A particular level of separation anxiety disorder is an expected and is a healthy part of normal development that occurs in all children to varying degrees between infancy and age 6. Healthy separation anxiety is typically first seen around 7-11 months of age, when an infant becomes anxious when meeting strangers (this is called stranger anxiety ). Children also may become mildly anxious around 18-24 months of age, when they are increasingly exploring their world but wanting to return to their caregiver frequently for security.

Contrary, children with separation anxiety disorder have separation worries that are excessive and much greater than their peers. These worries can overwhelm a child, even when they involve brief separations, such as leaving to go to school, going to sleep, or staying behind at home when a parent runs an errand. The child's fears may appear to be irrational, such as the fear that the parent may suddenly die or become ill.

Young people with separation anxiety disorder often go to great extremes to avoid being apart from their home or caregivers. They may protest against leaving a parent's side, refuse to play with friends, or complain about physical illness at the time of separating. Frequently, a child tolerates separation from one parent more easily than separation from the other parent.

Diagnosing separation anxiety disorder can be challenging because children with separation anxiety disorder may have more than one anxiety disorder. Children with separation anxiety disorder frequently have physical complaints, which also may need to be medically evaluated. A trained clinician (such as a child psychiatrist, child psychologist or pediatric neurologist) should integrate information from home, school, and the clinical visit to make a diagnosis.

At home, children with separation anxiety disorder may experience a combination of the symptoms listed below.

a) Frequent physical complaints at times of separating . Children with separation anxiety disorder often complain about stomach aches, headaches, or other physical discomforts when they know they will have to separate.

b) Terrifying dreams about being separated

c) Consistent and extreme worry and fear when separating from home or primary caregiver. Children also may be extremely frightened and worried when they anticipate separation and may be unwilling to be alone.

d) Difficulty sleeping alone . Children may insist that a parent sleep with them or may insist on sleeping with the parent in the parent's bed.

e) Recurrent worry and fear that something bad may happen to their parent or to themselves. They may worry about a parent becoming sick or getting hurt. They also may worry about getting lost if separated.

f) Refusal to attend school often develops, due to worries about separating

g) Refusal or reluctance to participate in ordinary outings or activities . The child may not want to go out to dinner, meet friends to play, or engage in after- school programs.

If left untreated, the condition may lead to considerable limitations in other areas of the child's life. Peer relationships, school functioning, and family functioning may suffer, or depression may develop. In some situations, if a child believes there is no way to reduce extreme anxiety, thoughts of self-harm or not wanting to be alive may develop. Professional help should be sought in such cases.

For those that suffer from it, learning how to stop a panic attack is something that is very essential to your well being. There are countless people that have this condition, so do not feel as if you are the only one. The best news of all is the fact that you can stop this attack from happening too. You will need to work at it and you will need to determine the right tools for the job. Yet, with a bit of education in this matter, anyone that suffers from panic attacks can learn to effectively stop them from happening.

Breathing Helps

You know the signs and symptoms that you are experiencing are unwarranted. You know what they are. You may even know what triggers them. Yet, do you know how to use breathing as a means for helping to stop these from happening to you? Breathing techniques have been developed to aid a person in learning how to stop a panic attack. Here is a process that will help you how to stop a panic attack as it is coming on.

1. Realize the internal and external aspects that cause the panic attack to happen. You should know what the symptoms are from past experiences. In addition, you should know what types of environments or situations will contribute to an attack. Gathering this information will help you to realize when to move on to stopping it from getting worse. If you can not remember these things, make sure to write them down. This way, you can better correlate what is happening, when it is happening and what has brought it on.

2. Concentrate on something outside of your body. The next thing that you need to do is to find something outside of your body to think about and focus on. For example, look at the flowers outside and push your thoughts to that object. This will help to get them away from what is causing the panic attack. This will take practice and determination.

3. Breathing. Now, place your hand on your lower abdomen. You need to practice this technique to get it right, but it will get much easier as time moves on. Take in a deep breath but make only the area of your body that has the hand on it move up. Hold the breath for a count of three then exhale through your mouth. Before you take the next breath, wait for a count of five. This process will help you to regain your calm and stop you from hyperventilating.

Other techniques that can help you how to stop a panic attack include forced muscle relaxation, yoga, music, as well as exercise. All of these things will take time for you to learn and to do, yet all will be rewarding to you as well.