Consumer

If your child has seen coverage of such an event, make sure you talk with them about what they think about it and how they think it impacts their life and the world around them.  

The key message for parents to convey after exposure to any type of trauma or violence is to ensure that your child feels safe and loved. This can be challenging given the frequency of these events.  Knowing what your child’s school is doing to address risk is important so that you can talk with your child and give them a safe home context as well. 

A thought is not a message about what is going to happen. Thoughts have nothing to do with character, which is a reflection of how you lead your life and what you choose to do. Believing even some of these myths can be responsible for ordinary intrusive thoughts becoming stuck. 

Anticipatory anxiety involves worry about—and the urge to avoid—not only anxiety or panic, but also disgust, anger, shame, regret, humiliation, becoming overwhelmed, or any other unwanted emotion. We think of anticipatory anxiety as a third layer of fear.

It is natural to seek some reassurance when confronted with uncertainty. Reassurance can help to calm a doubt, allay a worry, solidify a plan of action, or guide a decision. 

It takes courage to successfully deal with anxiety disorders, but with lots of good information, coaching and support from your therapist and others you can learn to do it. You may not think that you have much courage because you have an anxiety disorder that make you fearful at times. However, courage is not acting without fear. It is acting despite fear. I have seen many, many examples of people with anxiety disorders who learned coping skills, to help them face their fears, and as a result got better and better over time. You can too.