Childhood Anxiety - what can you do to help your child?

Why I wrote this book
When I wrote this book for my clients and their families I had no idea how quickly I would get through the first 100 copies. When I visit schools I take copies with me. They all disappeared. Then the next 100. Now I'm on the third lot. Everywhere I go people pick up the book and exclaim, "Wow, I wish I'd had this when I was a kid!" Now it sells all over the world on Amazon   Booktopia  and  Collins booksellers

So why is this book so important to people?
Through my work in schools and teaching parents often chat to me and many of them are concerned about the pressures on their children. Modern life is supposed to have given us freedoms and more leisure time, and yet kids seem to be suffering even more than they did when I was young. I believe technology and our obsession with it has contributed to this phenomenon. Kids spend hours a day glued to screens, instead of interacting with real people, chatting, reading facial and body clues, smelling, sensing, touching. This makes them less able to interpret what they see in their environment, causing confusion which results in anxiety. Of course, this is a simplistic explanation. There are many more aspects to life that contribute to anxiety, such as genetics.

When parents start flicking through the book they often remark that it speaks to them and then sheepishly admit that their child has 'probably got that from me.' This is actually great! I wanted my book to start a conversation between parents and children about how anxiety affects them, to demystify it.

The power of this book
Self-knowledge - My standpoint is that children should be empowered by recognising they are prone to anxiety, and accept they will probably always be that kind of person. Stop fighting it, I say!

Managing, not suffering - Learn how to manage it instead. Be realistic about the triggers that set you off and learn how to minimise their effects on your life. I mention lots of different techniques and ideas in the book, as well as the 12 monsters themselves, which represent the unhelpful messages that repeat inside your mind over and over.

Physical effects  - To break free of that, you must first understand the physical aspects of what anxiety actually is, so that even though it feels like you're going to die/pass out/have a heart attack/suffer major embarrassment you know that it is just adrenaline flooding your brain and body, and that if you breathe deep and focus your mind it WILL pass.

What age group is this written for?
I designed it to be read independently by children aged 8yrs+ but it is equally accessible and interesting for teens and even adults. The idea is to take the scariness away and replace it with a humorous take on being an anxious person. Being an anxious person is not the end of the world, or your life, it's just a way of thinking - that you can learn to control.

You can buy your own e-book or paperback book here. I'd love to hear how it's helped you!

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