The Role of the Amygdala in Your Child"s Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Understanding anxiety and panic attacks in children will equip you with the knowledge you need to support your child and be in a better position to help them.
The origin of the anxiety and panic in a lot of people is said to be in the amygdala.
Without getting too scientific or biological, the function of the amygdala is to process emotional events and storage of the memories that come with those events.
It also has other functions, however for the purpose of this article our main focus is how it affects your child's anxiety and panic.
The important thing to keep in mind is that this part of the brain gets its information from the world that we are exposed to, and that includes the things that we see with our eyes, the things that we hear with our ears, the things that we are able to touch, the things that we are able to smell as well as things that we are able to feel.
If we store a memory that comes with a certain strong fear, our brain automatically stores that part of information as very significance, and the brain will therefore associate that memory with a great deal of fear.
When we have a great deal of stress and anxiety in our lives this part of the brain is conditioned to function with a lot of stress and anxiety, so much so that the stress situation becomes the norm.
The result of this is that the body responds with feelings of fear and panic and stress that may be overwhelming for a child, and if it is too intense some kids may suffer a panic attack.
The good thing which should offer relief to a lot of parents is the fact that there is a way to normalize the amygdala and reduce the stress levels that your child is experiencing.
There are treatments that are available that can help your child deal with the panic, phobias, anxiety and stress in their life, and allow them to be healthy kids.