Parents: How To Know When To Ask For Help With Anxiety

As a parent, you’ve probably felt pangs of anxiety from time to time. It’s natural to feel anxious occasionally about your child. For example, when you’re about to board a 6 hour flight with a lap child or when it’s your child’s first day of school. However, when anxiety becomes a daily occurrence you need to take action for yourself and your family.

When anxiety spirals out the normal and into the excessive, even the best parents can feel like they’re not enough… not doing enough, not present in enough, not prepared enough, not patient enough, not loving enough… the list goes on and on. If left untreated, anxiety felt by parents can spillover and foster anxiety in their child(ren). A study in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (2013) found “parent anxiety confers poorer treatment outcomes for childhood anxiety disorders.” Psychologists created a term for this condition: parental anxiety.

Parental anxiety is a serious condition because it not only affects you, it affects your entire family.

What are the symptoms of parental anxiety? It can manifest as…

• difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep
• waking up too early (4am is a common time)
• loss of patience
• feeling like you’re going through the daily motions just enough to keep your head above water
• feeling like a failure at work
• feeling like a failure at parenting
• feeling like a failure at housekeeping
• feeling like your marriage (or relationship) is failing
• rapid (racing) heartbeat
• shortness of breath
• digestive issues like heartburn, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, alternating diarrhea & constipation
• constantly comparing yourself to others
• excessive worry about the future
• sense of a lack of control
• frequent crying or over-sensitivity
• frequent sighing
• inability to concentrate (aka brain fog, mommy-brain)
• repetitive thoughts about worst case scenarios,
• reliving guilt over past events
• low or no libido
• wanting to run away
• inability to plan future events
• mood swings/snaps
• exacerbated menstrual issues

Do you feel more than two of these symptoms on a daily basis? Has it impacted your ability to parent? If you answered yes, now is the time to take action before it spirals out of control.

If you are experiencing parental anxiety, there is a solution waiting for you! A series of acupuncture treatments and customized Chinese herbs can effectively alleviate anxiety and bring you back to your best self within weeks.  Schedule a consultation today to get relief from your anxiety!