Anxiety in children is a common and complex issue that can appear in different forms and affect their emotional health and daily life. While many factors contribute to childhood anxiety, one important reason stands out among its complexity.
Among the thousands of potential triggers for childhood anxiety, lack of control over circumstances is one of the primary triggers for a child's anxiety. When children feel that they cannot control the existing conditions, this causes them distress and anxiety. The conditions discussed below are among the most important factors in children's lack of control and ultimately the root causes of anxiety in children:
1- Unpredictability of life events: Children feel safe and capable with a predictable life routine. Because they can predict what is waiting for them and how
They can prepare for their future events in Berber. But when they face new and unknown situations, whether it is a change in family dynamics, a change in school or social uncertainty, they feel that they have no control over the events ahead and this unknown situation makes them anxious.
2- Lack of a sense of empowerment: Feeling powerless and weak in certain situations, including academic, social, and emotional, is significantly effective in treating anxiety in children because the children feel that they cannot positively affect the existing conditions and their results. This feeling of ineffectiveness can lead to an increase in their anxiety.
3- Environmental stressors: Factors such as parental stress, social pressures or exposure to traumatic events can create an atmosphere of uncertainty and ultimately lead to a feeling of lack of control and an increase in anxiety levels.
Treatment approaches for childhood anxiety:
1- Establishing stability: Before any important change in the children's lives, try to let them know the advantages and disadvantages of this change and give them an idea of their abilities to strengthen their predictability and control. In this way, you minimize the anxiety triggers associated with unpredictability.
2- Teaching coping strategies: equipping children with tools such as deep breathing, concentration exercises, and visualization helps them see themselves as more powerful than anxiety-provoking situations, and this view sometimes gives the child a sense of calmness.
3- Open communication: Encouraging the child to have open discussions about fears and worries gives the child the possibility to talk about his/her worries and provide support. A supportive environment where children feel understood and heard. It greatly reduces the level of anxiety.
4- Gradual exposure and desensitization: Introducing anxiety-provoking situations in a gradual and controlled manner helps children to gradually become familiar with stressful situations and adjust themselves to them. This harmony is not only on the outside but inside the child, this harmony will manifest itself in the form of peace.
5- Professional support: getting help from a child therapist to investigate the reasons for anxiety and provide the best strategies such as play therapy and story therapy can be very useful in improving and reducing the symptoms of childhood anxiety.
In the complex landscape of childhood anxiety, finding its source and applying targeted solutions to reduce symptoms and treatment is very important. The main axis of anxiety in children is a deep feeling of inability to control the situation, which leads to anxiety. This unpleasant feeling is aggravated by various stimuli. With the timely intervention of a child therapist, the effect of these stimuli can be reduced, and calmness can be achieved. He gave a gift to a child's life.
