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Separation anxiety is a disorder that usually shows up in children. Separation anxiety is exaggerated fear of parting with loved ones, which is often accompanied by physical symptoms such as vomiting or sleep disorders. How to recognize separation anxiety? What is the treatment of separation anxiety?
Separation anxiety – what is it?
Separation anxiety (also called the English abbreviation SAD – separation anxiety disorder) is one of the most common forms of anxiety disorders. Separation anxiety it is a morbid fear of parting with loved ones, disproportionate to the situation. Occurrence in the initial stage of development (between 9 and 11 months of age) separation anxiety u dzieci is a natural phenomenon. Babies react nervously to even short-term separation with their parents – they cry, are restless and irritable. Separation anxiety it also occurs naturally in children between 3 and 5 years of age. We can talk about a pathological situation when the intensity of anxiety reactions is disturbing or when separation anxietyy occurs in u dzieci at a different age.
Scientists assume that the phenomenon separation anxiety it affects about 5 percent dzieciis usually more common in boys than in girls. Separation anxiety it can appear in children several years old, however, there are situations in which the disorder also affects adolescents.
Separation anxiety – causes
The reasons separation anxiety can be divided into three groups: psychological factors, biological factors and environmental influences.
Psychological factors that are responsible for the occurrence separation anxiety, it is primarily the inability to properly respond to fear and excessive emotional sensitivity. These psychological predispositions often lead to the development of various anxiety disorders, incl separation anxiety.
Separation anxiety it can also have a biological basis. Usually separation anxiety is a hereditary disorder, and the risk of occurrence separation anxiety in the descendants of people suffering from depression, for example, it is much higher than in the case of dzieciin which families had no mental health problems.
Separation anxiety it is also associated with the presence of certain environmental factors. Separation anxiety often comes to u dzieciwhose parents are overprotective do not leave theirs child per step and surround them with undue care. On the other hand, a lack of parental attention can also affect development separation anxiety. Separation anxiety appears u dzieciwho are experiencing difficult situations, e.g. parents’ divorce, family member’s illness, or have had traumatic experiences, e.g. car accidents or death of a family member.
Separation anxiety symptoms
Separation anxiety it is related to the situation of separation of the child from the parent or immediate family. Separation anxiety it can appear both in the case of parents leaving for work or leaving the child for a few minutes in connection with visiting a nearby store. You should also not underestimate the situation when the child reacts panically to the need to go to school or kindergarten – it is worth observing the child and considering whether his behavior does not exceed the accepted framework of negative reactions on a different basis – what we consider as everyday whims may turn out to be separation anxiety.
The most common symptoms of separation anxietyin addition to the morbid fear of parting with loved ones, there are also sleep disorders, persistent thoughts about death or illness, and the desire to stay close to the parent at the cost of lies or imaginary ailments.
Separation anxiety manifests itself also through somatic complaints, e.g. abdominal pain, headache, vomiting, nausea, problems with concentration and sleep, photophobia, chest pain and shortness of breath, palpitations.
Separation anxiety – treatment
Separation anxiety, like any disorder, it requires treatment and is not something we can ignore in the hope that it will go away on its own.
Separation anxiety requires taking therapy psychological. It brings the best results nucleoside cognitive and nucleoside cognitive-behavioral. A significant role in the struggle with separation anxiety there is also adequate psychoeducation, both for children and adults.
It happens that separation anxiety requires drug treatment. In therapy pharmacological separation anxiety usually antidepressants are used, most often from the SSRI group, but this form of treatment is reserved for patients in whom psychotherapy has not brought any results.