Anxiety Symptoms in Children

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsCommon Childhood WorriesSigns of Anxiety in ChildrenTypes of Childhood AnxietyHelp a Child With AnxietyA Word From Verywell

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Table of Contents

Common Childhood Worries

Signs of Anxiety in Children

Types of Childhood Anxiety

Help a Child With Anxiety

A Word From Verywell

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Children with anxiety may not exhibit symptoms in quite the same way as adults. For example, they may display anger orirritabilityin addition to fear and worry.

It’s understandable that parents would worry about their child’s anxiety, but it’s important to know that some childhood anxiety is normal and expected. Still, some kids do have anxiety disorders. Fortunately, there are things that parents can do to help their kids get treatment and cope with feelings of anxiety.

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There are a number of things that normally cause worry and anxiety for kids of different ages. New situations, challenging tasks, and even unfamiliar people can lead to fear and anxiety in children from time to time.

Other age-appropriate fears include:

These childhood fears are normal and typically lessen on their own as a child grows older. It takes more than occasional anxiety, which can be normal, to indicate true symptoms of an anxiety disorder.

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Signs and Symptoms in Children With Anxiety

As much as it is common to have occasional anxiety, it is also common for children to have anxiety disorders.While estimates of the prevalence vary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that 9.4% of children between the ages of 3 and 17 have diagnosable anxiety.

Children with true anxiety symptoms may experience symptoms that include:

Other indicators of concern include symptoms that interfere with a child’s ability to learn, interact with peers, sleep at night, or function normally in daily life.

Normal childhood fears that persist beyond the age where they are expected to fade (such as being afraid of the dark or being away from parents past the preschool age) are also a point of concern.

Like adults, children can also have other anxiety disorders, which range from separation anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to panic attacks. Some signs of anxiety are easier to spot, but other anxiety disorders can be a little harder to detect.

Some of the different types of childhood anxiety include:

Separation Anxiety

Separation anxietyinvolves an exaggerated fear of being separated from parents and caregivers. This type of anxiety is common in young children but usually begins to abate once a child is around 3 or 4. Symptoms of separation anxiety are usually fairly easy to spot and involve refusing to go anywhere without the parent or caregiver, refusing to sleep alone, or refusing to go to school.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Also, a child with a generalized anxiety disorder will have trouble controlling their feelings of worry and it will cause them distress and some kind of impairment. For example, they may be so irritable from not sleeping that they are having trouble keeping their friends or their grades are dropping because they can’t concentrate.

Children with generalized anxiety disorder may also have somatic symptoms, such as headaches, abdominal pain, and muscle aches and pains.

Specific Phobias

In addition to a generalized anxiety disorder, children can have morespecific phobias.​ They become anxious and worried, but only about very specific triggers, such as a thunderstorm, spiders, being left alone, or going into a swimming pool, etc.

Although these children may cry and may cling to their parents if they are around or think they will be around something they are really afraid of, fortunately, most kids outgrow this type of anxiety disorder.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Children withOCDmay have either recurrent intrusive thoughts (obsessions) about certain things often along with repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions) that they perform, such as washing their hands a lot, checking things over and over, or repeating certain words or phrases to themselves in response to the obsessions.

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks can either be a symptom of other anxiety disorders or can indicate the child has panic disorder. Although uncommon in children, panic attacks and panic disorder become more common in later teen years. In addition to intense fear or discomfort, the definition of a panic attack requires four or more of the following symptoms:

Having panic disorder means the child develops a fear of having more panic attacks and starts to avoid situations, activities, people, and places that they feel might trigger a panic attack. However, in panic disorder, panic attacks are often unexpected, and can take place when you least expect it, like when you are relaxing, walking the dog, and even sleeping.

Selective Mutism

Of all of the anxiety disorders in children,selective mutismis perhaps the one that is most commonly overlooked, as people think these children are just extremely shy. Children with selective mutism actually refuse to talk and may only talk to close family members at home. At school or in other situations, they often become anxious and very uncomfortable when they are expected to talk.

Fortunately, anxiety disorders are treatable conditions. If anxiety symptoms are interfering with your child’s normal daily activities, talk to your child’s pediatrician, a child psychologist, and/or a child psychiatrist. For school-age kids, a school guidance counselor can also offer support, advice, and a referral for further evaluation and treatment.

Girls experience anxiety at about twice the rate as boys. Because anxiety tends to grow worse if left untreated, experts suggest that all girls aged 13 and older should be screened for anxiety during routine health exams.

If your child is diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, early treatment is recommended to prevent symptoms from getting worse and carrying on into their teen years or adulthood.

Psychotherapy with specific strategies to address fears, worries, and anxiety, such ascognitive behavioral therapy, can be beneficial. Understanding the anxiety feedback loop helps people identify thethoughts that trigger feelings of anxietyand panic, and discover any unhealthy responses to those feelings (such asavoidance behaviors). With practice, children with anxiety can learn to stop the cycle.

Also, it is helpful for anyone who experiences anxiety to learn more about the"fight or flight" responsethat is over-active and developrelaxation techniquesthat induce the"rest and digest" response.

How to Help a Child With Anxiety

There are also things that parents can do at home tohelp childrenlearn how to manage their feelings of anxiety. Tactics that may help:

The ways that parents cope with anxiety can affect the way children deal with their fears. While parents should not pretend that they don’t have anxiety, they should focus on showing kids that it is something that can be calmly tolerated and effectively managed.

If your child is struggling with an anxiety disorder, contact theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helplineat1-800-662-4357for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

If your child is struggling with an anxiety disorder, contact theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helplineat1-800-662-4357for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.

For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

It is common for young children to have fears and anxieties as they learn about the world and this is considered a part of normal development. However, most children will grow out of their fears as their brain matures and they gain more life experience. Nevertheless, there are some children who will develop anxiety disorders and early intervention is recommended.

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8 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Stanford Children’s Health.Separation anxiety.Freidl EK, Stroeh OM, Elkins RM, Steinberg E, Albano AM, Rynn M.Assessment and treatment of anxiety among children and adolescents.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2017;15(2):144-156. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20160047Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Anxiety and depression in children: Get the facts.Gale CK, Millichamp J.Generalised anxiety disorder in children and adolescents.BMJ Clin Evid. 2016;2016:1002.Krebs G, Heyman I.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.Arch Dis Child. 2015;100(5):495-499. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306934Anxiety Disorders Association of America.Anxiety disorders in children.Driessen J, Blom JD, Muris P, Blashfield RK, Molendijk ML.Anxiety in children with selective mutism: A meta-analysis.Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2019. doi:10.1007/s10578-019-00933-1Gregory KD, Chelmow D, Nelson HD, et al.Screening for anxiety in adolescent and adult women: A recommendation from the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative.Ann Intern Med. 2020;173(1):48-56. doi:10.7326/M20-0580

8 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Stanford Children’s Health.Separation anxiety.Freidl EK, Stroeh OM, Elkins RM, Steinberg E, Albano AM, Rynn M.Assessment and treatment of anxiety among children and adolescents.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2017;15(2):144-156. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20160047Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Anxiety and depression in children: Get the facts.Gale CK, Millichamp J.Generalised anxiety disorder in children and adolescents.BMJ Clin Evid. 2016;2016:1002.Krebs G, Heyman I.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.Arch Dis Child. 2015;100(5):495-499. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306934Anxiety Disorders Association of America.Anxiety disorders in children.Driessen J, Blom JD, Muris P, Blashfield RK, Molendijk ML.Anxiety in children with selective mutism: A meta-analysis.Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2019. doi:10.1007/s10578-019-00933-1Gregory KD, Chelmow D, Nelson HD, et al.Screening for anxiety in adolescent and adult women: A recommendation from the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative.Ann Intern Med. 2020;173(1):48-56. doi:10.7326/M20-0580

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Stanford Children’s Health.Separation anxiety.Freidl EK, Stroeh OM, Elkins RM, Steinberg E, Albano AM, Rynn M.Assessment and treatment of anxiety among children and adolescents.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2017;15(2):144-156. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20160047Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Anxiety and depression in children: Get the facts.Gale CK, Millichamp J.Generalised anxiety disorder in children and adolescents.BMJ Clin Evid. 2016;2016:1002.Krebs G, Heyman I.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.Arch Dis Child. 2015;100(5):495-499. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306934Anxiety Disorders Association of America.Anxiety disorders in children.Driessen J, Blom JD, Muris P, Blashfield RK, Molendijk ML.Anxiety in children with selective mutism: A meta-analysis.Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2019. doi:10.1007/s10578-019-00933-1Gregory KD, Chelmow D, Nelson HD, et al.Screening for anxiety in adolescent and adult women: A recommendation from the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative.Ann Intern Med. 2020;173(1):48-56. doi:10.7326/M20-0580

Stanford Children’s Health.Separation anxiety.

Freidl EK, Stroeh OM, Elkins RM, Steinberg E, Albano AM, Rynn M.Assessment and treatment of anxiety among children and adolescents.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2017;15(2):144-156. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20160047

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Anxiety and depression in children: Get the facts.

Gale CK, Millichamp J.Generalised anxiety disorder in children and adolescents.BMJ Clin Evid. 2016;2016:1002.

Krebs G, Heyman I.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.Arch Dis Child. 2015;100(5):495-499. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306934

Anxiety Disorders Association of America.Anxiety disorders in children.

Driessen J, Blom JD, Muris P, Blashfield RK, Molendijk ML.Anxiety in children with selective mutism: A meta-analysis.Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2019. doi:10.1007/s10578-019-00933-1

Gregory KD, Chelmow D, Nelson HD, et al.Screening for anxiety in adolescent and adult women: A recommendation from the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative.Ann Intern Med. 2020;173(1):48-56. doi:10.7326/M20-0580

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