We Help Children With Anxiety

Anxiety: What's Happening in the Brain?

When a child displays anxious behavior regularly, it can feel challenging for parents who want to help. The first step to managing anxious behavior in your child or teen is understanding what's happening in their brain. Once you understand the science behind what's happening, you can move forward in helping them to better cope with their feelings and manage their responses to stress.

Immaturities in Stress Resilience and Emotional Regulation

We all experience stress and anxiety, but not all of our bodies react to stress and anxiety in the same way. Our brain’s ability to take in and coordinate information can negatively impact how we feel and how we respond to stress. While one situation may be easily handled by one person, another person may feel anxiety causing them to shut down or react outwardly.

What causes this difference in feelings and responses in stressful situations from one person to the next? Research has shown that immaturities in neurological development, specifically with the autonomic nervous system, can lead to difficulties in the way a person responds to stress. When the autonomic nervous system is immature, it affects a person’s ability to regulate emotional responses, resulting in anxious and nervous feelings.¹

The Link Between Anxiety and Sensory Processing Difficulties

Individuals with anxiety may also experience accompanying struggles with sensory processing. Studies show a strong link between sensory processing difficulties and anxiety symptoms. Children who have adverse reactions to sensory stimuli such as loud noise or strong scents may experience increased stress responses. For children who exhibit sensory seeking behaviors, stressful situations may lead them to feel overwhelmed and act out (crying, yelling) or withdraw and become quiet.²

What can be done?

Anxiety, and repeated worrisome thoughts, are struggles that we see every day with the families we help at Brain Balance. A person’s ability to regulate anxiety and worry less relies heavily on brain maturity and connectivity. The Brain Balance program is uniquely designed to focus on building brain connectivity and improving the foundation of development, rather than implementing coping strategies for life to stay calm and worry less. The program uses a combination of sensory engagement exercises, physical development exercises, cognitive activities and healthy nutrition to strengthen the brain pathways needed to reduce worrisome thoughts and improve the ability to handle stress.

If you have a child or a teenager who experiences regular anxiety, let’s talk. An assessment can help to identify the area of immaturity and create an action plan for you and your child. In fact, parents saw a 53% improvement, on average, in their child’s happiness following the completion of the Brain Balance Program.³