Anxiety in Kids isn't Always Unhealthy
Brought to you by Creative Healing for Youth in Pain's Parenting Blog.
Did you know that anxiety isn’t always bad?
Of course, it can be a problem: When it interferes with our life in a big way, when we get stuck with anxious feelings without being able to move through them, and when the anxiety response occurs without reason.
But experiencing anxiety can make a lot of sense, as well. It can even be healthy.
In this short video, I talk about the difference between anxiety as a pathology and anxiety as a healthy response to a situation that’s anxiety-producing. I share strategies to help kids, teens, and parents exercise self-compassion, and how we can look at this current moment with fresh eyes.
We can look at our anxiety and WHY it’s happening, rather than automatically pathologizing it; we can understand the mechanism behind anxiety, so we can work with it and help ourselves avoid getting stuck as things become safer again. Anxiety, like all feelings, is a part of the full range of emotions, and it’s appropriate to feel anxiety when there are threats or dangers present.