Symptoms of Separation Anxiety Disorder

Infants suffering from separation anxiety disorder often show various symptoms which are enough to recognize the presence of disorder if taken seriously. Some of those symptoms of separation anxiety disorder are discussed here to explain this mental problem more precisely.

Extreme Fear of Losing Loved Ones

Firstly such children show extreme fear of losing their loved ones including family members and caretaker etc. These infants like to sit or present very close to them all the time. We can see such infants who hold their loved ones tightly by their dress, finger or hand and if for some reason they are asked to just leave them for a moment they start crying badly as they are afraid of losing them if leave them once.       

Fear of Being Kidnapped or Separated from Loved Ones

Secondly infants suffering from separation anxiety disorder often have extreme fear of being kidnapped by someone else who will separate them from their family forever. For this reason such children hesitate to go anywhere and to meet anyone except their family members. 

Refusal to Go to their Bedroom to Take Sleep

Thirdly suffering children often show resistance and some kind of fear when asked to go to their bedrooms to take sleep at night. They insist to sleep with their parents or caretaker or want them to sleep in their own bedrooms with them. Such patients also have disturbed sleep patterns and nervous tension due to the lack of sufficient sleep.     

Refusal to Go to School or Training Centers

Fourthly separation anxiety disorder makes a child resistant and hesitant to go to school or any other training or learning center like daycare centers. Due to this resistance child face difficulty in learning anything and in making friendly relations with their classmates.    

Reluctance to Make New Relationship

Fifthly such infants often show resistance and hesitation to make new relationships either with relatives unfamiliar to them or with their class mates and neighbors. They try to keep them away from unfamiliar persons and avoid answering their questions and comments. Due to this reason such children fail to develop their social relations and become housebound with more anxiety and depression in their life.         

Persistent Nightmares about Separation from family

Sixthly sufferer of separation anxiety disorder reports to have seen nightmares about its separation from his loved ones, as someone in trying to take him away from his family members forever. Due to the fear of such nightmares child avoid sleeping as much as possible or insist to sleep with his caretakers or parents.      

Stomach Upset or Headache at the Time of Separation from Loved Ones 

Seventhly if in case they have to be separated from their family members just for few minutes or hours as in school going days, they start feeling sudden pain in stomach or feel severe headache at the moment. In some cases even the thinking of being separated from their caretaker causes to develop stomach problems in such child.    

So if your own child or the children of your family members, friends or neighbors are showing at least three to four symptoms mentioned above then take the situation serious and go for complete diagnosis and treatment for separation anxiety disorder before its severity would deepen enough to disturb the whole cognitive and personality development process of the child.