ANXIETY #2
Last blog, you took some time to explore you and/or your child’s triggers and body cues. Hopefully, these exercises allowed space to better understand anxiety and to explore it non-judgmentally. This blog will walk you through another activity to keep the conversation going.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is an evidenced-based treatment for those struggling with anxiety. Research has shown it is effective in both short-term treatment and long-term treatment.
Some basic principles of CBT can be immensely powerful when working with young children and/or young adults who are struggling managing their anxiety.
One of the first CBT-based strategies to empower children is the principle of personification. Personification takes anxiety and makes it less intertwined with the person. Little kids can draw their anxiety as a blob, pac man, monster, or however they creatively want to express it. This gives a face and name to the overwhelming dread and/or nerves that feel all-consuming at times. Also, this demystifies the feeling of anxiety and provides ways to discuss anxiety that are more neutral for the person who is struggling.
For example, let’s picture a ten year old boy, who is having panic attacks every time he is asked to present in front of the class. His panic attacks look like vomiting, struggling to breathe, turning red, and racing thoughts. When the panic attack is over, he feels embarrassed and refuses to talk to his caregiver about what happened. Let’s say he has drawn his anxiety personification to look like a red elephant abnormally large. Now when mom, dad, and/or caregiver go to talk with him, maybe they can start with a prompt of draw or tell me about what the red elephant looked/felt like when you thought about giving the presentation? What about before? During? Right after? Notice the changes in the descriptions throughout the incident. This can lead to insights and moments to educate the child on anxiety. Let’s say the elephant was growing bigger and bigger before the speech, but then it was manageable during the speech. What a great lead into talking about facing fears and flexing his brave muscles!
This activity provides a creative outlet to help the child own and understand their anxiety and its unique characteristics. Doing this with care and attention can lead to breakthroughs!
Think about how this could look for your child and their special talents. Maybe they love baking and can bake a cookie then decorate it in a way that shows their anxiety? Maybe they love playing the piano and want to compose a song that resembles their anxiety? Or write a poem? Or create a painting? It can take whatever shape taps into their strengths and disposition. Remember their anxiety personification will constantly be changing, and that is okay.
The goal of this week is to continue de-stigmatizing anxiety, opening communication channels between child and caregiver, and preventing shame from entering the equation. As parents sometimes the hope is to alleviate the anxiety. However, research tells us it is not helpful if we teach or help them avoid the anxiety-provoking situation.
Bryanna
