Comments on: Interesting article in Family Circle - 13% of adolescents have anxiety http://www.anxietysucks.com/2007/11/04/interesting-article-in-family-circle-13-of-adolescents-have-anxiety/ A personal blog about my recovery from anxiety disorders including panic attacks, agoraphobia and depression. Learn how I controlled my anxiety and took control of my life! Learn ways to cope with stress and daily life to get a grip on anxiety. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:38:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Stacie http://www.anxietysucks.com/2007/11/04/interesting-article-in-family-circle-13-of-adolescents-have-anxiety/#comment-975 Stacie Thu, 22 Nov 2007 02:02:13 +0000 http://blog.anxietysucks.com/?p=158#comment-975 May I ask if you are on meds? I am on meds for my heart, and I am on four different pills and I hate it. If feel like I am an old woman. I don't know if I am in denial or what but if I don't feel the effects of the med I am not likely to remember to take. Are you ever afraid of becoming addicted to you meds? May I ask if you are on meds? I am on meds for my heart, and I am on four different pills and I hate it. If feel like I am an old woman. I don’t know if I am in denial or what but if I don’t feel the effects of the med I am not likely to remember to take. Are you ever afraid of becoming addicted to you meds?

]]> By: coffeecup http://www.anxietysucks.com/2007/11/04/interesting-article-in-family-circle-13-of-adolescents-have-anxiety/#comment-974 coffeecup Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:50:14 +0000 http://blog.anxietysucks.com/?p=158#comment-974 Hi, really pleased to have found your blog. Much reading to catch up on! I had panic attacks when I reached high school. The morning assemblies were a claustrophobic suffocating nightmare, and every day I'd have to stand in this huge hall packed with kids be trembling and feel as if I was about to faint. Sometimes I had to be picked up from school by my mum, after feeling as if I couldn't breathe in class, and this was really frightening for a 12 year old kid. Then it started to happen at home too. The doctor said that I was copying my father who was agoraphobic, and that I would grow out of them, which I did, but they came back in my twenties. There's no way that medication would have been a ideal choice at twelve years old! What would be the consequences of dosing a child up with meds? They are not the answer, they help some people but anxiety is surely better treated by compassion and understanding and cognitive treatments. Children are often overlooked and misdiagnosed. Starting a child on a course of anti depressants could stifle their emotional development, alienate them furthur, and have them believing that a pill will cure everything, leading to addiction and no self reliance. What would this chemical mix do to a child's developing brain? Wouldn't it be better if schools were better educated themselves to understand fears, phobias and mental health issues, and have in place the appropriate support and counselling for children? There are people out there I speak to trying to get themselves off valium, and finding it harder than class A drugs, and have been stuck on them for decades. There has to be another way forward, and anti depressants when I took them short term at 16 did nothing to stop the anxiety reoccuring in later life. Early support and CBT may well have armed me better for it though when it did happen. I agree that childhood anxiety should be taken more seriously, and that there is a good chance that the adult will find the problem returning to them later. I empathise with you situation very much. My warmest wishes to you. Hi, really pleased to have found your blog. Much reading to catch up on! I had panic attacks when I reached high school. The morning assemblies were a claustrophobic suffocating nightmare, and every day I’d have to stand in this huge hall packed with kids be trembling and feel as if I was about to faint. Sometimes I had to be picked up from school by my mum, after feeling as if I couldn’t breathe in class, and this was really frightening for a 12 year old kid. Then it started to happen at home too. The doctor said that I was copying my father who was agoraphobic, and that I would grow out of them, which I did, but they came back in my twenties. There’s no way that medication would have been a ideal choice at twelve years old! What would be the consequences of dosing a child up with meds? They are not the answer, they help some people but anxiety is surely better treated by compassion and understanding and cognitive treatments. Children are often overlooked and misdiagnosed. Starting a child on a course of anti depressants could stifle their emotional development, alienate them furthur, and have them believing that a pill will cure everything, leading to addiction and no self reliance. What would this chemical mix do to a child’s developing brain? Wouldn’t it be better if schools were better educated themselves to understand fears, phobias and mental health issues, and have in place the appropriate support and counselling for children? There are people out there I speak to trying to get themselves off valium, and finding it harder than class A drugs, and have been stuck on them for decades. There has to be another way forward, and anti depressants when I took them short term at 16 did nothing to stop the anxiety reoccuring in later life. Early support and CBT may well have armed me better for it though when it did happen.

I agree that childhood anxiety should be taken more seriously, and that there is a good chance that the adult will find the problem returning to them later. I empathise with you situation very much. My warmest wishes to you.

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