5 Ways to Deal With Your Child’s Social Anxiety Disorder
Children dealing with a social anxiety disorder will have a ton of challenges to overcome. A normal life is the goal, but when your child is attempting to cope with social phobias, it can impede their education, their ability to make friends and real connections, or their desire to take part in sports. Sometimes it can get so bad, the child may not want to go to school at all, and an untreated social anxiety could blossom into depression, agoraphobia, or worse. Adults cannot always understand why children would feel stress without bills to pay, jobs to support, and people that depend on them. But this is a very real issue for thousands of children. If your child exhibits symptoms such as fear of social situations, shyness, disinterest, or even unexplained aggressiveness, he may be dealing with social anxiety. What can you do to help your child cope with this difficult situation? Here are five strategies proven successful that you can begin to implement today, all of which will make a lasting difference for years to come.
Stress reduction techniques. A social anxiety disorder causes not only mental and emotional stress, but physical stress as well. You child could experience nausea, light headedness, or an uneven or rapid heartbeat. But there’s many simple treatments for these symptoms, all of which will leave your child feeling more in control. Teach your child deep breathing techniques. Show them how to start with a deep inhale through the nose, and a slow exhale through the mouth. You can give them some simple meditations, such as closing their eyes and saying “There’s nothing wrong” or even a fun, jibberish chant, and paired with the breathing they’ll begin to feel better. For a child with social anxiety, knowing there’s something he can do to make it less intense is hugely important.
The fear scale. Not all anxious moments are the same, so show your child how to understand the difference. A 1 to 10 scale is the simplest, with 1 being a mild, almost unnoticeable fear, and 10 being a life and death fear. If during a moment of social anxiety your child has the tools to put it in perspective, it will greatly decrease the chance of a massive attack, and possibly even prevent future attacks.
The inner monologue. A child growing up with social anxiety disorder may develop a distorted interior monologue, with constant negative thought and a dark view of the world. This is a learned reaction to an experience of life as dangerous and uncertain. Since it’s learned, it can be unlearned. Help your child retrain his inner monologue in a way that supports him, and after a time he may be willing to trust a ‘glass half full’ perspective.
Train a Solution Detective. This one is about making life more fun, but also arming your child with the ability to find answers for himself. Children with social anxiety disorder may not have fully-developed problem solving skills, and helping them diagnose or ‘detect’ their own problems, will aid them in coming up with solutions. The faster he can reach the solution for life’s stressors, the less anxiety he’ll feel.
Love goes a long way. In the end, reassuring your child of your unconditional love for them will do wonders for their social anxiety. If they know that any infraction or failure on their part won’t ever change that, the things that are causing the problems may not seem so stressful. So take some time away from watching tv, push back an hour early from working on those online executive MBA programs, and give him a huge hug.
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Hi Hollie, I love your 5 techniques. It is always a sad thing to see Social Anxiety in young ones. It is also a fact that sufferers of Social Anxiety quite frequently testify to their problems beginning in childhood before developing into a full blown disorder by the time they are young adults. I guess you can sum up your article as providing young ones with a loving and secure environment at home. Parents need to take an active roll rather than a passive one when dealing with their children’s emotional problems. It’s important to recognise problems early, but this is only possible if parents are actively engaging in the life of their kids. Sadly not always the case, and these are the kids that are more at risk of developing anxiety problems in the future.