Sometimes, whether you pay too much attention to your family relationship, you will still never notice the problems right in front of you. Often, you ignore or disregard the abuse in the family because you somehow believe it is all part of the dynamics inside the house. And when you are the parent, you never wish to become wrong. Not once, not at all.

All children do not want to think of their parents as abusive individuals. These kids only want happy, loving, and caring parents that will support their mental and emotional growth. However, the reality is sad because many parents are abusive. Kids struggle with familial abuse, and most children do not know what abuse is.

If given an opportunity to question yourself, are you one of those parents who treat your kids the way you shouldn’t have to? Here are some of the few signs that might help to give an answer.

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You Are Physically Violent Towards The Children

As a parent, you might think you have the right to lay a hand on your children just because you know you are right, or at least you believe it is your proper way of disciplining your young ones. But honestly, you are not teaching your kids anything by physically harming them all the time. When you constantly use any physical violence, whether pinching, hitting, slapping, or kicking, there is no doubt you are an abusive parent. There is no excuse or reason to justify the physical maltreatment you do to your children. If you hit your kids, you are guilty of assaulting them regardless of their severity.

You Constantly Abuse The Kids Verbally

Often, verbal abuse can be considered part of the disciplining process. You can use it as often as you want because it can be very tricky to identify its presence. Your kids won’t probably notice you are verbally abusing them because they will never think of it that way. However, those acts of personal attack, wounding comments, and below-the-belt criticisms are undoubtedly part of verbal abuse. You might not seem to care enough to slow down and choose your words correctly because you think it won’t matter, but I suppose you might be wrong. Every hurtful word you spit out can cause kids’ emotional malfunction. It can ruin your children’s confidence and self-esteem.

 You Make Children Compete For Attention And Love

Understandably, there are things you need to focus on when you are a parent. Sometimes, taking care of the children can be too much for you. But if you are one of those parents who make their kids earn the love and affection they deserve to have, then you are no doubt abusive. Treating love and affection as a tool to get what you want from your kids is mentally and emotionally damaging. You do not manipulate your kids like that. A healthy parent-child relationship does not engage in unhealthy competition inside the house that wins parental affection and approval. As a parent, you know better.

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You Get Excessively Angry Over Small Things

Being a parent is not easy; most of the time, it can be very stressful. There are a lot of things you have to juggle all at once. Sometimes, you are not that capable of doing that. But if you notice that you frequently raise your voice towards your children, even for small reasons that upset you, you might be an abusive parent. Understand that excessive anger is one of the common signs of familial abuse, particularly emotional. The reason for this is simple. You tend to lose control, and you lash out in the midst of anger. Unfortunately, the ones that can’t understand you at the moment and can get close to you are your children. They suffer from your outburst.

You Neglect Your Responsibility Towards Your Kids

Of course, as a parent, you need to have time for yourself. It would be best if you also took things off your head to focus on another task and responsibility. However, when you find yourself constantly ignoring your children and showing little interest in them, then you are abusive. It just means you do not want to be responsible for your kids’ overall well-being because you simply do not care about them. If you only notice your kids whenever they ruin your mood or cause trouble, then you might not be doing the best of understanding your role as a parent. You can confirm your abusive behavior when you often choose to be distant and oblivious.

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You Threatened The Well-Being Of Your Children

Your role as a parent is to help your kids develop their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. But when you are the one causing a disruption to their overall wellness, then consider yourself abusive. Threats of any kind are unacceptable, especially when handling kids. It takes a lot of effort to control your thoughts, actions, words, and behavior. These particular things should not harm the children at any cost. As a parent, you know that your kids should feel safe and comfortable inside your house. It would help if you did not teach the children to be afraid of their family and not encourage them to limit their chances of escape from significant painful situations.

Insight

If these signs are present in your family, try to seek professional advice. Talk to someone about it and help your family and children to have a better life. Do not be an abusive parent. And if you are, STOP!

It is normal for parents to sometimes feel out of control and full of emotions. They can also sometimes feel a little off-the-hook and upset about some unexpected things they experienced that same day. As for having children, it can be a struggle for emotional control because parents sometimes do the unthinkable to their kids when they are not cooperating. Thus, the children’s misbehavior often results in a solid good-old spank.

Though most kids duly acknowledge that spanking is related to their unwanted behavior, therapists believe that parents should not hit their children at any cost. There are several reasons why these professionals often suggest the probation of spanking; here are some of them.

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Understanding The Damages Of Hitting Or Spanking Your Kids

It Impacts Gap In The Parent-Child Relationship

Most parents are confident that spanking or hitting their children is a necessity. They believe it is part of the disciplining process that helps children learn. However, professional experts suggest that hitting children does not support the resolution. Instead, it only damages the parent-child relationship. Experts also added that children somehow consider spanking a form of abuse, and the only reason kids seem to be ok with it is the fear of experiencing constant physical pain. Kids will soon think and feel that their parents do not love them and eventually suffer from mental and emotional distress.

It Brings Down Children’s Self-Confidence

There are instances when parents take control of their kids’ emotional states, especially when the children are getting out of control. For practical reasons, parents hit their kids to let them know they are in charge. However, that mentality only serves a negative impact on children’s self-confidence. The more parents are bound to spank kids whenever they want to control them, the more reason for the children to think that they do not deserve respect and love. Soon, these kids will feel hopeless and full of doubt about themselves. They will eventually lose their self-confidence and will rely on other people’s perceptions of them – whether good or bad.

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It Causes Children’s Anxiety And Depression

While most parents would argue about the severity of spanking necessary for their kids’ misbehavior, spanking still provides kids with physical pain. With this, most experts and therapists believe that the physical manifestation increases children’s inability to understand the purpose of spanking. Often, due to the unbearable pain and fear of it, children eventually develop severe symptoms of anxiety and depression. Therefore, whenever parents think spanking is ok, kids’ mental and emotional health says otherwise. It makes them confused about what they have to do in a particular situation.

It Gives Children A Wrong Definition Of Learning

Parents resort to spanking because it is sometimes easy and practical. It immediately shows the result just right after one hit. However, while most parents think of spanking as an effective tool for disciplining misbehavior, kids look at it differently. For most children, it means power. When parents hit their kids, it gives the youngsters the idea that weak or little people deserve to be treated that way. It often explains why some kids who experienced spanking also want to practice their authority over other little or weaker ones. The kids will soon think that hitting or causing physical pain to others is what will bring them the kind of resolution to the misunderstood relationship issue.

It Encourages Children’s Rebellious Behavior

Parents often do not think about future problems when hitting their kids, especially the young ones. They believe that since the children are young, they would never feel the need to object to physical punishment. However, professionals believe that kids who often experience spanking are prone to becoming rebellious individuals. They will soon struggle to handle their relationship with other people when they grow up. In some unfortunate instances, it might affect their mental and emotionally distraught and cause these young ones to engage in immorality, profanity, violence, bullying, truancy from school, and alcohol and drugs.

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It Causes Children To Suffer Disorders

While some parents still consider spanking to be a way of handling kids’ inappropriate manners, most professionals do not encourage it and often provide a warning. Study shows that hitting children or causing them to feel physical pain at an early age can become one of the reasons for having ADHD. In some instances, severe levels of abuse eventually cause bipolar disorder, personality disorder, severe trauma, and PTSD. Children may also defy their parents and resulting in aggression and antisocial behavior.

Final Thoughts

As a parent, you wouldn’t want to give your kids an unwanted gift for life that will ruin their overall mental, physical, and emotional state. Spanking or hitting children does not make a difference. It does not teach the kids to become more self-aware and does not bring you closer to them. Spanking is just another way of saying that you are stressed out, and you want the kids to suffer for it. Remember that no such thing will justify the physical abuse, nor give the parents the right of reason to hit their children.

Anger Management For Parents

What to do when children show anger? Are we contributing to positive behavior, or are we showing love and care with the wrong management?

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Advising Expectant Folks – Your Kids Are Not Perfect!

New expectant dads and moms tend to believe that their unborn son or daughter will grow up as the closest thing to perfection.

He or she won’t show strong emotions and respond thoughtfully when hungry or upset. Potty training and teaching life lessons won’t make them feel frustrated. Other kids will flock around him or her too because of their calm, fun, and helpful behavior.

The reality that no one can ever be “perfect” only sets in once the child comes into the world, and many parents understand how you can’t talk calmly to feisty and temperamental kids. They can shed big, fat tears if their parents don’t give them what they’re asking for instantly. The child’s behavior may worsen and show angry response during mealtime when dad or mom serves food they don’t want to try.

Tantrums – Our Children’s Worst

Worse, young children never pick a time or place to lose patience; that’s why folks might often feel angry and see themselves struggling to manage parental anger towards an upset kid at a shop, restaurant, or playground. Meri Wallace, LCSW, defines expressing anger as “your child’s form of protest. Whenever you interfere with her desire to have something, do something or go where she wants to go, she gets mad.”

Handling The Situation

While it is understandably frustrating to hold back parental anger in this kind of frustrating situation often, we can’t keep the child physically detained in the house. When raising children, parent should let them have physical activity to build connections outside and learn from others too. Hence, they need to use a few anger management counseling tricks for parents to pacify temperamental kids in public.

A mental health session does help in so many constructive ways to stay calm for positive parenting.

Source: defense.gov

Anger Management Tricks For Parents

1. Don’t Ignore How They Feel – Anger Is A Valid Emotion Even For A Child

This is further stressed in treatments for frustrated moms and dads.

Kids start feeling angry when they sense that a parent is only half-listening to what they say. In their mind, the deal was, “Ah, you’re ignoring me because I’m a child? I’ll show you how childish I can be.” “Sometimes kids [show physical violence] because they feel that’s the only way they’ll be heard by parent. Try to step in earlier as a parent—when frustration begins but before misbehavior occurs.” Eileen Kennedy-Moore Ph.D. explains. That is usually when the emotional pain gets bigger, and even when parents try to offer what they initially want, they’ll push it away since they feel angry.

The trick for managing anger in kids is to validate their emotions immediately. Parents should never use verbal abuse or assume that kids are overreacting and just feeling angry since they might have underlying emotions about something. In case parenting doesn’t agree with their dilemma, parents may still provide validation when they talk about feelings and teach control.

2. Move To A Quiet Space

Parents shouldn’t expect a frustrated kid who has a tough time managing anger to respond when asked what angered him or her at that moment. No, when raising children, parents have to control patience and stay positive until they no longer feel angry.

What may speed up this anger management process is carrying or pulling your child away from the scene and bringing him or her to a quiet spot. “Move your child to a more private place,” says Laura Markham Ph.D. She adds “Maybe you can go to your car, or to an out of the way spot at the mall where you won’t be disturbing other people. Just as important, you won’t be tempted to parent as onlookers think you should, so you can follow your own parenting instincts.” E.g., a room on the far end of the building, the bathroom, or even inside the car. It effectively shields the angry body from conflict the thing that triggered his or her negative thoughts. Furthermore, he or she won’t be too shy to start talking about the real reason he/she couldn’t handle anger as there’s no one else around to make them feel stressed.

3. Choose Your Battles

Finally, if no amount of speak can help children solve problems or stay sane, research shows parents should be a good example and leave the place. Parents have to accept that there are hurtful things involving children that you can’t always win. Sometimes they’ll listen and talk to their parents, but they still feel angry other times and do not see its negative effects in life.

The thing is, children feel angry for a bit — emotions will subside after a while if you let children be. Then, you may return to the public area once your child can control their temper and emotions.

Source: defense.gov

Anger Management

Doing all the anger management counseling tricks mentioned above is beneficial not just for you, but for your temperamental kid as well. Imagine, you can understand their feelings and emotions. In return, he or she will lose temper and talk since they know you – a parent – consider their frustration as real, and not some child’s play.

There will be a day when they’ll take deep breaths and manage their angry moment themselves. Until then, however, continue talking and stick to a helpful parenting routine whenever your son or daughter lose good behavior.

Good luck on parenting!

FAQs

How do you manage parental anger?

What are the five anger management techniques?

How does a parent’s anger affect a child?

Can anger issues come from parents?

How do I stay calm with my child?

Parenting knowledge is important.  Parent counseling provides parents with guidance and support.

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Parent Counseling

Family connections are among the most important connections there are. Each family has its share of conflicts, problems, and misunderstandings. To maintain harmony within the household, there should be a balance in the way mothers and fathers raise their children, deal with personal concerns, and handle misunderstandings. Parent counseling is an instrumental service that provides impartial support and assistance, helping the couple and kids understand and recognize the needs of each member of the household.

Becoming a mom/dad is one of the most fulfilling experiences in life, but it can also be the most demanding. After helping your child learn how to talk, crawl, and walk, you progress to teaching them more complicated skills, such as dealing with an argument or communicating efficiently. There are hundreds of homely books available in the market, and you can easily be confused.

This is a type of mental health service that strives to offer tools, mental and emotional support, and knowledge without any judgment at all. Unlike group therapy, which offers its own range of benefits, parent counseling centers on how the mother and father impact their family dynamics.

Therapy Has Several Modalities For Parents

Parent counseling offers various modalities and therapies that assist moms/dads in better understanding their intrinsic parent counseling and then delve deeper into comprehending how different problems impact and possibly alter these techniques. When folks are armed with the knowledge of how to fix their personal concerns, they can turn their complete attention to maintaining, instilling, and regaining balance and harmony in the home.

Parent Counseling

Although experts recommend parents to attend family counseling once or twice, parent counseling is more necessary for parents who are:

Planning To Get Separated Or Divorced.

Having single parents affects kids just as much as it affects them. Together with fresh challenges that accompany the difficulties of single parenting, divorced or separated parents have to meticulously deal with parent child relationship and walk them through the changes. This parenting therapy can help with that.

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Going Through Violence Or Abuse.

Any emotional abuse that a parent experiences can lead to tension, stress, fear, and further violence that would build up throughout the family unit. Parenting counseling can help avoid such abuse.

Going Through Loss.

A partner, marriage, child, or a job can all be many factors for most parents to grieve for someone or something that he or she has lost. This loss could ultimately lead to them being incapable of performing their obligations to the family life.

Experiencing Marriage Problems.

From cheating to money issues to simple argument gone worse, marriage problems can tremendously affect the parenting style, the children, and the whole family structure. It is crucial to try and resolve these mental health issues so that the children don’t have distorted personal relationships.

Suffering From A Health Problem.

Physical or mental health issues can prevent one parent from being there for their kids and the entire family and keep them from accomplishing their parental obligations.

Working On Children/Teen Issues.

At times, when your kids grow up to be teens, they become the source of tension and stress for you, particularly when you are dealing with child’s behavior problems because they can alter abruptly over a brief time. Parents are typically most concerned about substance abuse or emotional abuse, but teenagers are most worried about bullying and mental health issues.  Parent counseling provides you with the tools to deal with the mental health issues that your children may be confronted with, including the communication tools to help them without humiliating them for help.

Single parents or divorced parents are vulnerable to different mental health problems that will impact how they care for their whole family unit, particularly when considering how they rear their children. When most parents make a move and start parent counseling, parents prove to their children that they truly care for the whole family’s well-being.

Below Are Some of the Parent Counseling Programs Benefits:

Parent counseling teaches couples the strengths and weaknesses of your parenting styles, helping you optimize the strengths and work on the weaknesses.

Many parents are given an impartial view from someone outside of your home, such as your parent counselor, enabling you to make sound choices with the advice of licensed professional counselor.

Begin parent counseling to learn strategies to manage parent child conflict. This parenting therapy can be a healthy opener — even for divorced parents — for better communication.

It helps cope with parental expectations and mental health issues. When there is a parent child conflict and the parent child relationship has gone to a point where all family members can’t win, the most suitable thing to do is to stop and reassess your expectations for your child’s behavior, and parent counseling will help you achieve this. The mental health counseling sessions will take up techniques and skills to help parents break through various types of parenting style and conflicts.

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Finally, and the most crucial of all, begin parent counseling to get rid of the pressures of being a perfect parent. Among the most popular reasons, one or both parents do not try parenting counseling because attending a mental health counseling session with mental health professionals implies that you are a failure as a parent. The truth is, it is simply the opposite. The role of the licensed professional counselor is to work with one or both parents impartially and without criticism, helping them be the best parents for their own children. Taking measures to improve your parenting style as parents and clear parent child conflict can improve a child’s life and show your kids that you truly love and care for them.

FAQs

What is parent/child relational problem?

How can you improve the relationship between parents and children?

How do I counsel my mother and daughter?

What is an unhealthy parent relationship?

What causes parenting issues?

Parenting is never an easy task. Becoming a parent entails a great deal of obligation and duty, and becoming a great parent entails even more. Many expecting couples, especially first-time parents, undergo counseling to gain more insight into parenting life. It is within their best interest to provide only the best things for their kids.

For parents, raising their children in a loving and supportive environment is very important. That is why parents always have a say and deal with most things about their children’s lives. From newborn formula to clothes to friends to education, parental role in decision-making is always present. Parents want to make sure that they meet their children’s needs and that they get to look after them.

If you have been to a baby shower or the first birthday of a couple’s child, you will always hear the parents wish their son or daughter grows up to be a healthy child. Health is wealth, after all. However, there are instances in life when the unexpected happens. No matter how hard parents try to provide the best for their family, things can go wrong.

Mishaps can happen. Every family goes through troubles and difficulties, especially with kids. Slacking in school, getting into fights, being physically sick—these are all normal in growing children. What’s not normal is your children consistently missing school and long periods of low mood or irritability. As parents, you must always ask your children if there is an underlying problem.

Unfortunately, the mental well-being of a child is often unaccounted for in many households. When a family faces a crisis, it takes a toll on both the parents and the children’s psychological health. Psychologists have developed a Beck Depression Inventory, one of the most common self-assessment methods that measure the severity of an individual’s depressive symptoms. 

Who can use the Beck Depression Inventory?

Short types of Beck Depression Inventories have been created to screen major depressive disorders found in non-psychiatric clinical groups and children and adolescents. The BDI is not an instrument that can be used to diagnose depression, but instead, it can be utilized to assess the severity or intensity of one’s depressive symptoms.

What does the Beck Depression Inventory measure?

The BDI is a self-rated scale that contains 21 items used for evaluating key indications of depression, including pessimism, self-dissatisfaction, mood, a sense of failure, guilt, self-dislike, suicidal ideations, punishment, social withdrawal, body image modifications, crying, and indecisiveness.

Is the Beck Depression Inventory reliable?

One of the studies done on the BDI showed that it is a reliable, effective, and the culturally significant instrument used for calculating depression symptoms in FCCCD. It is a structure that has two factors containing cognitive and somatic-affective factors.

What is the difference between BDI and BDI II?

The conventional BDI was rooted in patient descriptions and clinical interpretations. On the other hand, the BDI II comprises items that reveal affective, vegetative, somatic, and cognitive symptoms of depression.

How much does the Beck Depression Inventory cost?

These are the quantities that compose the Beck Depression Inventory-II and their corresponding prices.

• 5-49: $3.05
• 5-99: $2.95
• 100-249: $2.90
• 250+: $2.80 

How do I reference the Beck Depression Inventory?

The values for the items in the inventory are summed to a total rate for all the 21 symptoms that could range from 0 to 63 points. A 0 to 7 is reflected as minimal anxiety; 8 to 15 as mild; 16 to 25 moderate; and 26 to 63, severe.

Is the Beck Anxiety Inventory free?

There is available free access to the score form and the assessment. However, it is a self-reported gauge. The Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory are typically utilized self-report questionnaires to identify the presence of depression and anxiety.

How many questions are on the Beck Depression Inventory?

All three Beck Depression Inventories done by Aaron T. Beck contain 21 questions that are multiple-choice and self-report inventories. They are among the most popularly utilized psychometric examinations used for assessing a person’s level of depression.

How is the BDI score calculated? 

The BDI II is calculated by adding the ratings for all 21 items. Each of these items is scored using a 4-point scale that ranges from 0 through 3. The highest score is 63. Attention must be given to the proper scoring of the ‘sleep pattern changes’ and ‘appetite changes’ items. 

How do you score and interpret the BDI II?  

Scoring instructions for BDI II are given with the suggestion that limits be altered based on the features of the sample and the purpose of the BDI II. The total grade of 0 to 13 is considered minimal, 14 to 19 mild, 20 to 28 is moderate, and finally, 29 to 63 severe.

What is the PHQ 9 Depression Scale?

The PHQ depression scale, commonly called PHQ-9, is 50% the length of other depression scales. It has similar sensitivities and specificities, and it contains nine criteria by which the diagnosis of DSM-IV depression is based.

How do you interpret a PHQ 9?

PHQ-9 total rate for all 9 points ranges between 0 and 27. In this case, the PHQ-9 depression score is 16 (3 items rated 1, 2 items rated 2, and 3 items rated 3). Scores 5, 10, 15, and 20 signify mild, moderate, moderately severe, and finally, severe depression consecutively.

How do you interpret a GAD 7 score?

A 10 or above on the GAD-7 signifies a valid cut point for determining cases of GAD. Cut points 5, 10, and 15 may be translated as showing mild, moderate, and severe intensities of anxiety on the GAD-7, the same as the intensities of depression on PHQ-9.

When should the PHQ 9 Be Used?

PHQ 2 and 9 are to be utilized with persons 12 years old and above. Other screening instruments have been created and authorized for special populations, including older and young adults.

In Conclusion

Depression is a leading mental disorder affecting millions of people around the globe. While it is most common for those aged 18 and above, observing it in a person’s formative years is not uncommon.

Children between the ages of 7 and 17 are also susceptible to depression, often undiagnosed. Depression presents itself differently to everyone, even in kids. They may appear a happy-go-lucky child but may suddenly exhibit social withdrawal mistaken as shyness. Or they may be staying up late written off as a bad sleeping habit.

Other signs of depression in children include engaging in self-destructive or reckless behaviors, eating changes, and persistent feelings of sadness or worthlessness. Having a mental illness can interfere with the growth and development of a child. As parents, they should be provided professional help at the first signs and symptoms of depression.

With the Beck Depression Inventory help, anyone, even children, can now get the support they need for their psychological well-being. BDI is a widely used method of evaluating an individual’s depressive symptoms. It consists of 21 questions answerable by a rating scale. It is a self-assessment. BDI can be completed by children entirely independently or with minimal help from a clinical psychologist if needed.

Getting a mental diagnosis at an early age can both be terrifying for the child and the parents. But it is crucial to do so, so your child can undergo treatment as soon as possible. Remember, as parents, you have to show unconditional love and support to your children. They will need you the most when they are diagnosed with depression.

You know that anxiety causes a different kind of symptoms that affects physical manifestation. These include trembling, shakiness, headaches, nausea, heart palpitation, stomach pain, shortness of breath, and chest pain. These physical attacks can happen at any time, especially when there is a constant feeling of impending danger.

In some unfortunate instances, the heightened reaction of anxiety often results in panic attacks that cause the possible connection to a heart complication. Thus due to sympathetic overactivity, a contraction of the small vessels of the heart becomes a problem.

While chest pain is not at all serious in some instances, some cases of it lead to heart failure. And that is not something someone would wish to deal with, especially when the goal is to feel emotionally and mentally okay.

Here are a couple of the frequently asked questions that you can use as a guide to provide you with quite significant information about the physical manifestations of mental health problem anxiety.               

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How do you get rid of anxiety chest pain?

Home remedies for anxiety chest pain include taking control of the situation. Acknowledge the anxiety you are feeling, recognize them, and then find ways to manage them effectively. Learn to do correct deep breathing exercises. Focused and profound breaths can effectively relax both your body and mind. Be positive about your mental and physical health. It would also help to utilize relaxation and calmness apps to help you visualize beautiful and peaceful scenery.

How does anxiety chest pain feel?

Anxiety chest pain is characterized by shooting and piercing pain. It is a persistent pain in the chest, which usually presents unusual muscle twitches or squeezing sensations in the chest.

You can easily deal with chest pain by breathing in slowly and relaxing your whole upper body in some cases. But if in case it persists, call your doctor right away so they can provide initial treatment for your chest pain.

Does Lorazepam help with chest pain?

If the chest pain that you’re feeling is secondary to anxiety, your doctor may recommend anxiolytics. These forms of drugs may help you to calm down and relax. Alprazolam and Lorazepam have commonly prescribed anxiolytics.

Is it my heart or anxiety?

Individuals who experience panic attacks frequently report that when they have anxiety, they are having a heart attack, as a lot of symptoms mimic the latter. Both illnesses could be accompanied by chest tightness, sweating, dizziness, shortness of breath, or even temporary paralysis or physical fatigue.

But note. Never self-diagnose. It would be best to endeavor professional advice whenever you feel like you are having a heart problem. DO not attempt to cure yourself based on searching for remedies online.

What is Cardiac Anxiety?

Individuals with cardiac anxiety experience ‘fear of fear.’ They always monitor themselves and are overly concerned about the condition of their heart. It is why they are constantly in a state of alarm. Typically, they are not aware that they are like this. There are no physical causes of cardiac anxiety.

Can chest pain from anxiety last for days?

There is a higher likelihood that this is a chest wall pain resulting from muscle contraction occurring with anxiety. As a matter of fact, due to these extreme muscle contractions, the chest could stay painful for hours or even days following a manic episode.

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Can you have anxiety chest pain all day?

Chest pain secondary to anxiety or panic attacks usually lasts for about 10 minutes. However, other symptoms could linger for up to one hour. Usual anxiety and panic symptoms can include lightheadedness.

Can anxiety chest pain last for weeks?

Consult your doctor if chest pain persists, worsens, or accompanies other signs and symptoms. A serious condition does not probably cause pain lasting for weeks or months. The problem is most likely associated with a muscular or skeletal structure.

Remember that whether you have lived with chest pain for over several years or have developed it due to a certain health condition, you still need to have a diagnosis. If it is causing you to breathe in a shallow manner and cause dizziness or chest tightness, immediately seek medical assistance.

How do I relax my chest muscles?

Stretching your pectoralis muscles helps relax the whole chest musculature. It is done by just raising your forearm and elbow up against the frame of a door. Move your arms up or down, depending on where you want the stretch to be. You must twist your torso gently away from your arms and find the tight areas during this position.

Does anxiety give you chest pains?

Panic and anxiety attacks can cause chest pains. Several related symptoms may include palpitations, trembling, lightheadedness, feeling short of breath, and tingling.

But with all these symptoms, you must understand the other health complications associated with chest pain. That way, you wouldn’t end up assuming having all sorts of diseases and mental health conditions.

Is anxiety bad for your heart?

Anxiety can result in rapid heartbeat, chest pain, and palpitations. You can also have a higher likelihood of experiencing increased blood pressure and heart problems. If you have an existing heart condition, anxiety disorders may increase the likelihood of coronary disease.

How can you tell the difference between chest pain and anxiety chest pain?

While chest pain is typical of both a heart attack and panic attack, the pain qualities are not often the same. In a panic episode, chest pain is commonly stabbing or sharp and specific to the mid-chest. Chest pain due to a certain heart attack may mimic a squeezing sensation or pressure.

What is bad anxiety?

Generalized anxiety disorder or GAD is a form of anxiety disorder described as chronic. It is usually accompanied by extreme tension and worry, even when there is nothing to be worried about.

Source: pixabay.com

Insight

Anxiety may be a mental health problem, but it does not mean it cannot affect your overall function and internal organs. It is a condition that makes the whole system of your body fail. When situations are not entirely threatening, the stress rate heightens, and the whole body, including the heart, works ten times more than it should.

I remember being upset with my parents from the later part of my childhood up to young adulthood. The reason was that it felt like they were nicer to my younger sister compared to me. They always helped with her homework and exam preparations while I was always told that I should learn how to do it on my own. It got to the point where I willed myself to keep a poker face around my family to prevent showing any sign of weakness.

The thing was, my parents never admitted to favoring my younger sister when it came to who got tough love more. Mom often insisted, “It’s just the same for you both. But sometimes, we give in to your sister and help her more because she is weaker than you.” To that, my typical reply was, “Then, you should have pushed her harder instead of babying her.”

Nonetheless, my resentment melted away when I realized that my folks give me the biggest favor of all time when they gave me tough love.

How Did That Happen?

Even though Mom and Dad pretty much gave me free rein to decide on how to run my life from a young age, I still received scolding from them due to my actions. Because of that, I quickly figured out that failing hurts and that I didn’t want to experience it repeatedly. I learned to be careful with my decisions and consider possible ways to attain my goals so that I wouldn’t always give my parents the satisfaction of telling me what I was doing wrong.

I could honestly say that tough love played a significant part in my success as it made me wiser than my peers. I knew that holding a grudge to anyone would have never let me get where I am now; instead, I needed to prove to myself that I could do things without my parents’ help. And it happened — all those years of looking out for myself paid off.

How Did Tough Love Not Ruin My Mental Health?

You might not be able to imagine how many times I told people about my life story and how many of them asked, “But are you genuinely okay, mental-wise? Don’t you need to see a therapist?”

I guess their queries are understandable since plenty of individuals who received tough love from childhood ended up with depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders. However, as shocking as it may sound, the experience has not caused me to lose any of my marbles. It may have fortified my mental resilience because other life obstacles that I have dealt with ever since have failed to compare to it.

The more I chatted with the people who felt victimized by their parents’ tough love, the more I realized what Mom and Dad did to ensure that it won’t ruin my mental health.

They Never Used Corporal Punishment

Corporal punishment is a traditional method of disciplining children. Back in the day, if the child cheated on an exam or started a fight at school, for instance, their mother or father would smack them on the head or shake them hard. Some parents even used belts, brooms, and various household items to hit the kids’ bottoms, legs, thighs, or hands. They most likely thought that discipline could be beaten into a child (literally).

Since Mom and Dad never used corporal punishment on me, though, I did not experience the physical pain that came with it. My chances of having repressed anger towards my parents or impaired emotional or mental development were low, too.

Giving Empty Threats Wasn’t Their Cup Of Tea

I had always been weirded out by moms and dads who uttered empty threats to their growing kids. They could say, “If you don’t behave, the police will arrive to get you” or “If you don’t wash up now, I will call the monsters and let them eat you.” Without sounding like a prejudice, who could do that to their children?

Although dishing out empty threats is common, I’m glad that my parents have never been into it. Whenever I was misbehaving, they merely uttered, “You can’t play video games all weekend” or “We will cancel your playdate.” Then, if I still didn’t straighten up, they would do what they just said. Missing playdates and losing access to video games one too many times could make any child like me realize that parents weren’t to be messed with.

They Always Scolded Me In Private

Another thing that made me grateful for my parents was their decision to scold me away from prying eyes. My sister or anyone else in the family never saw or heard them talk my ears off, claiming that they wanted to teach me a lesson, not embarrass me. Although it took some time before I understood it, my parents’ thoughtfulness allowed me to be mentally stable.

Final Thoughts

My relationship with Mom and Dad officially improved when I started raising my firstborn. I realized how much pressure they were likely under to make sure that I was growing up well. So, to keep me from going out of line, they taught me how to be resilient and decisive. Could there be a better gift than those?

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My friend Joanne has five children ages 3 to 14, and her home here in California could instantly transform into a madhouse when everybody wakes up in the morning. I should know – I live next door to her. She starts to get busy at 6 in the morning when she makes breakfasts for the kids and then packs their lunches. Frequently, she has to find the other shoes so the preschoolers won’t be late for school. She hurriedly fixes the hair of her seven-year-old and goes to the bathroom to brush her five-year-old son’s teeth. When everyone’s out, and into the bus, she gets to sit for five minutes, chats with me from her patio for 2 minutes, and then gets ready for laundry. She often tells me that it has been an awesome spectacle that she has been blessed with.

Ironically, several studies have proven that parents with three or more children are essentially the happiest. The love and delight that these parents get from their kids surpass the frequent madness of life with a large family. However, due to necessity, parents of many kids must learn to practice smart hacks and tactics in order to keep up with life while maintaining an organization.

Consumption for Large Families

• Develop a routine for favorites. As a parent, it is easier to ask your spouse and children what their top of the list of food and snacks. You can then list them and create a rotation of these food choices weekly or monthly. You’ll find that it becomes less difficult to go grocery shopping and to plan your meals.
• Designate cups, glasses, and plates. When the day starts, it’ll be more organized if your children already have names assigned to their plates and glasses for the day or week. This way, they’ll put them on the counter, and that’ll be their glass for the day.
• Use a large bread to make mini sandwiches. I’ve seen Joanne do this when she prepares lunch packs for her kids. She puts some spread and vegetables on French bread and cuts them into mini-breads for all of them. This is such a great hack.

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Get Rid of Your Stress

• Be an early bird. Things are indeed more structured in the mornings if you wake up early and get dressed even before the kids are awake.
• When you have trouble keeping the whole house tidy and organized, and you have guests coming over, or you just need to keep some of the house clean, the general suggestion is to make sure that two of the rooms are clean and in order.
• Start a journal. Writing down your happy thoughts and experiences helps improve one’s optimism. Practice it every day and look back on your good memories at the end of the year.

Pacify The Chaos

• Go with color-coding. Designate a specific color to each of your kids. Color-coded glasses imply one glass per kid rather than seeing ten glasses on the sink all at once. When you see towels scattered on the floor, you’ll know who to reprimand and ask to get their mess cleaned up.
• Invest in bins and baskets. I do this, too, with my toddler’s toys and books. It’s going to save you time and space to keep your children’s things in labeled containers. For books, you can rotate them every four weeks into the shelves for your children to reach and use. This hack is definitely a keeper!
• Establish stringent routines. Set after-school rules like taking off their shoes, cleaning their lunch boxes, putting away their backpacks in an assigned space, and then doing their homework. Make them practice these rules every single day until it becomes a routine.

Save Time, Effort, and Space

• Have comfortable hair and tooth brushing spaces. Joanne tells me this hack has really helped her save more time in cleaning and organizing the home. She has a drawer behind the counter for the kids’ toothbrushes, and it’s easier for them to do the brushing after they eat – they don’t need to back upstairs. The hairbrushes are also kept at a certain area in the living room where she can get one and fix her daughters’ hairs while they’re sitting down for breakfast.

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• Consider one-time reading for everyone. You might have to rethink the usual bedtime stories. With four or more kids, you’d be spending and wasting two hours on that. After their daily routines, invite them over to the living room and let them listen to an interesting audiobook. You can join in too while you’re folding the laundry.
• Do without the extracurriculars for children below 7. It’s been difficult for Joanne to keep track of her 3-year-old playing with the tools in the garden while she’s busy with her other kids. She decided that it wouldn’t take much of her kids’ childhood if they didn’t do too many extracurriculars until they are seven and up. They can be happy and enriched without them for a while.