One of the very top mental health concerns in this country is anxiety. It’s sometimes hard to be clear about what anxiety is and how to recognize it, especially in children, but identifying a mental health issue like anxiety early on can make a huge difference for a child’s future success.
Dr. Julie Braciszewski, a clinical psychologist and director of Monarch Behavioral Health in Bloomfield Hills, joined Stateside today to explain what causes anxiety, how to recognize it in children, and why treating anxiety that's reached a clinical threshold is important.
"Anxiety disorders in childhood – obviously we all grow up," she said, "they turn into different, more complex, more entrenched anxiety disorders as adults, as well as depression, substance use and abuse – we can see the writing on the wall very early."
Listen above. You'll hear how children with anxiety are often mislabeled as "oppositional or defiant," and what might be behind the "epidemic increase" of anxiety disorders in people below the age of 18.
Minding Michigan is Stateside’s ongoing series that examines mental health issues in our state.
Stateside originally broadcast this story on Oct. 2, 2017.