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Kids with anxiety can feel less anxious with the right medication

Estimated read time 3 min read

Children with anxiety can feel less stressed if they have the right medication. Antidepressants like SSRIs are the most effective anxiety medications for children. Many kids start feeling better after two weeks — antidepressants tend to work pretty quickly. When combined with therapy, they work even better for child anxiety medication over the counter kids who are suffering from depression over the long term. Combining antidepressant medication with cognitive behavioral therapy is the best treatment for anxiety.

The wrong anxiety medication is often prescribed to kids, which can be devastating. In addition to constantly worrying, kids with anxiety often have difficulty paying attention. Sometimes, child anxiety medication over the counter leads adults to misdiagnose them with ADHD because adults only notice their trouble paying attention. Stimulant medications are often given to these children. They can help them concentrate but may also cause stomachaches or trouble sleeping.

As well as worsening kids’ anxiety, stimulant medications can also cause them to have stomachaches. Some doctors prescribe antipsychotic medications to anxious children, but there is no evidence that these medications help. Clonidine and guanfacine may also be prescribed to anxious children. These medications may make kids calmer, but they don’t treat anxiety. In some cases, doctors prescribe benzodiazepines to anxious children. Using them for a short time is important since they provide the most relief to suffering children.

The medication can work quickly in the short term, but after about a month or two, it does not work as well anymore. The doctor would have to keep increasing the dose for the medication to continue working. An anxious child has trouble paying attention. Not because they have an attention deficit but because they are worried about everything. Nevertheless, parents and teachers may only notice that their children are having trouble paying attention, and they are misdiagnosed with ADHD inattentive subtype and prescribed stimulants.

It is well known that stimulants make people feel more attentive, so they will help these kids concentrate better, but they can also cause stomachaches, and they are often not happy and not comfortable with them. Stimulants may exacerbate anxiety. Also, anxious kids have trouble sleeping, and sometimes stimulants make sleeping even more difficult. In addition to these medications, some practitioners use alpha-two agonists such as clonidine or guanfacine for comfort.

But they don’t treat anxiety, as these medications calm or lower arousal levels. People also use antipsychotics, which, believe it or not, constitute the third group of medicines that we see people using. Several years ago, there was a scare about suicidal behavior on antidepressants, so people moved away from them, and now they’re treating anxious kids with antipsychotics.