A very common type of anxiety disorder, separation anxiety is most frequently present in young people or small children. Let us examine the disorder in greater detail and the treatment options available to cope with it.
Separation anxiety is a typical feeling which surrounds young people when they are away from their familial environment. Whenever a young child, who is a little above four years old is separated from the primary attachment figure of the family, the child can have pangs of separation anxiety, which is considered to be perfectly normal, unless of course, it gets so severe that living a normal life becomes a problem. This primary attachment figure could be a parent, a caregiver or any such person in the home or family to which the child belongs or was being raised. For instance, a child may suffer separation anxiety when he is starting to go to school, but if he misses his grade school because he could not bear being away from his family, then the problem is serious.
A recurrent form of anxiety disorder, separation anxiety usually lasts for a minimum period of four weeks when the individual goes through sever bouts of tension, worry and fearfulness. It can take the form of a severe headache, stomach upset, rapid heart beats and breaking into sweat.
Incidentally, research has shown that children, who suffer from anxiety or had been very fearful early in life, would normally suffer from various types of anxiety disorders later in life. For instance, a child may suffer separation anxiety when he is severed from his parent or caregiver, as he attends school for the first time. This feeling of nervousness or anxiety should go away within the first few weeks of his attending school. In case this feeling of anxiety does not pass away or even gets worse with time, then a sever anxiety problem can be forecasted. This kind of problem early in life can result in the individual developing serious problems with making friends or even doing well in his school. A child who suffers from severe separation anxiety would typically find it difficult to control his emotions later in life.
A child suffering from separation anxiety would throw up a range of symptoms: incessant worrying about near and dear ones, a prolonged sadness over separating from the primary care giver, readily falling asleep whenever separated from the primary caregiver and more. They are also prone to having frequent nightmares where they are continuously separated from the caregiver and will always feel homesick, have bouts of headache, stomach upsets, dizziness, cramps, increased heartbeats, muscle pain and even nausea and vomiting.
Mild to moderate forms of separation anxiety can be treated with adequate counseling by an authorized and certified medical professional. If however, the degree of intensity is severe, then the child has to be given medical therapy which includes anti-anxiety drugs. These medications can come in the form of SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) or MAOI’s (monoamine oxidase inhibitors). Between the two, SSRIs are more modern and have fewer side effects than MAOIs. The specific type of medication needed by the child can only be finalized depending on the severity as well as the body type. Only a professional mental therapist is equipped to give the right advice.
