It’s hard to know when your child’s behavior is out of the ordinary.
If your child is older than 6, these behaviors are not only difficult, but suggest an anxiety problem: unable to go to sleep in 20 minutes more than a few times a month; unable to stop thinking about a situation over and over again, similar to holding grudges, insisting on justice; hyper focused on being perfect; unable to tolerate getting a grade lower than an A; unable to stop once engaged in homework; staying up too late working on homework; throwing temper tantrums when thwarted from doing what they want to do; requiring strict adherence to behavioral rituals in order to feel calm, like having bathroom products lined up; worrying about future problems that haven’t happened yet, like “what if this…”. These behaviors in a child, or an adult, suggest there’s something off with their coping skills. A specialist may be able to teach your child skills to better cope with their worries.
Dr. Jankovich has been working as a psychologist since 1974. She works with a range of areas, including relationships, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, grief, trauma, and struggles with life transitions.
The photo included in this story is licensed under Flickr Creative Commons.
