[bakesgirls]

Let me preface this by saying, this is being asked out of genuine curiosity.

I see here on EB, parents saying their child has anxiety. Do you think this is a new thing, or is it just being noticed now as opposed to not being recognised before? What I mean is do you think previous generations didn't know it existed, or it was just swept under the rug?

Before reading about this on EB, I honestly had no idea that so many kids had anxiety issues.

For the parents of kids with anxiety, was it a formal diagnosis, or was it something that you observed in your child over time? How did you know, what led you to believe that there was an issue in the first place?

As I said, I'm genuinely curious so was wondering about it so I don't seem so ignorant about it in discussions

[-*meh*-]

anxiety can be an easy thing to see... but also easy to misdiagnose.

I thought DS1 had anxiety for several years, turns out he has autism. A lot of his behaviour i interprited as anxiety were actually things that were his way of dealing with being on the spectrum and not coping.

But yes a lot of these things are more diagnosed now than they used to be.

anxiety can be an easy thing to see... but also easy to misdiagnose.

I thought DS1 had anxiety for several years, turns out he has autism. A lot of his behaviour i interprited as anxiety were actually things that were his way of dealing with being on the spectrum and not coping.

But yes a lot of these things are more diagnosed now than they used to be.

[Oriental lily]

My eldest dd has anxiety. I also have generalized anxiety disorder.

With DD we were told by her speech therapist to get it checked out due to her behavior making therapy very difficult. From there it was a visit to a paed and then psychologist.

She is just like me however at her age I did not have the anxiety she has.

I think many things are diagnosed these days than previously. I think mental health is taken more seriously these days as a whole.

[Saecularis Angel...]

I think it's more recognised now. As an adult I've been diagnosed with anxiety disorder, and when I look back, it was definitely there as a kid; but it wasn't understood as such and people just thought I was shy or weird or whatever.

[mini mac]

Maybe because this is a forum where people feel they can ask questions, be supported, vent and talk freely about whatever issue is bothering them without the judgement of people in the real world.

But I have to wonder too, these issues seem to be getting more common... Or maybe we are just picking them up more and managing them better... Or maybe society in general is causing it??

Too many books/websites telling us what/how/why/when etc about everything. I read somewhere more people are having trouble parenting now because they don't trust their instincts and are worried about judgement for their choice of discipline, smack or don't smack, sport, routine or lack thereof, or schooling, or religion the list goes on. Social networking will bring on a whole new set of anxiety dramas in the years to come, I'm sure!

[mini mac]

I think many things are diagnosed these days than previously. I think mental health is taken more seriously these days as a whole.

This

This post has been edited by Mini Mac: 23/01/2013, 02:21 PM

[Jemstar]

It is more recognised and more prevalent I think.

[bakesgirls]

If I may ask, what sort of things did you notice in your child that pointed to anxiety? Was it apparent shyness, poor social skills? I'm just trying to get a better undertanding of it.

[Pooks*potters]

My partner had anxiety as a child, undiagnosed but his parents accommodated him a lot because he was "sensitive", but they never did a thing otherwise to help him with it.

Mum and a couple of her sisters had anxiety as children, one was so terrified of going to school she would freeze and not move, talk, respond... Just sit there like a rock. They took her out of school at 13 and put her to work in a factory. It definitely existed, people definitely understood that there were things going on. My impression is that these sorts of things were usually accepted and accommodated as much as possible by the family, sort of like the uncle who drank to much being "ah yes that's Bill for you, gets a bit full sometimes", and the cousin who was generally "a bit slow on the uptake" but whose uncle got him a job so he would be ok. I don't think people thought about things that we do now as an illness or condition, just as "the way things were" and either tolerated and accommodated it, or tried (with varying levels of success) to smack it out of them.

Dad had a very sensitive younger brother, one of 9 otherwise boisterous and rough boys, and they tried to smack it out of him. Finally they decided he was a "bit funny", possibly gay, and let him be except for routinely showing him lady mags to turn him right. He and I have talked about it and he thinks that these days he might have been diagnosed with some kind of social anxiety disorder, but he somehow managed to function well enough into adulthood, got some therapy and is doing well.

[noi'mnot]

My sister had a lot of trouble coping with all sorts of things as a child - change, new people, challenges, failures, etc. She was very very shy, an ultra perfectionist, and would easily make herself sick (literally) with worry. Most people just thought she was pretty odd, and a "high achiever".

She was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder in her 30s. After discussions with her GP and counsellor about GAD, things just started to make sense for her. She had been dealing with symptoms of anxiety her whole life, and had just been told that this was how she is.

Now that she has been treated and learned some different strategies for dealing with her illness, she's quite a new person. No longer so oversensitive, a lot more self aware, not so highly strung, etc. She is just so much happier now.

I'd say that when she was a kid nobody thought about anxiety disorders really, particularly in the little country town where we were from. Then her behaviours developed into something that was "normal" for her, she internalised those messages that "this is who I am", and it wasn't until it started having effects on her physical health that things were investigated and hindsight told her (and others!) that she has anxiety.