxiety Network

www.childanxiety.net

Anxiety Disorders Association of Ontario

www.anxietydisordersontario.ca

Anxiety Disorders Association of Canada

www.anxietycanada.ca

National Institute of Mental Health

www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

www.aacap.org

National Institutes of Health

www.health.nih.gov

WorryWiseKids

www.childocdandanxiety.org

Nemours Foundation

www.kidshealth.org

Medline

www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/anxiety.html

New York Online Access to Health

www.noah-health.org/en/mental/disorders/anxiety.html