Blood flow is directed from the abdominal organs to the brain, and digestion slows. I feel sick, like I’m going to vomit.ĭuring anxiety, anything that isn’t absolutely essential for survival slows down to conserve energy for fight or flight. The clues will be in the regularity, timing or intensity. If they happen regularly in the same environment, before the same thing, after the same thing, and with other symptoms of anxiety (such as racey heart, sick tummy, avoidance, clammy skin, tension, headache), anxiety might be behind it. If you hear any of these, notice when they happen. The key is to be open to the possibility, so if it is anxiety that’s breaking their stride, you can come in and provide the support they need to feel safe, secure and ready to take on the world again. Of course, just because they say any of these doesn’t mean anxiety is making the push, but it might. It will be clear that something isn’t quite right, but it might not be as obvious that anxiety is behind it. Here are some of the things kids might say when they’re feeling anxious. When children are anxious, it can be difficult for them to articulate exactly what’s happening for them. When there is nothing to fight or flee, there’s nothing to burn the fight or flight neurochemicals that surge through us, so they build up and cause the symptoms of anxiety.
The brain still fires up in response to threat, exactly as it’s mean to, but when the threats are psychological stressors, the fight or flight response doesn’t serve us so well. We no longer face the possibility of being dinner for a furry predator, but we do face very real psychological threats such as failure, rejection, exclusion, humiliation, disconnection from the people we care about – and the list goes on. Now, the dangers we face are less physical threats and more psychological ones. An anxious brain would have made us more alive to any threats, which would given us the survival edge. It is NOT a broken brain, but a strong, healthy, capable brain that’s working a little too hard and being a little too overprotective.īack when the threats we humans faced were mostly physical, the most anxious of us probably would have been the most likely to survive.
Sometimes, the amygdala can work a little too hard and hit the alarm button too often when it doesn’t need to. When the amygadala is triggered, it initiates a surge of neurochemicals to make us stronger, faster, more powerful, and more physically able to deal with a threat. The amygdala is instinctive, so if it thinks there might be danger, it will act first and think later – and the unfamiliar, the unknown, humiliation, embarrassment, separation from important people, can all count as danger. It comes from a part of the brain called the amygdala, which keeps us safe by getting us ready to fight for our lives or run for it. What it’s not so great at is announcing its presence in gentle, clear ways that preserve the capacity for any of us to meet it with a strong, steady, ‘Oh, there you are,’ and an even more powerful, ‘It’s okay, I’m safe – you don’t need to be here right now’.Īnxiety in Children – Why Does Anxiety Happen?Īnxiety is the work of a strong, healthy brain that’s a little overprotective. Anxiety has been doing its thing since the beginning of humans, and it’s brilliant at it. Because of this, it can be difficult to know when your child is anxious. Anxiety can be a shady character and can often appear in ways that don’t look like anxiety.