ANXIETY: COPING MECHANISMS FOR CHILDREN WHO STRUGGLE WITH ANXIETY
EMAIL 1
Copy/Paste the email below.
Subject Line: Are your children struggling with anxiety?
Dear (Insert Parent Name Here),
Due to a global pandemic experience, anxiety is on the rise in children of all ages. Some occasionally experience anxiety, while others are daily. To help introduce the topic, we have a brand new, encouraging, (and short!) video for you that includes some basic starting points on how to help your child.
To view the video, click the link below.
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/463193419/bf72d1825d
As always, I am here to support you as parents. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to reach out.
(Insert Signature Here)
EMAIL 2
Copy/Paste the email below.
Subject Line: Ideas on how to help anxious children
Dear (Insert Parent Name Here),
If your child struggles with anxiety on any level, you are not alone. Anxiety has increased among children, especially since the global pandemic. As some of your biggest fans, we want to support you in the parent journeying.
We have a short, encouraging video that includes a few simple ideas on how to help a child with anxiety. To view the video, click the link below.
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/463193419/bf72d1825d
If you have any questions, thoughts, or want to talk further about the subject, please reach out.
Cheering you on,
(Insert Signature Here)
VIDEO
SOCIAL MEDIA SWAG
Anyone struggle with anxiety in your family? Check your inbox for a short, encouraging parent video to help!
Learn more from our new parent video on anxiety. Parents, check your inbox for more!
Anxiety can create a loop of worry and fearful thoughts in your child’s head. Learn more in our brief parent video. Check your inbox for more.
ANXIETY: Coping Mechanisms for Children who Struggle with Anxiety. Parents, check your inbox for our new, brief, encouraging video!
VIDEO SCRIPT
If your child struggles with anxiety, you know that this is probably something you need to seek professional help because it is no joke. We all understand that we have some level of anxiety. But for some of us, the anxiety is so real. You know that really annoying song we used to sing? “This is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on, my friends.” And you just keep singing that over and over again, having that same song in your head over, and over, and over, and over? Yeah. That’s what anxiety can become for our kids, this never-ending song in their heads. But instead of the lyrics of a cheesy song, it’s a fear or a worry that they just simply can’t stop thinking about. And it quite literally grinds their brain down. If you’re a parent of a kid with anxiety, I don’t have to explain any further. You live it almost on a daily basis.
And yes, as I said earlier, professional help is probably something you’ll need to check out to see how they can find some coping mechanisms to help them. Here are some of the things you might discover if you went and sought help. You might discover that you can name that worry and anxiety and separate it from yourself. What that means is for your child, especially when they go through some crisis or some big, huge life moment, your child can help separate my stress, worry, and fear from who I am. It’s so important to separate that from their identity. I am a person, and I am here, and God is with me. And yes, also, there is a loop of worried and fearful thoughts in my head. And I can name those, and they are there, and I can deal with them.
But I am dealing with them; they aren’t dealing with me. The next thing to think through that a licensed professional might help you process with your child is to teach them how to take small steps towards a big fear. One of the things we sometimes do when we have fears is we say, “Conquer your fear, attack your fear.” But for those who struggle with anxiety, the fear is like a huge giant, and telling them to conquer it is like telling someone to charge hell with a water pistol, right? It feels impossible. And that is the reason why we can cope by saying, “Hey, if you have a huge fear of going on our family vacation across the country, then why don’t we take small steps towards that? And maybe this weekend, let’s just drive 30 minutes to go somewhere that’s new. And let’s experience that and build that muscle and help grow towards this thing that we’re afraid of.” You see, there’s a lot of great ways that professionals can help you and your child think through anxiety, especially after crisis.
One of my favorites is for you to be able to insert faith into that, for your child to begin to be able to, like the scripture says, “Be anxious about nothing, but with prayer and petition, present your worries to God.” That idea of leveraging prayer as a way to separate those anxious thoughts and worries and giving them somewhere. One coping mechanism could be that they would literally write them down to get them out of their head and put them somewhere else. But our faith allows us to say those to God, and say, “God, I want to give them to you.” Anxiety, especially after crisis, can feel crushing. But if you struggle with anxiety, a normal day can feel like a crisis every single day. So whether you’re going through crisis or whether you’re just struggling with anxiety, you can find hope when you go seek out those professionals and allow God to use them in the life of your child, to help them bring peace in the midst of all of that crazy anxiety.