Non-medical treatment for child's general anxiety disorder.?
Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at
4:34 am
My son has been diagnosed with general anxiety disorder. He is only seven, and we do not want to put him on medication if we can avoid it. Does anyone have any suggestions for other ways to treat this. Any helpful hints would be appreciated. Thanks
Filed under: anxiety treatment
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how about researching ways that you can change his diet. maybe eliminating sugars and caffeine would help some.
maybe your son’s school counselor can give you some referrals to counselors in the community.
I was diagnosed with general anxiety disorder while I was pregnant, so I need non-medicinal therapy as well. Here are my suggestions:
- Set him up with a good counselor
- Make sure he is sleeping enough
- Make sure he gets lots of playtime, especially outside
- Keep a regular schedule of meals
- Try to keep a flexible schedule in your house, so that he knows what to expect
- Make sure he doesn’t get caffeine or too much sugar
- Be aware that his reactions to new things might be intense and have a gentle system in place to deal with it
I would suggest counseling for children Your child is hurting inside, get some help…………………x
Make him feel safe wherever he goes. Do this in normal ways. For example: reinforce your role as protector in his life. Pick him up and fling him around, always catching him. Talk him into doing activities that he perceives as risky but that you know he can accomplish. Make sure that he spends a lot of time with different people who will expose him to new experiences while always keeping him safe. Reward him with treats and love when he exhibits adventurous behavior on his own. Give him lectures about real-world dangers, and show him pictures of what real injuries and catastrophes look like. Be honest and loving.
Make sure he gets enough sleep and water. Remove things that make him anxious if you can.
Your child may be REacting to his circumstances or surroundings, more than to simply be an anxious person.
Sameness and a similar daily schedule, even the daily diet and times to eat, plus making use of specific bedtime rituals can all make a difference for him.
If he knows (for the most part) what to expect, and who to expect to be there, and when to expect it to happen, even down to being able to expect what the choices for snack time will be, you can settle much of his anxiety for him.
Anxiousness can come out of uncertainty and fear.
Are you arguing or yelling when he is in the house? That right there can set off a child’s anxiety – bigtime.
Working in a school for handicapped kids – we employed the use of a hand-held personal notebook. On the first page was a little chart, listing the day of the week, and the schedule for that day. Meal times and recesses were always the same times. Class work would change according to the day of the week, but still the classwork times were the same from day to day. Friday was field-trip day. So they always knew we would travel on the bus at a certain time. When a child would become anxious or confused about their day, we would have them look at their (pictures or words) schedule.
The same people in their life was also important. We would have pictures of each one the child could point to and say their name. Familiarity mad a big difference to not have to deal with many surprises. If there was to be a change, we would try to warn the child ahead of time, giving him time to adjust rather than simply throwing him into a big surprise.
Our Story tool worked well for times when there we would travel away from the school. Not knowing what to expect or what would be expected of them could be upsetting when changing physical environments.
For example, if we were going bowling as a class: The story would start at the school, getting on the bus. It would progress to notable events….arrival at the place, waiting for teacher, lining up, getting shoes, getting ball, sitting down, waiting turns, rolling ball, fun! fun fun… put balls away, give shoes back, back on bus, back to school.
We had specific children with anxiety problems we would write and read the story to, beginning a couple of days ahead of the event, just before leaving, on the bus as we left the school, on arrival at the bowling alley. ……..what we found was that the child was able to listen and settle down his behaviors with the reading of the travel story…………But we also found, other children on the bus would lean-in to hear the story read, and that their behavior too, was improved.
Not that the child should be a "controller", or that the family should never move. But, if you do spend the night elsewhere, take the child’s familiar pillow and blanket and clothing so that he can feel as comfortable as possible.