The Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS), in addition to other studies on treating childhood anxiety disorders, found that high-quality cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), given with or without medication, can effectively treat anxiety disorders in children. One small study even found that a behavioral therapy designed to treat social phobia in children was more effective than an antidepressant medication.
Anxiety can be a normal reaction to stress. It can help us deal with a tense situation, study harder for an exam, keep focused on an important speech. In general, it can help us cope. But when anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it has become a disabling condition.
I listened to a great talk this past weekend by a young man describing some of the pit falls of his generation. He did a great job of communicating the needs of his generation and the concerns that many of his peers express. As I listened to him I thought about how different things were in my youth. When I returned to my home, I decided to look up some studies and this is what I found. Today’s youth report the following as issues of concern consistently:
- Erosion of National Pride/Lack of Collective Identity
- Poverty
- Changes with the Economy
- Education System Concerns
- Lifestyles that Promote Obesity
- Materialism
- Violence in School
- Bombarded with Sexual Suggestions/Being in a Hurry to Grow Up
- Drug and Alcohol Abuse
- Broken Families and Single Parent Households
- Not Feeling Prepared for the Future
- Peer Pressure
- Adult Hypocrisy
- Confusing Standards
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