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Health Anxiety in Children: It’s Real and Needs Our Attention BY TRACY WRIGHT
Picture 11-year-old Joseph. His grandfather recently passed away after a long bout of cancer. Unfortunately, it was not without pain and suffering, for which Joseph got a front row seat. Now, months after his grandfather’s passing, he has started to complain of body pains to his parents, his siblings and even teachers at school. His parents have taken him to his pediatrician several times but tests have shown that Joseph is perfectly healthy. But Joseph continues to complain and shares fears of his pains being a disease that could kill him.
Joseph is likely suffering from a common condition present in many people—once referred to as hypochondria, the more current term is “health anxiety,” and it can afflict children as much as adults. Someone with health anxiety “lives with the fear that they have a serious but undiagnosed medical condition, even though diagnostic tests show there is nothing wrong with them,” said the Children’s Center for Psychiatry, Psychology and Related Services. A new study conducted by Aarhus University and the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Department found that health anxiety in children and adolescents can be a common occurrence. It also found that “children with recognized physical illness at the age of 11 have a particular increased risk of developing symptoms of health anxiety later in adolescence.” This information matches what we already know about health anxiety—that either a personal health occurrence or one in a close family member or friend can trigger the condition.
“Someone may develop health anxiety after becoming sensitized to health information or it may develop as an anxiety spontaneously,” said Lauren Soberon, Ph.D., a local licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in Haile Village. For most parents, hearing a child express a symptom of illness triggers immediate worry and concern and experts advise parents not to ignore those feelings. “Some anxiety symptoms can manifest very physiologically, which is often referred to as psychosomatic symptoms. They are very real but mediated by stress/anxiety and not other medical causes,” Soberon said. “However, physiologic symptoms should never just be ignored. Parents should take symptom complaints seriously and seek medical evaluation to rule out medical causes of symptoms. Once medical illnesses are ruled out and if symptoms persist, this may suggest more of a psychosomatic presentation.” According to the Child Mind Institute, many times children with health anxiety may correlate a common everyday symptom with a more serious condition. For example, a child may think
GIGGLEMAGAZINE.COM | AUGUST/SEP TEMBER 2021
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