What You Can Do to Prevent Passing On Your Anxiety to Your Children

You know how much you worry about what you’ll pass on to your children if you’ve ever had a panic attack. Here are helpful parenting tips you can do to prevent passing your anxiety to your children.

A person’s anxiety might have hereditary as well as environmental causes. An enormous predisposition for stress to be exhibited in the kids can’t be controlled genetically, just like any other condition. My fears are based on fact. Fortunately, there are also practical solutions to the problem. In the same way that I address my anxiety with medication and meditation, as a parent, I may use the following techniques to prevent stress in my children.

Embrace My Children’s Sense of Adventure

When a parent suffers from an anxiety illness, the fears concerning their children can become illogical. Giving my children age-appropriate experiences helps them develop their coping mechanisms, but it also helps me learn to step back and allow them to take the lead. Activities should be judged based on the age of the participants. It is possible to handle some of the irrational fears and panic attacks that plague my life by looking at things objectively.

Don’t Speculate about the Worst Case Scenario.

Catastrophizing occurred when my child was on the balcony, and my thoughts immediately turned to a dreadful conclusion. When I’m feeling anxious, I can use my vivid imagination to my advantage, which isn’t suitable for my children or me. 

Similarly, if I’m trying to convey to my child that crossing a busy street to visit a friend’s house alone is not an option, I don’t need to use extreme scenarios to frighten her. 

Focus on her safety in smaller and more realistic ways rather than telling her that I don’t want her to be found lying dead in the street. One method to deal with fear and catastrophizing is to see the best-case scenario rather than the worst so that you can prevent passing on your anxiety to your children.

React in a healthy way

Cues other than our words can help children understand us before comprehending our terms. I always try very hard not to freak out if my toddler grabs a knife that I left lying around. Rather than wildly waving my hands in her direction, I move quickly to take the knife and put it away correctly. Practicing these more sensible responses helps me feel more relaxed in these situations.

A Helicopter is an unwelcome guest.

It’s easy to make fun of helicopter parents. A common misconception about helicopter parenting is that it implies that parents believe their children are superior to others. Still, it stems from a fear that we will fail as parents and harm our children.

But overprotection and hovering interfere with children’s ability to develop their coping and problem-solving skills. So I must become conscious of my tendency to overprotect and learn to control my urge to hover.

Discuss It

As a parent, I’ve noticed that some of my children display indicators of nervousness. When they are heard and understood, they are more likely to take action. Even while I wouldn’t tell my 2-year-old about my problems, I think telling my 11-year-old about my challenges is acceptable.

As much as possible, inform your child’s doctor.

When it comes to my anxiety illness and concerns for the emotional well-being of my children, I’m open with my children’s pediatricians. I’d bring up any troubling emotional problems with him like I’d bring up a recurring cough. Because of that, doctors can better personalize their treatment and recommendations to each patient.

Meaningful articles you might like: Assisting Children in Dealing with Their Emotions, Understanding Toddler Stress and Anxiety Symptoms, How to Identify and Treat Depression in Children