If you’re losing sleep over the back-to-school season the BC Children’s Hospital has a few tips for kids and parents on how to ease anxiety.
Dr. Susan Bear, psychiatrist in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders clinic at BC Children’s Hospital, says it all starts with getting back into a routine.
“We all tend to stay up a bit later in the summer and sleep in a little bit so trying to get back on the regular bedtimes and wake up times and back into regular meal patterns can really help ease that transition.”
Tip#2: Time for a drill! Practice dry runs of the school morning routine w/ your kids to ease them into the new school year #backtoschool pic.twitter.com/tbkS4mlkna
— BCChildren'sHospital (@BCChildrensHosp) August 23, 2017
Bear says parents should seek more help if your child develops one of the following symptoms.
“A lot of difficulty separating from you in the morning or difficulty getting to school, lots of headaches and stomach aches without any clear cause, not being able to fall asleep at night because of worrying. Those would be the types of signs that anxiety might be causing more problems.”
She adds students may have a little more anxiety than normal to begin the school year due to the wildfires.
“If you’ve been evacuated and have had quite a chaotic summer and there’s maybe still some uncertainty about getting back home that would make anxiety worse.”
Tip#3:Teens-don’t lose sleep over #backtoschool! Try #mindshiftapp to help w/ #anxiety & more https://t.co/kkKVGdirSu #adviceforbacktoschool pic.twitter.com/VgLMLFat1j
— BCChildren'sHospital (@BCChildrensHosp) August 24, 2017
Regardless of the reason, Bear says plenty of online resources are available for those who are still suffering.
“The Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre is a provincial resource centre where it has a website where you can get resources but it also has a parent support person and a youth support person so there’s always somebody that can answer the phone and is a great place to start. Anxiety BC is also a really excellent website and that’s got lots of tips for parents and children and youth about anxiety and anxiety management strategies and there are also lots of apps one is called MindShift which is specifically for teens and that’s got anxiety management skills and there’s one called Stresslr, which is for younger children between the ages of nine to 11.”
For a full list of tips and resources click here.
– with files from Brendan Pawliw, My PG Now
Tip#1: A little prep can ease #backtoschool stress. Try a trip to the school playground to get your kids familiar #mentalhealth pic.twitter.com/d6aQb7jrzv
— BCChildren'sHospital (@BCChildrensHosp) August 22, 2017
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