The 3 main triggers of childhood anxiety

Despite its bad reputation, it is necessary to recognize that anxiety is an excellent defense mechanism on a biological level. Living beings need to be able to induce conscious alert states in our own organism, with The purpose of sharpening our senses and escaping the threat that looms at a specific moment.

When we feel fear and anxiety, adrenaline and cortisol are released into the body. The first increases the heart rate, constricts the blood vessels, dilates the airways and participates in the combat reaction of the central nervous system (CNS). On the other hand, cortisol is slower to establish and is secreted in response to stress. This suppresses the immune system and mobilizes the body's nutrients to be converted into energy, among many other things.

Both hormones convey a clear concept to the body: prepare to fight, run, or face adversity. The problem arises when cortisol and other stress hormones are established in the long term in the stream and tissues of the body, giving rise to what we know today as anxiety disorder generalized (GAT). Next, we explore this clinical entity in the pediatric age and

the main triggers of childhood anxiety.

• Related article: "The 7 types of anxiety (characteristics, causes and symptoms)"

Normal anxiety or disorder?

Anxiety carries with it a series of negative feelings and, therefore, it is normal that we do not like to experience it, whether we are infants or adults.

Anyway, it is necessary to bear in mind that some degree of sporadic anxiety in a child does not have to be bad. For him everything is new and every moment is a challenge (his first day of school, learning to use the bathroom, trying a new food, etc.), so hyperstimulation and anxious perceptions at this time are, to some extent, normal.

Based on this premise, we are interested in presenting you with the signs that confirm the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder, presented by the American Psychological Organization in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition). For a TAG to be considered as such, the following requirements must be met:

• Excessive anxiety and worry, presented almost every day of the week, for a period of at least six months.
• Difficulty controlling worries.
• Presentation of at least three of these six symptoms, almost every day of the week, for six months or more: lack of rest, ease of experiencing fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension and impaired dream.
• Anxiety cannot be explained by other mental and / or physiological disorders. In this case, special attention should be paid to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
• Anxiety cannot be explained by substance use.

This criterion is aimed at the adult population, but is perfectly applicable to younger patients. In any case, you should go to mental health professionals immediately with the child if he or she has sleep or eating problems during three days in a row, if you hear voices that the rest do not, if you are out of control or if you have worrisome behaviors, no matter how subjective the latter is criterion. All these symptoms can be complemented with those previously described to suspect a GAD in a child.

Main causes of generalized anxiety in boys and girls

GAD is a common disorder, affecting 2 to 6% of children. Its average age of presentation is 8 years and it usually affects more girls than boys, but it can be established in many other moments of life. Here are some of the triggers for this disorder.

1. Family inheritance and genetic predispositions

Anxiety disorders show a clear pattern of family inheritance. Genetic contribution explains 38% of the variability of GAD pictures and 44% of panic disorders, for example. The Grm2 gene (Glutamate receptor 2) seems to play an essential role in these pathologies, but of course the burden of such a complex disorder cannot be attributed to a single pair of alleles.

At the research level, GAD is considered a polygenic trait, that is, influenced by various genes and epigenetic mechanisms. The epigenetics refers to the expression or suppression of certain genes depending on the environment, so it is not only the genomic load that matters, but also the vital context of the patient.

2. Traumatic events

Generalized anxiety can be triggered by a traumatic event, such as the loss of a loved one, a serious illness, or a divorce between the parents. Above all, anxiety after the death of a parent is extremely common. It is necessary for the infant to learn to channel pain, control its crisis, and experience grief, without excessive haste or anguish. Drug therapy can help a lot in these cases.

• You may be interested in: "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

3. Overprotection

Perhaps this generates more anxiety as a natural event than GAD, but as they say, it all adds up when it comes to explaining a psychological condition (both environment and genetics and personal predisposition). Overprotecting a child creates a clear rebound effect, because it makes him have excessive fear of the event to which the exhibition is being denied in the first instance.

In the case of children with previous pathologies or functional diversity, overprotection is even more common. Parents try to prevent the child from suffering mishaps due to her non-neurotypical conditions and, inadvertently, make him feel dread of the environment around him. As in all cases, going to therapy (individual or family) can help a lot to learn to manage the special conditions in each case.

To do?

As we have seen, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a clinical entity separate from the rest, characterized by the symptoms described above. Anyway, anxiety can be a symptom of another broad spectrum disorder, such as ADHD, major depressive disorders (MDD) and other clinical entities.

Therefore, when looking for the causes of childhood anxiety, it is necessary to know if it is a natural event, a clinical entity of its own or a symptom of another disorder. Only then can the underlying reasons for the event be known and the appropriate treatment applied to the patient, regardless of her age. And those in charge of examining these cases one by one are mental health professionals, so in the face of these problems it is important to go to therapy.

If you are looking for psychotherapy services to address cases of child anxiety or other emotional imbalances in children, adults or adolescents, please contact us. On Psychological Awakenings We serve both in the face-to-face format and through online sessions.