Children's Literature and Childhood Anxiety When most people hear the word anxiety they imagine stressed adults struggling to balance the demands placed on them by life and all its problems. Unfortunately, anxiety is much more than that. It affects people of all ages, including young children. It is a recognized and treatable disorder with many subsets. The most commonly known type is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). It can be caused not only by living in stressful situations, but also by an imbalance of mood hormones in the brain (Stein and Sareen 2061). There are many ways to combat the effects of GAD, but finding someone or something that relates to the patient's experiences and puts their emotions into perspective can be a huge step toward managing the struggle and healing from the disorder. Literature that addresses the experiences of someone suffering from an anxiety disorder like GAD can bring this type of healing, especially if it contains characters the reader can identify with. Unfortunately there is not much children's literature that addresses this important topic, even though there are many children who suffer from anxiety. However, the children's book titled “There's a Bully in My Brain” by Kristin O'Rourke addresses the issue of childhood anxiety disorders from a child's point of view. This book gives children who struggle with anxiety a relatable character who shares their experiences and offers advice on how to manage anxious feelings. Children who suffer from anxiety disorders will benefit from O'Rourke's book “There's a Bully in My Brain” because it will help them understand and define their mental disorder, they will realize that they are not the only ones who suffer from anxiety, and will give them practical advice for managing their anxiety. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Anxiety can take many forms and be caused by many reasons. Some children suffer from anxiety due to a significant traumatic event in their past, such as abuse or abandonment. This type of anxiety would be called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and can be managed primarily through counseling. Symptoms include flashbacks of the traumatic event and panic attacks in situations that remind the child of the trauma (Turcek 1796). If children suffering from this type of trauma read literature like O'Rourke's "There's a Bully in My Brain," they may find meaningful healing in the characters they identify with and in their struggle with anxiety. A second type of anxiety that has already been mentioned is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) caused by a mood imbalance that controls brain hormones such as serotonin. Those who suffer from GAD often also experience depression and anger management difficulties. This is because the baby's brain takes up the serotonin produced before it can be distributed to the areas of the brain that control the baby's moods and behaviors. In many cases, your child's doctor will prescribe a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) to prevent the brain from reuptake serotonin too quickly. Typically, a counselor will work with children taking SSRIs to help them manage difficult emotions until their hormones are rebalanced. Sometimes GAD can be passed down genetically, making anxiety an inherited disorder. Symptoms include anxious feelings or panic attacks with no identified source or specific fear, needless anger, and depression even when no sad event has recently occurred (Ellis and Hudson 153). O'Rourke's book can help those who sufferof this invisible enemy to understand the complicated fears from which they suffer by defining the symptoms. A third major type of anxiety that children experience are phobias. There are two main categories of phobias, specific and complex. Specific phobias are normally caused by past traumatic events, much like post-traumatic stress disorder. Complex phobias are normally caused by hormonal or genetic imbalances, just like GAD. Each type of phobia is treated using SSRIs, counseling, or both depending on the cause. Unlike GAD, phobias cause very specific fears of objects or situations (Hamm 579). A fourth major type of anxiety experienced by children is social anxiety. This is the deep fear of being humiliated in social situations. This is not the same as shyness. It is a profound anxiety caused by social interactions, especially in large groups. This can often manifest with physical symptoms such as a rapid heartbeat or nausea. It can also cause a child to withdraw from social interactions with peers, which can further cause depression and isolation. Social anxiety can hinder a child's development both socially and mentally because children learn mostly from their peers at a young age (Seedat 195). When people first begin to experience symptoms of an anxiety disorder, they often struggle to understand what it is and why. it's happening. One of the biggest benefits of the book “There's a Bully in My Brain” is that it helps children understand and define the feelings of anxiety they are experiencing. Anxiety is especially difficult for young children to understand because they have likely never experienced it before. O'Rourke uses the literary element of personification and defines anxiety as a "bully" in the brain of the main character, a young boy. He describes the bully as an uninvited guest who shows up whenever the child is trying a new activity or having fun (O'Rourke 1). This is an accurate description of the anxious feelings children can experience when asked to try something new. But it also addresses the sad reality that children can experience anxiety as they simply go about their daily lives. A child can simply play and have fun, but anxiety can attack at any time and get in the way. This particularly reflects the symptoms of GAD, because it manifests itself in everyday life without warning and without reason. If a child was suffering from GAD, this page in "There's a Bully in My Brain" would help them define their feelings and express them to an adult who could assist them in seeking treatment. O'Rourke not only helps children with GAD define their emotions, but also those with other disorders such as phobias. The little boy in the story says that sometimes the bully in his brain makes him fear that his school bus will puncture a tire and that his parents will forget to pick him up from school (O'Rourke 3). This situational phobia could be specific or complex depending on the character's past experiences, which remain unknown. Children who suffer from separation anxiety from their parents may also relate to this page in the book. The boy says that the bully also tells him to be afraid of thunderstorms and beautiful roller coasters (O'Rourke 5). This page in the book describes a specific object phobia. Children who suffer from situational or object phobias will identify with these descriptions of anxiety and may in turn describe them to a concerned parent or counselor. The bully also tells the boy that he must be afraid of the dark because of the monsters in his closet (O'Rourke 2). Although this may seem like a natural fear because most childrengoes through a phase of fear of the dark, when it becomes a chronic fear it can transform into sleep anxiety (Cowie 140). Children who suffer from a persistent inability to sleep due to their fears may find comfort in understanding that their fears are just lies told to them by their "brain bully." The latest anxiety disorder specific “There's a Bully in My Brain” helps kids understand and define social anxiety. The main character says that the "bully" keeps him from making friends because they might not like him, and that he keeps him from trying out for the baseball team because he might not be good enough to play (O'Rourke 4). Any child suffering from social anxiety would relate to this aspect of the child's experience. This way a parent or counselor can use “There's a Bully in My Brain” to identify a child's specific type of anxiety disorder and help them explain what it is and why they are afraid so often. Even those with anxiety disorders will benefit from the book “There's a Bully in My Brain” because they will learn that they are not the only ones who suffer from anxious feelings. Anxiety is an isolating disorder. It causes those who suffer to push away their loved ones out of a fear that not even they themselves understand. It makes them feel alone, as if they are the only people in the world who could feel the way they do (Klingler 42). Hearing the stories of other people who suffer from anxiety disorders helps people who struggle to deal with fear. For this reason, children's literature that tells stories about anxious children is extremely helpful to anxious children who read it. A child who reads “There's a Bully in My Brian” can identify with the little boy and the “bully” who resides in his head. O'Rourke's book can help children feel less isolated in their anxiety and realize that suffering from anxious feelings does not make them strange or different from many other children. One aspect of O'Rourke's book that sets it apart from other literature about children with anxiety is that he gives his readers practical advice on how to manage their anxiety in the future. The first advice O'Rourke gives to his young readers for fighting their mental "bullies" is to pay attention to the warning signs their body gives them when an anxiety attack is on the way. It lists symptoms they may recognize as a rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, crying, heavy breathing, "butterflies" in the belly and wanting to hide under the covers. He suggests taking long, slow breaths to control symptoms. To model it for children, she suggests that her readers pretend to smell a freshly baked dessert that is too hot to eat. He asks them to pretend to blow on the candy to cool it down and to control their breathing. At the end he leaves them with the final suggestion to think positive thoughts that will help them stand up to their “bullies” (O'Rourke 7). This page of advice to readers is so interesting and important because O'Rourke not only helps children define their anxieties but also manage their feelings once they understand them. He is very aware of the level of cognitive development of the audience he is addressing and, instead of simply telling them to control their breathing during panic attacks, he gives them the strong mental image of blowing on a hot cake to help them practice his advice. This practical application is the culmination of all the information provided in the book and makes “There's a Bully in My Brain” an incredible resource for children struggling with anxiety. Although children are the intended audience for “There's a Bully in My Brain,” they are not the only readers who can benefit from it. Parents who have children who struggle with anxiety can use the book to see the world.