Generalized Anxiety
Specialized Therapy in Scottsdale, Arizona
Excessive worries, what ifs, feeling stuck, and shutting down
Kids and teens with generalized anxiety worry excessively about a variety of topics, such as their future, social events, their academics, being alone, catastrophic events that are highly unlikely to happen, and their health. A child with generalized anxiety may perceive their worries as uncontrollable, “stuck” in their brains, experience medically unexplained stomach aches and headaches, have trouble falling or staying asleep, and engage in excessive reassurance seeking behaviors (“mom, are you sure it won’t rain today? Can you check the weather app again, please?!”).
Common examples of worries experienced by kids with GAD include:
Future events (“what’s going to happen to me if mom and dad die?”)
Past mistakes or events (“I still feel sick when I think about forgetting the answer to that math problem 3 years ago and the whole class laughed at me”)
Social acceptance (“What if my friends don’t actually like me?”)
Family issues ("my friend’s parents are getting divorced, does that mean mine are too?”)
Personal abilities (“Why can’t I run as fast as everyone else?”)
Academic performance (“I got a B on my test, I’m going to fail the class”)
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