Healthy anxiety

Preetpal Sandhu, MD Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, shares advice for parents on how some anxiety can be healthy for children and explains what the right amount of anxiety is for a child without them being overwhelmed
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Healthy anxiety

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Anxiety can be an extremely helpful thing. In fact, I would say for all of us to survive we need anxiety. There is something that prevents us from walking into the street when a car is coming. There is some reason why our ancestors were not eaten by saber tooth tigers. They were the ones who had enough anxiety that caused them to go and sleep in a safe place at night. Obviously, the people who didn´t are not around anymore. So anxiety can be a very helpful thing and it is important to remember that anxiety can be a helpful thing when it comes to our children because there is a sweet spot of anxiety. There is a certain amount of anxiety that will motivate them to study. But then if there is too much anxiety that studying becomes overwhelming, then they will stop. So there is a certain zone, and for every child this zone is different, where anxiety can be helpful. And we call that the sweet spot. Ideally, as a parent what you want to do is to try to keep your child in that sweet spot where they are motivated but not overwhelmed.

Preetpal Sandhu, MD Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, shares advice for parents on how some anxiety can be healthy for children and explains what the right amount of anxiety is for a child without them being overwhelmed

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Preetpal Sandhu, MD

Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist

Dr. Sandhu is a UCLA-trained, Board Certified Psychiatrist who has practiced Psychiatry at UCLA and in Beverly Hills for several years. He did his undergraduate work at UCLA where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He then completed medical school at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine and was named a Dean's scholar. He also received a master’s degree in Business Administration from University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business where he was named to the Dean's list.

Dr. Sandhu then pursued training in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles, Neuropsychiatric Institute (now named the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior). While at UCLA completing his residency and fellowship he was named the Chief Fellow of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training program. He then proceeded to work at UCLA as part of the Attending Staff on the Child and Adolescent Inpatient unit. He is a member in good standing of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists (AACAP) and has served as the Southern California Regional Organization’s President.

His areas of interest include attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and the roles coordinated psychiatry and psychotherapy can have in jointly improving outcomes.

Dr. Sandhu lives in the Los Angeles area with his family and is actively involved in teaching medical students, residents, and fellows at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In his free time, he enjoys surfing, snowboarding, basketball, golf, video games, and travel.

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Transcription: 
Anxiety can be an extremely helpful thing. In fact, I would say for all of us to survive we need anxiety. There is something that prevents us from walking into the street when a car is coming. There is some reason why our ancestors were not eaten by saber tooth tigers. They were the ones who had enough anxiety that caused them to go and sleep in a safe place at night. Obviously, the people who didn´t are not around anymore. So anxiety can be a very helpful thing and it is important to remember that anxiety can be a helpful thing when it comes to our children because there is a sweet spot of anxiety. There is a certain amount of anxiety that will motivate them to study. But then if there is too much anxiety that studying becomes overwhelming, then they will stop. So there is a certain zone, and for every child this zone is different, where anxiety can be helpful. And we call that the sweet spot. Ideally, as a parent what you want to do is to try to keep your child in that sweet spot where they are motivated but not overwhelmed.