Children of an Anxious Age

There is an enlightening article in the May number of The Atlantic called Childhood in an Anxious Age. I have been interested in a phenomenon I see among Gen-X and millennials: anxiety. I recommend the article to anyone with an interest in anxiety issues. The article discusses the effective therapies of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Supportive Therapy for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). What I have learned from the article includes that adult-onset anxiety is rare: if you are anxious as an adult, you likely were anxious as a child. 

I also learned that children who are anxious tend to be those without coping skills, and the reason they are short on coping skills is that they have not been allowed to develop them. Adults in their lives tend to intervene to take over the kids’ problems. 

It is important to allow children to be tested by life and to meet the challenges. They learn to handle problems by being allowed to. Intervening in the natural development of coping skills does a disservice to the child that can severely impair him for a lifetime.