Review: Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous & Independent Children

Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous & Independent Children by R. Reid Wilson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Book desc option:

With anxiety at epidemic levels among our children, "Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents" offers a contrarian yet effective approach to help children and teens push through their fears, worries, and phobias to ultimately become more resilient, independent, and happy.
How do you manage a child who gets stomachaches every school morning, who refuses after-school activities, or who is trapped in the bathroom with compulsive washing? Children like these put a palpable strain on frustrated, helpless parents and teachers. And there is no escaping the problem: One in every five kids suffers from a diagnosable anxiety disorder. Unfortunately, when parents or professionals offer help in traditional ways, they unknowingly reinforce a child's worry and avoidance. From their success with hundreds of organizations, schools, and families, Reid Wilson, PhD, and Lynn Lyons, LICSW, share their unconventional approach of stepping into uncertainty in a way that is currently unfamiliar but infinitely successful. Using current research and contemporary examples, the book exposes the most common anxiety-enhancing patterns including reassurance, accommodation, avoidance, and poor problem solving and offers a concrete plan with 7 key principles that foster change. And, since new research reveals how anxious parents typically make for anxious children, the book offers exercises and techniques to change both the children's "and" the parental patterns of thinking and behaving.

This book challenges our basic instincts about how to help fearful kids and will serve as the antidote for an anxious nation of kids and their parents."

Review:

I enjoyed reading this early release I received for review. I like, like many, to consider new methods and ideas about reducing anxiety among children, and also how children's / Adult's anxiety may play off of each other ... The book is full of information to consider when needing to assist a child in overcoming and learning to more positively live with life.

There were many easy to understand examples of how to react to children to help them become less resistant or less anxious. Many common adult reactions, which are meant to help the anxious child, can actually reinforce the anxious behavior causing more issues. I definitely do not want to reinforce or worsen any child's anxiety by responding in an uneducated way that may encourage or worsen the anxious behavior.

I recall growing up being hard at times, and this book offers many researched ideas to reduce both adult & child's anxiety. The book provided understandable explination and suggestions regarding how to deal with and discuss many common situations. I greatly appreciate new ideas that are tried and successful. I know not everything will work for everyone, but it never hurts to find out different approaches. Although most parents want to be encouraging, it is very difficult to always know how best to react to a child's issues in a positive way.

I found this book very interesting and full of ideas to apply when both adult and child may need new ideas to move forward successfully. I will keep this book for future reference & definitely pass it's helpful information to others.



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