Are You Sensitive About Stress and Anxiety Disorders in Children? - Part 3

It is quite common for us adults to forget or even ignore the presence of children in the vicinity and consciously control what we say, how we act and generally speaking, how we carry ourselves. Children are excellent observers and the best imitators that can be. Whether you like it or not, children will pick up cues from how they see adults carry themselves and mould their own behavior accordingly. The foundation for our character today has roots to our childhood days. Character begins at home and that is something that we adults often tend to simply push to the side in the company of children.

Effect of Domestic Tension on Children

We all have trying moments in life that challenge our beliefs, test our patience and perseverance and holds our minds to ransom while taking life changing decisions for the family. A simple mismatch of opinions between parents in the presence of a child can subject them to stress. It may not be always possible to notice that the child is present before the argument begins, but it is important to take corrective action as soon as either parent notices that the child is present. The corrective action may be as simple as some sort of a warning signal to the other spouse about the child's presence. Such warnings must be listened to and the discussion should either stop or be postponed for a later time when the child is not around.

You see, children are inquisitive little angels and voracious learners. At the same time, like all human beings, they are usually resistant to change. If there is a change, they need an explanation. Without the explanation, their minds try to figure out what the change is all about and how it affects them. So if they are not used to watch quarreling parents in action, the fear of the unknown and uncharted waters grips their mind and that leads to stress. Stress in turn sends their delicate physiological and psychological health into an overdrive situation, which in turn can turn out to be the cause for childhood anxiety and childhood depression. Children growing up in families where parents and adults regularly engage in open and unrestricted heated (or even animated) conversations are known to develop stress related disorders in early childhood, which becomes a challenge to remedy later on in life. Children growing up in such environments are also known to develop an aggressive and self-centered attitude in life.

Domestic Violence

The perils of heated and animated conversation between parents and adults in the household score a new high when they turn into domestic violence in the presence or even the absence of children. It is evident that domestic violence inflicted on an adult in the presence of a child will impose severe stress on her mind. It is also evident how domestic violence on the child himself or herself could simply traumatize the young mind. But how does such turmoil in the absence of the child affect her mind?

Well, domestic violence most often than not will leave behind physical signs of distress that may be difficult to hide. A bruised lip, a black eye, broken bones that "just happened to develop out of the blue" is not an easy thing to lie about even for a rational adult. This is primarily because the victim of domestic violence is going through a stressful situation already. It takes more than Hollywood style acting skills to cover all of that grief-laden emotion up and concoct an explanation for a child when the obvious question is posed at a later time.

Children are also very good lie detectors - you may be lucky a few times to squeeze past the reasoning of the child's brain, but repetitive occurrence of domestic violence presents a pattern to the child. The mind will try to connect the events in the past and the doctored stories that were offered as explanation and will eventually determine the truth all by itself. Sounds unbelievable? It's just a matter of time when the child just figures out what's been going on in his absence and more often than not, the picture that emerges in his mind is not too far from the truth.

So as adults, we must be very careful about how we carry ourselves when we have children in our daily lives. We have a moral responsibility towards our children to provide a psychologically healthy environment to grow up and it takes a lot of sacrifice and rational thinking on our part on how we must "behave".

Center of Column

The Truth About Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders

Panic Attacks. They are very scary and most of the time uncontrollable, and are becoming increasingly common thanks to the hectic lifestyles we are forced to follow. They come when least expected and significantly limit the number of activities we can carry out. People who suffer from anxiety attacks usually don't know what is causing the attacks. Anxiety attacks can take place for a number of reasons such as stress, improper diet, chemical imbalances in the brain and even Post Traumatic Stress. Whatever the causes are, you definitely want to get rid of the problem as it limits us from living a normal life.

Anxiety is actually a good thing. It is a part of human nature to feel scared or tensed in a stressful situation. Whenever the human brain experienced change or something which can be threatening in any way, the Amygdala (a complex structure in the brain which deals with normal human behavior) reacts to that by sending signals of fear and our bodies adrenaline starts pumping, readying the body for a fight or flight situation. Anxiety is good since it keeps us on our toes and is the key to our survival, but when anxiety is overwhelming and occurs on a regular basis it is known as an anxiety disorder.

There are many ways to cure anxiety disorders, the most common being prescription drugs. But these drugs are in no way a cure for anxiety disorders. Instead, they only provide relief when you are experiencing an attack and make the sufferer dependent on them. So once you stop taking the medication you will continue to suffer from attacks and in some cases, experience it more frequently and with greater intensity. This is why it is best to deal with it through a natural approach. Now natural to you may seem like using herbs like Kava root to cure it, but this is not the case.

There are treatments that do not require any substances at all to cure anxiety disorders. The best way to deal with it is by changing your lifestyle and by finding a permanent cure. The Linden method is a program which includes things like PMR (progressive muscle relaxation), visualizations, meditation and a number of different ways to beat anxiety attacks. It creates strength and gives a sense of clarity to anyone who suffers from attacks. It will show you how to stop over thinking and stop the obsessive checking of symptoms. Stop worrying about you getting a panic attack is another thing which you can do to reduce the attacks.

Also, while following the Linden Method, you must also pay close attention to your diet. Today most of us live atrocious lifestyles such as staying up late, sleeping less, eating food stuffs that are known to be bad for our digestive systems, hardly relaxing, not exercising and of course, thinking too much. And we still wonder why we suffer from so many problems. By changing many of these bad habits anxiety attacks will reduce significantly. Eating right is something that will really help reduce your anxiety attacks since the digestive system has a big connection with the brain.

With a good diet, good sleeping habits, regular exercise and with the help of the Linden method, you can surely get rid of anxiety induced panic attacks forever.

Civil Engineering Overview