Anxiety disorders are something that can afflict people of all ages, but adults may experience anxiety differently than children. Mental health is a key part of a person’s overall wellness, and it’s important for families, friends, parents, teachers and others to recognize how anxiety impacts children and adults differently. Anxiety disorders like phobias, post traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, separation anxiety disorder and others have different presentations in adults and children. These diseases also may require unique treatment plans that consider different types of therapies, such as Brillia medication, talk therapy or behavior management strategies.
Normal Developmental Struggles
The first thing to recognize is that sometimes a child’s normal development process may look similar to some anxiety disorders. Children go through many different developmental stages as they grow, and sometimes their behavior may appear to change suddenly. Usually, when a child is simply experiencing a typical developmental change and acts differently, the change is temporary. Eventually, after going through the developmental phase, the child may go back to their regular behavior. Adults have already gone through all of their growth and developmental stages, so a change in behavior in an adult may signal something more serious.
Communicating Anxiety
Children also struggle to communicate their fears and anxiety to adults. Instead, children simply exhibit a range of different behaviors. Some parents and teachers may see negative behaviors and think that the child is just misbehaving. In a number of these cases, these behaviors signal some sort of anxiety disorder. Adults have a much easier time expressing their anxiety and self-identifying as having a problem with mental health. Children are often too young to understand their feelings of anxiety.
Symptoms in Children
Anxiety in children may appear in the form of a variety of behavioral symptoms. With anxiety, a child’s sleep routine may be interrupted on a regular basis. There may be nightmares, trouble falling asleep or fears of sleeping alone in the bedroom. Children with anxiety may struggle with focus at school, get in trouble, fall asleep during the day, appear irritable or seem restless. Some children with anxiety may also cry more often than usual or have frequent temper tantrums. Holistic anxiety medication for children may offer some relief from these symptoms.
Symptoms in Adults
Anxiety problems in adults may look much different than what doctors see in younger patients. Adults may have more physical symptoms, such as a rapid heartbeat, sweating or hyperventilation. They also may experience sleep problems and trouble concentrating. Adults also may be more likely to feel a sense of hopelessness or dread when experiencing anxiety.
Treatment Options
Both adults and children have choices for the treatment of anxiety. Some choose to work with a therapist such as the ones found at https://www.privatetherapy.com/services/anxiety/, who might try cognitive behavior therapy or talk therapy as they’re two common strategies. They often help patients work through a personalized program to help address their anxiety using methods such as mindfulness, exposure and response prevention, systematic desensitization, building problem-solving skills, and cognitive restructuring. Other patients improve through a course of medication that treats the symptoms, such as focus medication for adults over the counter or prescription anti-anxiety medications. More recently in countries like Canada and America, treatments involving medical marijuana and CBD have been introduced. Medical marijuana cards allow adult patients to try different strains such as the peyote critical strain to help manage the symptoms of their anxiety through relaxation.
People suffering from anxiety range in age from young children to senior adults. Anxiety is a disorder that doesn’t look the same in every individual patient, and children and adults may have completely different experiences with their disorder and treatment.