Coping with Children's Anxiety about the COVID-19 Outbreak
“Oh, man! This is so frustrating. I can’t go out anywhere. I can't play with my friends. All my activities have also been stopped.” ranted a 12-year-old. “I had planned a play date with my friends today. But then we found, we can’t play in the clubhouse anymore! Just playing by myself at home is so boring” whined a 10-year-old. “I have my GCSE coming up. But sitting at home and doing the self-study is hard. I am missing my school and my friends. I feel like I am under house arrest” lamented a 14-year-old. Tween and teenage is a time when the child’s brain is generally anxious over the smallest of things. When we add a virus and an epidemic to the equation, it goes crazy with frustration, anxiety, and stress. Sonia Lupien at Centre for studies in Human Stress has a handy acronym for what causes stress in our lives: N-Novelty Something that you have not handled in your life before. U-Unpredictability Something you had no way of knowing occurs T-Threat to the