how to explain anxiety to children
Anxiety affects many people - adults as well as children. It feels different for everyone.
It happens because a tiny part of our brains called the Amygdala (am-ig-da-lah) is a bit like an alarm that goes off when it thinks there is danger.
The amygdala’s job is to get us ready to run away from the danger or fight it. We call this ‘fight or flight’.
It makes sure we can be fast (to run away) or strong (to fight) by sending special brain chemicals, like adrenaline and oxygen to fuel our muscles. It does this very quickly.
That’s great...
when there’s a huge hairy monster coming straight toward us! But sometimes the amygdala gets it wrong and ‘goes off’ when there is no danger…
ASK - “Have you ever heard the smoke alarm go off when the toast is burning?”
The smoke alarm can’t tell the difference between a real fire and the toast burning. It just wants to let us know it thinks there is danger so we can act.
The amygdala is like the smoke alarm. It can’t tell the difference between something that might hurt (like a huge hairy monster) and something that won’t, (like trying something new).
Anxiety in the body
When the amygdala goes off but there’s no real danger, the extra oxygen and brain chemicals don’t get used, but they hang around in the body and can make us feel shaky, upset, dizzy or just ‘not right’. We call this feeling anxiety.
