Child anxiety is on the increase!

“I’ve got a tummy ache”, “I feel sick”, “I have a headache”, “I can’t get to sleep”, I just don’t want to go to school!”

Do any of these statements resonate with you and your child? If so, this could be one of the symptoms of anxiety or depression in your child. Sadly, more and more children are feeling anxious and worried about all sorts of situations whether it is the thought of going to school and socialise with their peers, fear of leaving their mum, dad, or main carer, fear of being unable to understand their subjects, and many, many more examples. The most common anxiety is separation disorder anxiety in children younger than 12 years of age.

The pandemic cannot be solely to blame as before COVID, anxiety, and depression were becoming more common among children and adolescents.

Anxiety rears its ugly head in many forms and some children are born more anxious than others, unable to cope with stress. Whereas others learn this behaviour if peers or adults around them are displaying signs of anxiety. Then there are children who develop anxiety after stressful events including frequently moving home or school or having unhappy home life. The list could go on and on but I believe these are some of the most common reasons why children feel anxious.

The inspiration for writing this article has been the campaign of three fathers who are raising awareness of the risk of suicide among young people in memory of their own daughters Sophie, Beth, and Emily. They walked 600 miles between four UK parliaments and have been honoured with the Pride of Britain awards.

Social media played a massive part in their very sad stories and I have no doubt many more children are affected than we are aware of. I reach out to parents to be vigilant with their teenagers and young adults as social media has a massive impact on their mental health. It can increase feelings of depression and anxiety in young people by the need to constantly compare themselves to others, which are often ‘fake’ individuals with airbrushed and fabricated lives and lifestyles,  this can enhance the feeling of inadequacy about their own life and appearance.

Multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk of depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. 

Telltale signs your child could be anxious or depressed

• anxiety can affect sleep patterns, often preventing a good night's sleep which will then increase irritability, and lack of self-esteem
• nightmares during the night and sometimes bed wetting
• often children find it hard to concentrate both at home and school
• lack of appetite, not eating correctly
• they constantly have worrying or negative thoughts
• often feeling tense and fidgety, or using the toilet more frequently than normal
• always crying
• being clingy
• complaining of tummy aches and feeling unwell.

Helpful remedies

The most important thing to remember is to keep talking to your child about their anxiety or worries. In some cases, children’s anxiety disappears with lots of reassurance and an open discussion.  If this doesn’t seem to appear to help then it would be advisable to get specialist help.

How does hypnosis help your offspring?

Within my practice, I see children aged five years all the way through to adulthood. The most common issues I treat are anxiety either separation anxiety or social anxiety, together with loneliness, bullying, parents' divorce, confidence, exam anxiety, driving test anxiety, and many more.

The reason hypnotherapy is so successful with children is first,  it isn’t a talking therapy. In my experience, often children can’t express their emotions and feelings let alone in a strange environment with a complete stranger. Children normally have wonderful imagination and hypnotherapy draws on that skill whereas, with teenagers, hypnosis provides a relaxing mindset allowing them to feel more confident and get a fresh take on things.

I am pleased to say the stigma of hypnosis is a state of mind where the hypnotherapist can control what you say or do is changing.  Hypnotherapy is being recognised as an effective therapy achieving the most remarkable results, especially in youngsters.

The feedback I often receive from my clients is how relaxing and calm the sessions are and it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be like.  

As we are all aware mental health is very high up on the agenda, especially within schools, colleges, and universities and I am gradually trying to highlight the benefits of hypnotherapy within these settings.

by Les Brown.