Separation Anxiety Disorder

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Separation Anxiety DisorderSeparation Anxiety Disorder is a disorder in which a person experiences excessive anxiety when separated from home or from someone to whom the person is attached. The person shows excessive unwillingness to separate from major attachment figures or from home. The person may also experience an impairment in social, academic, and other important areas of functioning.

Separation Anxiety Disorder most commonly occurs in a person before the age of 18. It is generally limited to preschool children and toddlers, and rarely found in adolescents. If an infant experiences the disorder, it is possible that relapses of it can occur later in life. Many children undergo a certain amount of anxiety when separation is involved, but it is not until the anxiety impairs the child's ability to function at school, at home, or with peers, that it is considered a disorder. Factors of Separation Anxiety Disorder include tiredness, minor or major illness, changes in the household routine, changes in the family (such as birth or death), or change in the caregiver.

Symptoms of this disorder include worrying about losing or harm coming to which the person is attached, refusal to go to school, nightmares, the inability to fall asleep that is long-standing and is not affected by a physician's advice, and repeated physical complaints. Physical effects include trembling headaches, stomachaches, nausea, vomiting, and sweating. Separation Anxiety Disorder often occurs when a child is forced to make a transition in life and is placed into a new situation. The child often responds through temper tantrums and uncontrollable behavior. Crying involved with separation anxiety is attributed to two things: crying do to fear that a parent or loved one will be gone forever, or crying because the loved one has returned, reminding the person of the feeling he or she...