If My Child Is Shy, Is He/She More Likely To Develop An Anxiety Disorder Later In Life?

 

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Question: If my child is shy, is he/she more likely to develop an anxiety disorder later in life?

Answer: Kids who are shy or have anxiety or have an anxiety disorder while they are children are at more risk of having anxiety disorders when they're adults. In fact, a majority of adult anxiety disorders are in people who had anxiety as kids. However, fortunately, the majority of kids who have anxiety, do not develop anxiety disorders as adults.

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In fact, about 25 percent of kids who have anxiety disorders as a child, develop anxiety disorders as adults. And it's also important to remember that anxiety is on a continuum, and that it's very normal to feel anxious, and it's also very normal to be shy. So just because a child is anxious or shy does not mean that it's going to develop into a disorder and if they have a disorder, it does not necessarily mean they're going to have a disorder later in adulthood.

And again there are a number of things we can do to help kids learn to manage their anxiety so that it stays at a constant level, or improves rather than gets worse over time.

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