Anxiety is a reaction to stress exhibited by overwhelming, excessive, and continuous worry about everyday situations. In some situations, it can be a normal reaction to put a person on alert for trouble. You can see this if a stranger stops a child in the store, even with the parent present, to say hello. What used to be a normal situation, has become a situation of alert today because children are taught stranger danger, and rightly so. A parent reassures the child, and things return to normal. However, anxiety becomes an issue if the intense feelings of anxiety carry over to other situations affecting daily activities and do not resolve.
The CDC lists these symptoms of anxiety in children and adolescents:
Several types of anxiety include anxiety or panic due to a child’s medical condition, such as agoraphobia, fear of particular places or situations, panic disorder, separation disorder, social anxiety, phobias, selective mutism, and generalized anxiety disorder. Children with neurological conditions can be affected by multiple anxieties due to their medical condition, separation from knowledgeable caregivers, fear of situations that may be challenging, or a combination of triggers. Drug abuse can lead to substance-induced anxiety disorder either from abusing drugs causing the start of the disorder or to the misuse of drugs used to combat their anxiety or medical situation.
Anxiety in children is often misinterpreted as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) because both anxiety and ADHD have the symptom of difficulty paying attention. Anxiety can fill your mind with worry, so it becomes difficult to concentrate on other things. Differentiating between the two diagnoses may require a professional diagnosis.
Depression is a mood disorder that leads to ongoing sadness or loss of interest in a person’s usual activities and happiness. Certainly, anyone can have a bad day or even a major event that makes them uninterested in their usual pursuits. It is the prolonged sadness that is a clue to depression. Sometimes, it can be erratic such as ups and downs in mood in a repetitious or irregular pattern.
Many things can cause depression, genetics (it sometimes runs in families), death or loss especially of function such as brain injury or neurological disease or injury, major events such as catastrophic disease or trauma, abuse including physical, sexual, mental, and conflict that can occur in families or other individuals or groups interacting with your child. Depression does not differ by gender, but traditionally, it has been seen more in females because they are more likely to seek treatment. Medications can also lead to depression, making a review with your child’s healthcare profession the first step of treatment.
In children and adolescents, the CDC lists these symptoms. Your child may exhibit one, a combination, or all the symptoms.
There are many types of depression, including clinical depression, long-term depression called a persistent depressive disorder, and up and down mood swings called bipolar disorders.
Asking your child open-ended questions will provide more information about their thinking than suggesting reasons why they may be behaving differently. Open-ended questions may include statements like, “How are you feeling today?” “What did you think about a certain event?” or even, “I noticed that there were a lot of children from your school at the party.” These types of questions let the child respond with their ideas. Too specific questions will direct your child to respond to your thoughts as opposed to their own. For example, “I saw that Jimmy did not talk to you” sets up a barrier between your child and Jimmy. Another example of a closed question is, “That party was crowded. Did that make it more difficult for you to participate?” This leads to the child commenting on their challenges rather than getting to their perception of the issue.