I think you can in my opinion. My sister had bouts of mood swings for a long time and in about middle school started have full blown attacks. We think the mood swings were a begining sign of anxiety. She now takes medication and knows how to control to a point. I recently started having attacks, started on a medication, and now am medication free for now. I control them but now know if I can't control anymore to get help. I beleive many children have this and we need to find ways to help them it cause many other problems in their lives!

I have to agree on this 150%. When I was a child, I was already diagnosed with nervous stomach syndrome. Right on the path to anxiety and here I am 50 years later with severe anxiety and stress with depression. They saw it coming and I did not.

Thank you for your reply. Yes, it's seems that most anxiety disorders starts young. How about misdiagnose? Is it as common as what it appeared in anxiety-related forums where sufferers often complain of being misdiagnosed by doctors & psychiatrists? I'm not sure about you guys but I was misdiagnosed 2 times in the past. I wouldn't blame the doctors, I think it's merely miscommunication; no clue on medical terms n terminologies on describing symptoms n other details on my part at that time.

So, if being misdiagnosed is common, how can we ensure that anxiety disorders in children can be detected early and accurately when its even harder for a child to open up & describe, for etc. symptoms or sensations they experienced (some of the symptoms, especially in the early stages, are quite generic, spanning most of the different types of anxiety disorders), as compared to adults.

Or early anxiety disorder detection is all about guessing game and doctors-hopping? (which I'm sure will put more stress on the poor child) What are your views?

Thank you once again. Appreciate the help! Cheers~
HILMAN

There are tell tail signs if you look hard enough. Some very intraverted at a young age. Anti-social with no real friends. Or even show aggression in pre-school. They are there. You just have to recognize them early enough. As I said, the real thing usually starts to show in young teens.

Carrie

Misdiagnosis for any psychological illness is easy because there's no blood test or simple way to determine what it is. Psychology is not yet an exact science.

I think it might be problematic to treat children that young- anxiety disorders are not 100% genetic- it is partially envirionmental too. If you are treating them that early and exposing the child to that dialogue early in life, you might exacerbate a disorder which was never going to come to fruition in the first place. The child might have learned ways to cope or other things that would cause the child not to develop a disorder. Make sense?

I do agree that children who are showing signs of a disorder and are not being able to function should be treated asap. However, finding signs in children before they actually develop a disorder seems like it would do more harm than good.

Good point gal. Boy are you gonna make a good one!
I do agree that as you get older, there probably would be some sign of intravertedness or maybe something as simple as crying for no reason. I was the intraverted kind. Started when I was about 12 yeard old. Of course things just kept getting worse after that. Only had one really close friend at any set time.

Thanks Carrie

Yeah, you usually can look back and find signs or precursors. My mom says that she was depressed as a kid now that she looks back on it.

I agree about treating them early. My sister learned to deal with situations as she grew. But about highschool age her axiety got bad enough she was having full blown attacks at school or work, my mother did not get her on medication until she was 18 and they knew that is what was going on. In situations when they can not function and other things have not helped then yes they need to be treated.

Oh I completely agree. I am just saying that you shouldn't look to hard to find "signs" in your young children. In a case when they are not able to function, (as you said) treatment at any age is necessary.

Well, I think it is time to come clean again. Boy, am I getting brave here. Maybe just to comfortable with all of you. I am manic. Was tested back in the 80s with a base line blood draw. Lithium crystals do not show up in the blood. You will get a zero base line. Doc starts you one a mg or so and then does another blood draw. If it shows up that you are .05 or less ( I think) you are lithium diffecient. And I was. He put me on 1mg of Lithium twice a day and brought me up to a 0.9. I felt like a wall had been taking down. Well, he was not satisfied with that and had me take one more dose a day. The first extra dose I took, I had a reaction of some kind and flushed them all down the toilet. LOL. I am managing alright. I do have my days and today just happened to be one of them. Then I will have my up days where I could ride a cloud. Anyway, I have been dealing with this since the mid 80s.

Thanks for sharing Carrie, your personal experience has been invaluable on this board.

Are you still on the lithium? I have a few people very close to me who are going through the same thing, I know it can be hard. Best of luck.

I do think i had it when i was younger and just within the last 5 years it has really been showing with going into the real world from college and being done with sports. I am getting the trouble getting a deep breath or always thinking I need on all the time. Gagging feeling, clearing throat, worried about dying or having terminal disease becasue of the symptoms, I don't know what to do. They say its anxiety but I haven't got help because I am waiting on insurance. any suggestions or does anyone feel like this and want to talk.

Anxiety disorders are both nature and nurture. Parenting and social encounters can determine the severity of someone pre-disposed to disorders. Two identical people with similar disorders may turn into two unrecognizable people, or they could stay the same.

The onset of later childhood anxiety, or adult anxiety, is often something more complex such as PSTD or a indicator of mild aspergers or other disease. Anxiety, also, can be caused by the American diet which contains caffeine, sugars and starches that are not normally part of human intake and can cause overload for the brain.