Children should create ways to distract themselves or defend themselves from the anxiety that causes them pain. These distractions will allow them to cope with certain situations that evoke anxiety.
Some typical patterns of behavior used by children to cover their anxieties and distract themselves from them are to become silly or aggressive. It also paves way for a child to talk excessively, misbehave, delay, fantasize, behave passively, and to withdraw.
According to Help Guide, the purpose of distractions is to create a pseudo-existence that obscures existing annoying anxieties. Although these defenses help a child avoid feelings of pain or face them, they also interfere with organized attempts at learning.
To learn, a child must be able to concentrate. To focus on a learning task, children should be able to self-quench, both emotionally and physically. Concentrating on a specific learning task requires that the child pays no attention to internal or external stimuli, but calms down the mind to be able to concentrate on the task.
However, this is easier said than done, especially to children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). According to Additude, children who have had a disturbing psychosocial life and who have felt overwhelming frustration will be in direct contact with their painful feelings and anxieties when they try to calm down.
When they begin to feel anxious, children tend to distract themselves from characteristics exhibited by harmful anxiety. The act of concentrating requires the child to sacrifice the defenses that have been developed just to protect the child's inner shell of emotions.
This is a risk that anxious children do not want or can not take. Most of the time, these children do not concentrate or self-distract. Their defense reactions become reflexive and automatic. For these children, learning based on concentration is a threat and therefore makes them run from organized learning. These are the dynamics that result in ADHD.
ADHD is symptomatic. Rather than relying primarily on medicines or behavioral techniques to alleviate symptoms, what should be done is a diagnosis of the causes of ADHD and act accordingly to alleviate them. Medications cover the symptoms and, therefore, make the exact diagnosis and the long-term solution more difficult.
