Panic Attacks in Children

Panic attacks in children are a major pschycological issue, yet they often get overlooked because most children lack the skills to communicate their panic attack experiences. Parents can spare their children a lifetime of struggle with panic disorder by learning to recognize and address their children’s stress levels.

How frequent are panic attacks in children?

If you, as a parent, still believe that childhood is a magical time during which your children can learn to feel comfortable in the world from the safety of their home and school environments, your children might have something to teach you!

Today’s children are being pressured from all sides from extremely early ages to be thinner, smarter, more athletic, more competitive, and more socially dazzling than ever before. They learn in short order that a failure on any front will leave them vulnerable to criticism from adults and ridicule from other kids.

Many children are also struggling with family issues including sibling rivalry and divorce. They also picking up on the financial struggles of their parents. The childhood script of today is, quite simply, an open invitation to overwhelming levels of stress and anxiety. Yet children also feel tremendous pressure to cover up their feelings of anxiety. Stress left unrelieved long enough can easily erupt at home and in school as panic attacks in children.

In his pamphlet Anxiety Disorders Other than Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, James Chandler, MD FRCPC estimates that as many as 12% (about 1 in 8) of all 9th-graders have experienced at least one panic attack. He also says that about 20 % of all adults who suffer from full-blown panic disorder experienced their first panic attack before they were ten years old. Is there a way to recognize panic attacks in children in time to keep them from escalating into lifelong panic disorder?

Unfortunately, few children have the verbal skills to effectively communicate their levels of anxiety, and even those who do are reluctant to admit that they feel so fearful. To complicate matters even further, many adults don’t recognize the signs of panic attacks in children, and may write them off as simple demands for attention. What signs should you look for in your children to determine if they may be vulnerable to panic attacks?

The symptoms of panic attacks in children are, for the most part, the same as they are in adults. Elevated heart rate accompanied by shortness of breath or a feeling of suffocating; dizziness; nausea; trembling; and an overwhelming feeling of doom or fear of death are common indications of ongoing panic attacks in children.

There are, however, other signs that indicate a child may be heading for panic attacks even if he or she has not already experienced them. Does your child becomes unreasonably angry, sad, or even violent? Is he or she sleeping too much, or not enough? Frequent and sudden mood shifts or a loss of appetite are also indications that your child’s stress level is tipping toward the intolerable and panic attacks are becoming a real possibility.

Any child unlucky enough to experience panic attacks while at school can feel even more hopeless. The worry that he or she might lose control in the classroom at any second will produce just the sort of anxiety which brings on panic attacks in children. Even if a panic attack doesn’t develop, fear of one can distract the child, leading to poor grades and reluctance to interact with classmates.

Some children are so concerned about the possibility of panic attacks that they find reasons to avoid school altogether. Children who miss significant time in school are at risk becoming developmentally delayed.

The economic and environmental challenges facing the children of the 21st century are serious enough without those children having to cope with home-and-school-related stresses. Do your best to keep your child’s world stress-free by learning as much as you can about panic attacks in children!

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