 Q&A:
Seeking Questions for Anxiety
By Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, MD,
FAAP
Your
Kid’s
Health, The
Salem News
November 25, 2003
Q: Your
recent article on Anxiety couldn't be
more timely for me. Last summer, our
family discussed a potential move that
never materialized. However, since then,
our daughter, age 8, has been crying
forcefully and resisting to participate
at surprising times: the first week of
school, the first few times back at after
school activities, being dropped off
at friend's homes and even at the dentist's
office where she was scarred to be alone.
This had never been a problem before – she
is usually an easygoing child with many
friends and interests. In each instance,
I am told that she overcomes her anxiousness
rather quickly. I do wonder though if this
is the beginning of a pattern...I would
be interested in any book recommendations
you may have. - L
A: Change and
transition are difficult for all of us
and young children do not have the emotional
maturity or life experience to understand
that things may be just fine on the other
side of the river. At the same time, many
kids do “grow
into” nerves and start to get anxious
about new things in general as they mature.
So, I completely understand why you’d
want to get more information – it
is always unsettling when our kids have
a dramatic change in behavior and sometimes
it is hard to tell if there is a bigger
problem at hand. Instead of pointing
you to some specific resources, let me
suggest a path for sorting out this kind
of problem in general.
Reading
up on issues affecting our children
can be either a blessing or a curse.
Information can deepen our understanding
of a situation and be reassuring but
it can also sometimes lead us astray
and convince us that a problem is larger
than it really is. Part of the problem
with behavior and emotions is that there
is an enormous overlap between conditions
and the fact that there are many common
emotional reactions, like transition
issues and separation anxiety, also
occur in more significant anxiety disorders.
In children, many emotional reactions,
even distressing ones, are completely
normal and even expected given their
age and development.
So, before
you dig too deeply into reading material
of any kind, I’d encourage
you to talk to a few “experts”
who know your daughter well to help you get
a more clear sense of what may be going
on with her, if at all. Two invaluable resources
that come to mind are your daughter’s
teachers and her pediatrician. By now,
both likely have a good sense of your daughter
and can help you figure out with more certainty
whether your daughter’s new symptoms
are a short term or a long-term pattern.
And, they can both help you work with
your daughter to help make future transitions
a bit easier.
As for finding good medical information, avoid
trendy best sellers and random web searches
to avoid getting inadvertently mislead. To
find good, reliable information I’d
suggest a trip a medical resource center.
These have become very popular the last few
years and are in most large Boston teaching
hospitals as well as North Shore Children’s
Hospital here in Salem, MA. These centers
are really special libraries with staff trained
to help you find reliable, objective information
and help you focus your research. They will
have all the latest information on just about
any medical and psychological condition you
can think of including simple handouts, books,
web-based information, and local resources.
Hunting
for information is like playing golf – better
to read the course first or risk landing
in every sand trap along the way with
many extra strokes to your score. © 2005-2006
Pediatrics Now. All rights reserved. PEDIATRICS
NOW is a trademark of Pediatrics Now.
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