Help for Childhood Anxiety: The Power of Proper Breathing

It is often said we live in an era of fear and anxiety.  As a frontline mental health professional, father, and business owner, I’m often reminded of how we’re affected by ever evolving changes to our lifestyle, and how this impacts our children. It seems the aspects of our lives that claim to improve or support our engagement in day-to-day activities actually evoke additional stress or complexity.   

Smartphones have given us many benefits, however it has become increasingly clear there is a direct and unambiguous cost for the convenience and access these devices provide. That cost is often levied against our mental health, including rapid increases in childhood anxiety.  

Other broader environmental factors have had a tremendous bearing on our lives, as witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reasons for the increase in childhood anxiety are many, including changes to routine. So, I’ve designed this blog post to provide you with a comprehensive piece having everything about childhood anxiety and introduce you to a beauty called bobi _ personal breathing coach to bring your child back to normal life. 

The history of childhood anxiety

Childhood anxiety is not a new or novel concept. The issue has been studied and written about for centuries. Ancient philosophers, by way of example, referred to the concept of anxiety in many teachings. The experience of anxiety is also considered a normal and valuable part of life.  

From an evolutionary perspective, anxiety was, and remains, extremely beneficial as it allows us to react with alertness to physical threats. Therefore, it is typical for children to experience anxiety throughout their upbringing. Some children, however, will develop high levels of anxiety that starts to interfere with their relationships, behaviours, and routine.

Primary childhood anxiety disorders

There are three main anxiety disorders for children:

• Social anxiety: Social anxiety is characterised by an intense fear of social situations in which the child believes they will be judged and scrutinised by others.
• Separation anxiety: Separation anxiety is when a child becomes excessively concerned or distressed, when separated from their parents.
• Generalised anxiety: Children with generalised anxiety typically experience excessive or uncontrollable worry about numerous events or activities.

Common risk factors for childhood anxiety disorders have been researched and identified over many decades. These risk factors include:

• Exposure to stressful environments. 
• Dysfunctional parenting styles. 
• Exposure to unstable living conditions. 

Genetic factors also contribute towards the likelihood of a child developing an anxiety disorder. A child that has a family member with a diagnosed anxiety disorder is more likely to experience the same. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health conditions.

Approximately 40 million people in the US, and up to 20% of Australians, suffer from a diagnosable anxiety disorder.

These numbers continue to climb despite the continued focus on mental health initiatives by governments, schools, and employers. Worryingly, the rate of childhood anxiety continues to rise and it’s estimated to be as high as 40%.  Around the world, rates of anxiety in children have reportedly doubled since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Childhood and adolescence are the most typical times individuals start to display early signs, or predisposition, to an anxiety disorder.  

Signs of anxiety in children

There are many behaviours that an anxious child may exhibit, but some of the common signs of childhood anxiety include: 

• Clinginess.
• Experiencing stomach problems.
• Avoidance.
• Breathing dysregulation.
• Rapid, short breathing from upper chest (hyperventilation). 

Childhood anxiety and hyperventilation

Identifying children whose anxiety is impacting their breathing is important. Sustained changes to breathing patterns may indicate that anxiety symptoms are worsening.

When children engage in hyperventilation there are several accompanying behaviours that co-occur. You might notice frequent sighing or attempts to take an exaggerated deep breath. These behaviours relate to a little understood phenomenon known as ‘air hunger’.  From experience, these symptoms are frequently overlooked as being related to childhood anxiety and therefore are easily missed by parents and medical professionals alike.

When we are anxious our body’s natural response, through the sympathetic nervous system, is to increase our rate of breathing. This increased rate of breathing (hyperventilation), often results in too much carbon dioxide being expelled by the body.  This sensation of expelling too much carbon dioxide feels the same as if we are not taking in enough oxygen.

Most children respond to this feeling by trying to take deeper breaths, making the condition worse by further expelling too much carbon dioxide. This is also made worse if the child is breathing through the mouth rather than the nose, and through the upper chest instead of the diaphragm. 

The sensation is often called ‘air hunger’ and has also been described as ‘being unable to get on top of a breath’. Children often find it difficult to express the feeling of ‘air hunger’ and many parents put it down to other breathing difficulties or unrelated ailments.

Changes in breathing patterns are amongst the first signs a child is experiencing anxiety. This is particularly important to know as it allows parents to engage in early intervention and treatment.

Research shows that early intervention for childhood anxiety is essential. 

Helping childhood anxiety with conscious breathing

In most cases childhood anxiety disorders are highly treatable. As with many medical conditions, the earlier anxiety is identified and treatment undertaken, the better the outcome for the person involved.  

Most children, however, don’t receive any professional support for anxiety. Often childhood anxiety symptoms are put down to other causes. Limited availability and access to qualified mental health professionals is also another issue and contributes to the reduced likelihood of a child engaging in early treatment for anxiety.

Slow, controlled, breathing through the nose remains one of the most effective anxiety prevention and early intervention treatments for children. There is overwhelming research support that breathing training gives children a highly effective technique for managing stress and anxiety. This is why kids’ yoga classes, by way of example, can be so beneficial. 

Unsurprisingly, the habit of better breathing requires repeated practice and early support, especially where children are concerned. 

Better breathing with bobi 

My experience, both professionally and personally, has led me to believe the skill of slow, controlled nasal breathing can be easily integrated into a child’s daily routine. Just as reading is often considered the foundational skill for a child’s education, breath training should be considered the same for children’s mental health.

bobi helps facilitate the habit of better breathing and is a great device to help children ground and create a positive emotional response during times of stress or anxiety. So, get this secret weapon from here to see your children living their life to the fullest.

Emotional regulation and the benefits of conscious breathing

 

Breathing is widely considered one of the most crucial mind-body emotional regulation skills to help you master anxiety and cope with stress. Many of us take breathing for granted and never consider breathing as a powerful tool to handle our anxiety and stress. When we take conscious deep breaths, they work to alleviate the stress-hormones production like cortisol. Consequently, it activates the body’s relaxation response. Stick with us till the end to learn the science behind emotional regulation, factors influencing emotional regulation, and conscious breathing power in emotional regulation. Lastly, we’ll introduce you to a beauty called bobi _ a personal breathing tool designed to regulate your breathing patterns to empower you with emotional regulation. 

What is Emotional regulation?

Why do most people enter therapy with a psychologist?  

The most common reason for seeing a psychologist is to help manage emotions.  This includes sadness, anxiety, stress, anger and depression.  The term emotional regulation, also known as self-regulation, describes a person’s ability to appropriately control one’s emotional state.  

Emotional regulation is considered the skill of thinking before acting.

For example, take the case of an adolescent boy, Jake, playing an online computer game with friends. Jake’s character happens to die during gameplay and he becomes the focus of ridicule. Jake’s response is to launch the computer console at the wall and to scream profanities.  

This story is one many households would be familiar with and is an example of emotional dysregulation. Emotional dysregulation is the uncontrolled expression of emotions, typically in response to a situation that is perceived to be inconvenient, uncomfortable, or stressful.

Examples of Emotional Dysregulation

Some examples of emotional dysregulation include:

• Angry outbursts.
• Anxiety.
• Depression.
• Frustration.
• Self-harm and other self-damaging behaviours.

In my experience, emotional dysregulation can greatly disrupt relationships. Moreover, it is a predictor of substance abuse in late adolescence and adulthood.

Conversely, controlling one’s emotions has long been identified as a path to contentment and stability in life. The ancient Stoic philosophy, is considered to form the basis of modern cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Over time, it has endured and flourished owing to its emphasis on emotional regulation.  

Perhaps the most famous of Stoic concepts currently used today is the ‘dichotomy of control’ (refer Epictetus). Put simply, this places emphasis on identifying the things that are within, and outside of, our control.

The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control.

Epictetus, The Discourses

Other factors influencing emotional dysregulation

Unfortunately, many children don’t develop the capacity for emotional regulation without engaging in overt coaching or specialised education. Other factors can contribute to displays of emotional dysregulation, including if a child is on the autism spectrum, or has a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 

Previous studies suggest that up to 70% of adults with ADHD exhibit emotional dysregulation leading to emotional regulation adhd.

For neurodivergent children, the manifestations of emotional dysregulation largely contribute to social limitations.  The ‘meltdowns’, sometimes associated with children on the autism spectrum, refer to an inability to effectively regulate emotional states.  Behaviours associated with meltdowns often lead to a marked deterioration in relationships and a reduced quality of life within families.

A recent autism-related study identified the critical importance and impact of emotional dysregulation to adaptive functioning in children.  Adaptive functioning simply refers to coping with everyday environmental demands. In this context, the development of emotional regulation skills may be viewed as a critical life skill for any child, but in particular, those who are neurodivergent.

Emotional dysregulation in adults

Emotional dysregulation is also experienced by many adults.  Outward expressions of physical aggression, such as road rage, are the most obvious examples of emotional dysregulation. However, emotional dysregulation incorporates a broad spectrum of emotions and behaviours that may include:

• Severe depression.
• Anxiety.
• Anger.
• Self-harm.
• Excessive substance use.
• Extreme perfectionism.
• Conflict in interpersonal relationships.
• Engagement in problematic gambling.

Strategies for improving emotional regulation

Many emotional regulation strategies are intrinsically taught to children, most commonly through observing the behaviour of others. For example, a child that grows up in a household where each member of the family displays respect and empathy will often develop positive coping behaviours when faced with adversity. Children learn by observing and this remains especially the case for emotional regulation.

Another core emotional regulation skill is the capacity to be self-aware, including through interoception. Interoception is defined as the perception of sensations from within the body that includes heart rate and breathing. 

Recent scientific research has highlighted how our interoceptive skills do such crucial task. Simply our brain’s perception of our body’s state, can determine our susceptibility to depression and anxiety.  People with anxiety may misinterpret a small change in their heart rate and immediately conclude some kind of threat is imminent.  This overreaction is a hallmark of anxiety and is often observed as somebody ‘being on edge’ or ‘highly strung’.

Many children and adults have poor interoceptive skills. Fortunately, there are emotional regulation skills for adults. A few simple exercises, repeated often, can improve these skills.

A recent research study of autistic adults found that providing interoception training to the participants could effectively reduce anxiety.

How Conscious breathing can help emotional regulation?

In my experience, of all the strategies available for an individual to develop emotional regulation, conscious breathing (also referred to as slow or controlled breathing) is the most effective. In fact, most psychologists deploy conscious breathing techniques during therapy. 

There are several key features of conscious breathing that directly impacts emotional regulation:

1. Because of the connection between breathing and the autonomic nervous system, you are able to immediately reduce stress and anxiety through scientifically supported breathing exercises.
2. Slow, controlled breathing stimulates our vagus nerve and this increases our heart rate variability. That is a core component of our body’s ability to combat and reduce stress.
3. Breathing involves a physical action that often overrides our cognitive processes (thoughts). This can be incredibly beneficial when a person is in a state of agitation.
4. Controlled breathing creates a space between our thoughts and our actions. This is crucial for anyone who is prone to act impulsively.

Conscious breathing should be considered the foundational skill for developing emotional regulation. If somebody is in a state of hyperventilation, psychological strategies will have little impact.  Our fight-or-flight response triggers a cascade of physiological changes that are designed to ready the body for physical action. For this reason, it’s very difficult to initially think our way out of the triggering event.

The skill of conscious breathing is the most readily available, and the most effective intervention for calming our body’s response. By slowing our breathing we can exert a highly effective measure that is recognised by our brain as a sign of reassurance and safety.

Learning conscious breathing 

The benefit of learning and engaging in conscious breathing is well-recognised within many parts of society, including schools.  The challenge, however, is how to effectively provide education and training. So that more people can develop and utilise the skill of conscious breathing for use during times of stress.

Once somebody has developed the capacity to engage in the practice of conscious breathing it provides a sense of efficacy in relation to managing difficult emotions.  Self-efficacy is simply the belief in one’s ability to succeed in a specific task.  When you develop an understanding that you’re in control of your emotions, irrespective of the triggering event, remarkable changes in behaviours often follow. This is especially the case in how we communicate and interact with those around us.

The fundamental emphasis on how our thoughts determine our emotional responses – a central tenet of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) – develops as a feature of one’s capacity to self-regulate.

Developing the foundational skill of conscious breathing helps to challenge and change unhelpful thinking patterns.  Having the capacity to consider a situation logically, prior to simply reacting, remains a core aspect of emotional regulation.  Getting to that position, however, often involves engagement in a process which has conscious breathing at its foundation.

Harness the Power of Conscious Breathing with bobi

Incorporating tools like bobi can further enhance the practice of conscious breathing. bobi is designed to promote better breathing habits, serving as an effective device to help children and adults ground themselves and foster positive emotional responses during stressful situations. By integrating bobi into one’s daily routine, individuals can further harness the power of breathing for emotional regulation, ensuring a more balanced and controlled emotional state.

Conclusion 

Breathing is a fundamental tool for emotional regulation, offering a direct pathway to manage anxiety and cope with stress. The article emphasizes the importance of conscious breathing in emotional regulation, highlighting its ability to immediately reduce stress and anxiety, stimulate the vagus nerve, override cognitive processes during agitation, and create a space between thoughts and actions. Conscious breathing acts as a foundational skill, allowing individuals to challenge unhelpful thinking patterns and respond logically to situations rather than reacting impulsively. If  you want to cope with your anxiety effectively and want to see immediate results bobi is your go-to tool. Arm yourself and your little ones with its magical powers to strengthen their emotional regulation with its slow conscious breathing patterns. To enjoy your life to the fullest with the utmost power of emotional regulation, get your bobi from here!

FAQs

1. What is Emotional Regulation?

Emotional regulation, also known as self-regulation, describes a person’s ability to appropriately control one’s emotional state. It is essentially the skill of thinking before acting and plays a crucial role in managing emotions like sadness, anxiety, stress, anger, and depression.

2. How does conscious breathing help in emotional regulation?

Conscious breathing, also referred to as slow or controlled breathing, is a foundational skill for emotional regulation. It helps reduce stress and anxiety, stimulates the vagus nerve, overrides cognitive processes during agitation, and creates a space between thoughts and actions, allowing individuals to respond logically to situations.

3. Why is emotional dysregulation a concern?

Emotional dysregulation is the uncontrolled expression of emotions, typically in response to stressful situations. It can manifest as angry outbursts, anxiety, depression, frustration, self-harm, and other self-damaging behaviors. It can disrupt relationships and is a predictor of substance abuse in late adolescence and adulthood.

4. How does bobi help with conscious breathing?

Bobi facilitates the habit of better breathing, serving as a tool to promote conscious breathing practices. It aids in grounding individuals and fostering positive emotional responses during stressful situations.

5. Who can benefit from using bobi?

While bobi can be beneficial for anyone looking to improve their emotional regulation through conscious breathing, it is especially helpful for children, helping them create a positive emotional response during times of stress or anxiety.

References:

1. Shaw, P., Stringaris, A., Nigg, J., & Leibenluft, E. (2014). Emotion Dysregulation in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry. Link.
2. Davico, C., Marcotulli, D., Cudia, V. F., Arletti, L., Ghiggia, A., Svevi, B., Faraoni, C., Amianto, F., Ricci, F., & Vitiello, B. (2022). Emotional Dysregulation and Adaptive Functioning in Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder or Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Frontiers in Psychiatry. Link.
3. Quadt, L., Garfinkel, S. N., Mulcahy, J. S., Larsson, D. E. O., Silva, M., Jones, A.-M., et al. (2021). Interoceptive training to target anxiety in autistic adults (ADIE): A single-centre, superiority randomized controlled trial. eClinicalMedicine. Link