What are the causes of children's fear? What are the ways to overcome fear?

The healthy growth of children is one of the most concerned issues for parents. Today, let's talk about the psychological phobias of children. There are many introverted babies, but parents always ignore them. In fact, children's introversion and timidity may affect the psychological development of babies. Let's talk about it in detail.

Causes of fear in children

Generally speaking, if the fear lasts for more than 2 years, it is very obvious, and the person is addicted to the fear all day long and cannot extricate himself, which interferes with normal study and life. For example, if the person is afraid of ghosts, he will be terrified when talking about ghosts, and will have panic and avoidance reactions, accompanied by symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, cold sweats, pale face and frequent urination, etc., it should be classified as a phobia. Phobia is sometimes accompanied by anxiety reactions and obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

According to the different objects of fear, fear can be divided into four categories, namely fear of physical harm, fear of natural events, fear of social anxiety and other fears. Children of different ages fear different things. Young children fear ghosts and monsters, while older children fear physical danger or harm.

In preventing children's phobias, we should strengthen the character development of children from an early age, so that they have an optimistic, cheerful and strong character; we should advocate science and reason, and not use ghosts, monsters, dark rooms and other means to scare children; parents should pay attention to the role model of their own behavior, and not be afraid of this or that for no reason.

There are six major dangers of childhood phobia

1. Influence on children’s personality

Psychological trauma in childhood may cause lifelong character defects in children. For example, if a child's first stage performance is not very successful and is laughed at by his peers after the performance, this may become a "rotten strawberry" in his life, and he may never dare to speak loudly in public again.

2. May cause autism

There are many reasons that lead to autism in children, but the role played by childhood phobia far outweighs other factors.

3. It will be difficult for children to grow up

Whether it is character defects or autism, the ultimate result is that the child will never grow up.

4. Other serious consequences

Some children with phobias will hate society and commit crimes when they grow up.

5. Phobias cause anxiety disorders

Anxiety may not be directed at a specific object or may be a worry about some unexpected event that may occur in daily life, but there is no obvious fear or avoidance behavior. Agoraphobia may exist at the same time as panic attacks. If the person is afraid to go out due to the worry about panic attacks, he should be diagnosed with panic attacks accompanied by agoraphobia.

6. Phobias cause obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms originate from certain thoughts or ideas in the patient's mind, not fear of external things. There are often compulsive actions but rarely avoidance behaviors.

Treatment of children's fear

(1) Supportive psychological intervention: This often requires close cooperation between doctors, parents, and teachers. First, doctors should have a detailed understanding of the child's course of illness, the causes of illness, the objective difficulties and problems, and the various factors that are conducive and unfavorable for the child to return to school. Second, doctors, parents, and teachers should all show concern for the child, listen carefully to the child's story, and establish a good cooperative relationship of mutual trust with the child. Among them, teachers should cooperate with the child in a positive attitude and proactive manner; parents should not blindly sympathize, protect, or arbitrarily criticize or blame. Third, comprehensively analyze the possibility of returning the child to school, and enable the child to return to school by reducing learning pressure, improving educational methods and attitudes, building self-confidence, increasing learning interest, changing classes, transferring schools, etc. Fourth, during the intervention process, the child should not be separated from school life, and the time and method of returning to school should be appropriately arranged according to the specific situation. The method of intermittent schooling can be adopted, with school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and staying at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays; going to school in the afternoon first, and then transitioning to full-day school; or parents can accompany the child to school or classmates can accompany the child to school. After supportive psychological intervention, most children can return to school smoothly.

(2) Family therapy: There are often "bad relationships" between family members of children with school phobia. Common forms include unclear boundaries between parents and children, imperfect emotional differentiation, and abnormal complementarity such as lack of attention from one party and excessive attention from the other. Family therapy is to change the existing bad family relationships under the guidance of a well-trained therapist. Sometimes teachers can also be invited to join the treatment, so that parents, children and teachers can have more understanding and cooperation.

(3) Drug therapy: Drug therapy can be considered for children with severe emotional symptoms. It can not only eliminate symptoms of tension, anxiety, and physical discomfort, but also provide assistance for various psychological interventions and treatments, and enhance the child’s confidence in curing the disease.