Psychologist Sónia Sá contextualizes this topic with the following sentence: “Most adults have heard of Anxiety, know what it is, have felt it or know someone who suffers or has suffered from it at a certain period of their life or even in your day-to-day life. It is also true that there are adults who, despite knowing the concept, do not know how to identify its signs.”

Anxiety is an emotion that many young people and adults are aware of and how much it interferes with each of our daily lives.

However, children do not know how to identify this emotion and anxious disorders are very common in childhood. According to Psychologist Sónia Sá confirms this and states that “Children (...) do not yet have the emotional language developed to say “Mom/Dad, today I am feeling anxious!”, instead, they give it to them. in the signs that something is not right with them. They may tell us that they are feeling unwell or that their stomach hurts, for example.”

Whenever our child or nephew shows us signs that they are not well, as parents and close family members we like to understand what is happening and why the child is not well. In this way, the psychologist shows us a way of understanding what is going on and paying attention to various signs: “if they don't tell us directly what they feel, we often have to explore our sensitivity and look more closely. pay attention to what is not being said.”

The psychologist also highlights that anxiety can appear especially “at a time like this when so much in their lives has changed and they have questions and difficulty understanding what is happening in the world and, often, even imitating the behavior of adults.” .

As we can see, anxiety in children is a common emotion, especially in childhood. To understand if a child suffers from anxiety, there are some common signs that we should pay attention to because “anxiety in a child can manifest itself in different ways: emotional, behavioral, physical and mental.”

The signs that Psychologist Sónia Sá mentions are:

• Nervousness/agitation/difficulty calming down
• Difficulty sleeping
• Aggressiveness
• Biting your nails
• Perfectionism
• Difficulty dealing with other people's opinions of themselves
• Constant worries

We end with a concluding sentence and warning from the psychologist:

“It is essential to draw attention to the fact that a behavior, whether repeated or not, is not an indicator of a diagnosis, especially because there are healthy manifestations of anxiety. If there is, however, this doubt, it is important to consult a specialist.”