The Anxiety Cure for Kids

Caroline M. Dupont, Robert L. Dupont, Elizabeth Dupont Spencer

Description

The up-to-date, practical guide for helping your child deal with anxiety
Fear, worry, stomach pains, self-doubt—these are classic symptoms of anxiety in children. Using kid-friendly concepts and real-life examples, this reassuring guide helps adults and children understand the powerful ways in which anxiety works and how to overcome its negative effects. This revised edition includes all-new chapters on food phobia; the relationship between anxiety and other illnesses and problems such as ADHD, depression, and autism; and anxiety in teens.

The lessons in The Anxiety Cure for Kids have helped many children break free from anxiety. By making changes little by little, any child with anxiety can get well and stay well.

• Provides up-to-date, practical guidance for helping both younger children and teenagers deal with anxiety issues
• Shows how to recognize the symptoms of anxiety, evaluate a child's need for medication and/or therapy, assess the role of the family in anxiety disorders, and take concrete steps to find solutions
• Explains how to communicate effectively with your child, help him or her confront fear, and boost your child's feelings of accomplishment and self-esteem
• Addresses a range of anxiety disorders, such as food phobia and anxieties about terrorism, as well as the relationship between anxiety and other illnesses
• Also includes advice that can be used by teachers, coaches, doctors, therapists, school nurses, and others who work with anxious kids

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Parentalité et Éducation des Enfants
• ADHD
• health
• Medical
• Médecine
• Trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Pediatrics
• Trouble du déficit de l'attention

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 14 janvier 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781118532560
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Anxiety Cure for Kids
Also by the authors
The Anxiety Cure
The Anxiety Cure for Kids
A Guide for Parents and Children
Second Edition
Elizabeth DuPont Spencer, M.S.W. Robert L. DuPont, M.D. Caroline M. DuPont, M.D.
Wiley General Trade, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company 424 Church Street Suite 2240 Nashville, Tennessee 37219 445 Park Avenue 9th Floor New York, New York 10022
www.turnerpublishing.com
THE ANXIETY CURE FOR KIDS: A GUIDE FOR PARENTS AND CHILDREN, SECOND EDITION
Copyright 2014 by Elizabeth DuPont Spencer, Robert L. DuPont, and Caroline M. DuPont. All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com .
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Cover Design by Jose Almaguer Cover Photo: miflippo/iStock.com Interior Design by Kym Whitley
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Spencer, Elizabeth DuPont, 1966- The anxiety cure for kids : a guide for parents and children / Elizabeth DuPont Spencer, M.S.W., Robert L. DuPont, M.D., Caroline M. DuPont, M.D. pages cm Originally published: 2003. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-118-43066-8 1. Anxiety in children--Treatment. 2. Anxiety in adolescence--Treatment. 3. Parenting. I. DuPont, Robert L., 1936- II. DuPont, Caroline M., 1968- III. Title. RJ506.A58S66 2014 618.92 8522--dc23
2013026549
Printed in the United States of America 19 18 17 16 15 14 10 987654321
This book is dedicated to anxious children and their parents.
Your suffering is our calling. We are inspired by the dream that overcoming anxiety problems during childhood will end the pain and disability of anxiety so that when anxious children become adults and care for their own children, this problem will be a distant but encouraging memory.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
A Letter to Kids with Anxiety Problems
Introduction and Guide to This Book
PART ONE All About Anxiety
CHAPTER 1 Understanding Anxiety and Fear: The Dragon
CHAPTER 2 The History and Diagnostic Categories of Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adults
CHAPTER 3 Treatment: Taming the Dragon
CHAPTER 4 Evaluating Your Child s Need for Medication and Therapy
PART TWO Five Stories for Kids, Five Steps for Parents
CHAPTER 5 Step 1: Ben s Story-Understanding Your Child s Dragon
CHAPTER 6 Step 2: Julie s Story-Shrink the Dragon with Practice and Cognitive Restructuring
CHAPTER 7 Step 3: William s Story-Using Medication and Relaxation
CHAPTER 8 Step 4: Rebecca s Story-School Anxiety and School Refusal
CHAPTER 9 Step 5: Rebecca s Story One Year Later-Set Goals for the Future, Including a Plan If the Anxiety Problem Comes Back
PART THREE Beyond Anxiety
CHAPTER 10 Assessing Your Family s Role in Anxiety Disorders
CHAPTER 11 Food Phobia
CHAPTER 12 Anxiety and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Depression, Autism, Medical Illnesses, and Other Problems
CHAPTER 13 Anxiety in Teens
CHAPTER 14 Anxiety, Terrorism, and Other Extraordinary Threats to Children
CHAPTER 15 Advise for Teachers, Coaches, Doctors, Therapists, School Nurses, and Others Who Work with Anxious Kids
Glossary
Suggested Additional Reading
Anxiety Disorders Resources for Parents and Children
Index
FOREWORD
More children suffer from anxiety disorders than any other emotional disorder. Anxiety paralyzes a child s normal development and robs a child of the opportunities to experience the joys of youth. Children with anxiety disorders often have social, school, and family problems.
There has been recent recognition that childhood anxiety disorders are chronic and tend to persist into adulthood. Therefore, early identification and treatment of childhood anxiety disorders is critical. Attention has been focused on specific psychotherapies and medication as treatment options.
The Anxiety Cure for Kids: A Guide for Parents provides the missing essential ingredient to current treatment for anxious children. Parents are actively enlisted to assist with their child s treatment.
This book is written for parents and explains anxiety in children and its treatment in a meaningful and straightforward way. Using a Dragon to characterize anxiety and a sun to manage anxiety is elegantly simple and gives parents a useful means to understand and help their anxious child.
The most recent treatment research related to therapy and medication for children with anxiety disorders is presented in this book and is a basis for many of the clinical illustrations. Parents are given practical, step-by-step suggestions to help their child deal with and overcome anxiety.
The field is indebted to this family of mental health professionals who, in writing this book, have drawn upon their extensive knowledge and clinical expertise to provide a sage guide to parents whose children suffer from anxiety.
Karen Dineen Wagner, M.D., Ph.D. Clarence Ross Miller Professor and Vice Chair Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Director, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry University of Texas Medical Branch
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book exists because many people have helped us along the way. Our editor at Wiley, Thomas Miller, believed in us from the time he saw a draft of our first anxiety book. He urged us to extend our work by writing for parents and children. Thank you, Tom, for your support and guidance. Thank you to our new editor, Christina Roth, senior editor at Turner Publishing. Your determination to get all the details right make all the difference in this second edition.
Our families have challenged us to keep working to overcome anxiety problems using the ideas that we have found so successful in our personal and professional lives. Thank you for your love, Helen, Bill, Paul, Spence, Robert, David, Colleen, and Catherine.
Many anxious patients and their families have educated and inspired us. We treasure our relationships with you. We are honored that you have chosen to let us into these personal, painful parts of your lives to offer our help.
Most especially we thank our colleagues who study and treat anxiety disorders. Without the thousands of researchers working to understand the biology and treatment of anxiety, a cure for anxiety would be impossible. Without the thousands more physicians and therapists who work every day with anxious people and their families, the treatment for anxiety would be useless. Thank you all for your ongoing work to help to solve this painful, puzzling, and fascinating human problem.
A LETTER TO KIDS WITH ANXIETY PROBLEMS
Dear Young Reader:
This book is about being scared of being scared. You probably noticed that some kids are scared more than other kids are. Sometimes kids are scared even when most kids see nothing to be afraid of. Some people like to be scared: for example, when they ride a roller coaster at an amusement park or listen to a ghost story on Halloween. Of course, everyone is scared of something sometime. This is good! Being scared helps us when we are really in danger. Our bodies react quickly when we re afraid so that we can run fast to get away from things that scare us. Fear helps us get to someone who can help us.
But what about a kid who is scared of dogs and won t go to his friend s house because the friend has a dog? Or a kid who is too scared to even walk outside because there might be a dog around? Or someone who stays up for hours past her bedtime because she is scared something bad will happen to her parents during the night? Kids are afraid of what might happen to them and to their parents. When kids are scared, they want their parents to help them feel safe. Being scared can feel extra scary when other people don t understand why you re scared! Sometimes it s hard to explain why you do things to keep yourself from being scared. Sometimes kids stay away from things that scare them or have to do things certain odd ways to make themselves feel safe. Being scared of being scared is called anxiety. Having anxiety means that you worry about things that most kids don t worry about.

We think of anxiety as being like an imaginary Dragon in your head. The Dragon seems to be really scary. It can make you feel terribly afraid even when other kids are not upset. You should know that it s OK to feel scared. This doesn t make you a bad person. Feeling scared doesn t have to limit what you do with your life. You can do everything you want to do, even if you feel scared. The Dragon can t really harm you. It can t make you sick. It wants you to think it can, but it doesn t have that power. You can learn to tame the Dragon in your own head using techniques we will teach you in this book. We call these Dragon-Taming Tips, and each tip has a picture of a sun to show you the way to success!

We,