Dealing with an epidemic
Anxiety seems to be crippling our children. I guess it is a function of the people I work with that I see everywhere, however, it still appears to be way more prevalent than it was some 35 years ago when I was at school.
I’ve been trying to really understand anxiety. And I’m not sure if I even know what it feels like. I think I know about being nervous, or worried. Anxiety? Not so much. I had to check the dictionary to work out if there is a difference. Whilst they are similar, there are also differences in the definitions.
Worry is to feel or cause to feel anxious or troubled about actual or potential problems
Nervous is highly excitable; unnaturally or acutely uneasy or apprehensive:
Anxiety is distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune:
I can relate to feeling nervous about making a difficult phone call, or getting up to do a presentation – I know I’ve been stage-struck in the past when performing. However, I wouldn’t say I’ve ever felt anxious. How they are different isn’t quite clear, however to me they do feel different.
Because I don’t relate to anxiety, I find it difficult to understand my son’s anxiety. I’ve had to learn to accept that it is real. It can’t be talked away, ignored, or bulldozed through. It is real and it is debilitating.
Anxiety is a barrier to participation. It is a barrier to learning and it presents in many ways. It can result in a fight, flight or freeze response. A child who is struggling with anxiety and is forced to do the thing that makes them anxious may well revert to the fight response. Another child may choose to run away – or leave a situation that makes them feel anxious. And for many children they simply freeze – they shut down and can’t communicate, or do anything to help those around them to understand.
When a child is struggling with high levels of anxiety, they feel out of control. In this situation, they may attempt to exercise control over anything and everything possible. This can result in a battle of wills, challenging behaviour and unhappy family life for all concerned. The more out of control they feel, the more they will attempt to exert control over what they can; getting out of bed, getting dressed, brushing their teeth, what they will and won’t eat and so on.
The long term anxiety isn’t good for our health. When we feel anxious, our brain floods our body with hormones designed to respond to a fight or flight situation. Adrenaline and Cortisol are two examples. Long term exposure to too much cortisol is very bad for our health. It results in weight gain, high blood pressure, depression and memory problems.
Somehow we have to find ways to support our children with their anxieties. Imagine waking up every day and having to face your worst nightmare. The long-term effects of this would be damaging beyond belief, both emotionally and as we have discussed, physically.
A report in 2017 by the Children’s Commissioner found the number of children seeing psychiatrists has risen by a third. At the time the government was putting together a green paper that would see thousands of therapists in schools. It strikes me the skills to deal better with anxiety are becoming a fundamental part of children’s education. All too often these children find themselves requiring support via an EHCP in order to access school and learning. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the provision to support this growing number of children was standard in all mainstream schools? What happened to the green paper?
