How can I seek formal support for anxiety?
How do I know when to seek formal support for my child or youth?
As a parent or caregiver, it’s hard to see your child or young person struggle. In general, it’s a good idea to seek professional help for your child or youth if their anxious symptoms or signs:
- Persist over a lengthy period of time
- Increase or intensify over time
- Negatively impact their daily activities or functioning at home, school or in the broader community and prevent them from going to school, extracurricular pursuits or seeing friends
- Disrupt your family routine (e.g., their challenges interfere with the family’s ability to enjoy day-to-day activities and routines, sleep patterns, appetite, etc.)
Often, the first step is connecting with a family doctor or nurse practitioner. Sometimes mental health symptoms can show up as a physical illness, and a medical professional can determine what kind of intervention might work best for your child or young person. If your family doctor or nurse practitioner thinks that a mental health issue may be involved, they can help connect you with someone who supports these concerns in children and youth specifically (e.g., a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, or counsellor).
In Ontario, you and/or your child or youth can call One Stop Talk. One Stop Talk offers children and youth under the age of 18 a free, one-hour, confidential therapy session in their preferred language and can help connect them to community-based services if additional support is needed.
What if my child or youth receives a formal diagnosis?
Once a qualified professional walks your child or young person through a formal assessment to understand their strengths and needs, they may offer a formal diagnosis of anxiety or an anxiety-related disorder. Medication may help manage your child or young person’s symptoms. Another option is counselling or therapy, which typically occurs with a trained professional (like a social worker, psychotherapist or psychiatrist).
There are a range of different approaches that they might try (for example, you may have heard of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). Whether medication and/or therapy are part of your child or young person’s plan of care, it may take a few attempts to land on an approach that works best for them.
Additional Resources
- Anxiety Canada
- Kids Help Phone – How to Manage Anxiety and Panic
- Kelty Mental Health – Anxiety
- Caring for Kids – Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders
- Sickkids – Anxiety
- About Kids Health – Teens – Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders
- School Mental Health Ontario – Navigating Childhood Anxiety
- Foundry – Anxiety
- CHEO – Anxiety and Stress Management
- How to Deal with News Anxiety
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone.
If you are a parent/caregiver worried about your child, or a young person looking for help yourself – please reach out. Our network of child and youth mental health centres has 4,000 professionals ready to help children, youth and families with free counselling and treatment. We provide care in person, on the phone and virtually. No problem is too big or small.
Find your closest child and youth mental health centre.