Why are our kids so anxious?

Lately we have been seeing lots and lots of kids in the office, and many of these children have significant levels of anxiety. This concerns me greatly, because our children truly are our future. Without healthy children, it is impossible to have a healthy society. As a product of the world we live in today, children now are exposed to more stress than ever before.A recent Psychology Today article stated that the average high-school student now has stress levels similar to that of an adult institutionalized psychiatric patient in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

I can only imagine the struggle that many parents go through, in trying to help their children who are exposed to such high levels of stress. In the traditional model, these children are often given a cocktail of powerful medications. This worries me greatly, because the brain continues to myelinate (a crucial part of brain development) heavily until about the age of 26. We simply do not know what future effects will occur as a result of giving these powerful medications to the developing brain.Here is a direct excerpt from Scientific American.Prescriptions on the Rise"Between 2002 and 2009 pediatric prescriptions for atypical antipsychotics increased by 65 percent, from 2.9 million to about 4.8 million. A staggering 90 percent of those prescriptions are off-label, according to a 2012 study published in JAMA Psychiatry, with ADHD and disruptive behavior disorders accounting for about 38 percent of all antipsychotic use in children and teens. The increase may be partly caused by a “lack of alternative resources,” Rubin says, because many doctors consider antipsychotic medication a stopgap or Band-Aid when therapy and other interventions are unavailable."The overwhelming consensus that I hear when I talk to parents is that they simply do not know what to do to help their children. As a chiropractor, my primary job is to assist the innate wisdom of the human body by correcting misaligned vertebrae that are obstructing the proper flow of communication in the body.When you do have vertebrae that are misaligned, the body is put into a state of stress and increased anxiety. The care we give to these children is specific, scientific, and extremely gentle. Children are given specific corrections with very light pressure. The goal of the care is not to relieve individual symptoms, but to assist the inner wisdom of the body, and restore the entire person to a greater state of ease.If you have children, I highly encourage you to have them checked.Sean Carey, D.C.Precision ChiropracticNewburyport, MA