Help Anxious Kids with These 6 Awesome, Effective Books

Kids

Apr 5

Anxiety therapy for kids and teens often incorporates education through books.

When you’re an anxious kid or teen, you need help understanding what’s going on with you - and why.

Frequently, children we see in therapy for anxiety, and even anger management, worry that there’s something wrong with them. They don’t like feeling so overwhelmed all the time. They wish the felt different, and they may even think that they’re a bad kid because of their anxiety and overwhelm.

Below, you’ll find our top 6 books for anxious kids.

All beautifully illustrated, easy to find, and recommended by chid therapists.

These are all books I purchased in March of 2020, when our office needed to close and move to fully virtual session due to the coronavirus, and fears about keeping everyone safe from COVID-19.

So, rest assured these books are tried and tested, and easy to use a jumping off point for conversations about anxiety management for kids.

When books aren’t enough:

Anxiety books are great! But we also know that gaining information about anxiety through books isn’t always enough. Anxious children often benefit from counseling with a trained child therapist. We’re happy to touch base with you, and schedule a free phone screening, to see if counseling is the best next step for your family.

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When Anxiety Makes You Angry:

Kelsey’s book is geared for teens, not kids, but it’s filled with concrete strategies on how to manage the anxiety that makes you ANGRY. Learn more here.

Ruby Finds a Worry:

Ruby loves being Ruby, but when she’s swinging in the park, she stumbles upon a worry. At first the worry doesn’t seem so big, but as Ruby tries to ignore it, and then starts worrying about it, that worry gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

Why our child therapists love it:

Ruby realizes she’s not the only person with worries! When she opens up and starts to talk about her worry, it gets smaller again. We also love that the worry doesn’t go away forever. Worries come back! And that’s ok - because the skills Ruby learns helps her with future worries, too.

What Do You Do With a Problem?

“What do you do with a problem? Especially one that fallows you around and doesn’t seem to be going away?”

When you’re a child with anxiety, you probably feel like you have a lot of problems. Those problems can feel bigger and scarier when we don’t know what to do.

Why we recommend this book for child anxiety:

The main character worries a lot, but he eventually realizes that every problem has within it an opportunity. One that we would never find if we’re just scared, overwhelmed, and trying to ignore our problems.

You’ve Got Dragons

“Dragons show up when you least expect them. You turn around… and there they are.” And all of a sudden, with your heart pumping and your hands shaking, you can’t believe it’s happening to you, but you’ve. got. dragons.

Why this book is helpful for child anxiety treatment:

You can try and fight the dragon, and you can try and get lots of hugs when you’re scared of the dragon, but it turns out the best way to deal with dragons is to talk to them, explore what’s going on with them, to name them, and to even joke with them.

Just trying to ignore our worries doesn’t work - we want to take a step back and figure out what’s going on, and what else could be true.

Worry Says What?

What if all of your worries were true? It certainly feels that way sometimes. Worry can set up camp in our brain, and get big and loud whenever we try to do something.

Why this is a good book for child anxiety:

The book explores the physiological aspect of worries (stomach aches and headaches), how worries impact our brains (and what we say) and how our actions (choosing to do the opposite of what our worry says) can actually make our worries feel smaller and smaller.

Don’t Feed the Worry Bug

“Some call it the WorryBug and this is for sure - if you feed it a worry, it will always want more.”

Worries can spiral, and one worry leads to another and another and another.

Why we think this book is helpful for anxiety:

This book is a great jumping off point to talk to your child about all of their small little worries that build into bigger ones. This book talks about how Wince needs to ignore the WorryBug - but I always make a point to clarify that instead of just ignoring the WorryBug, Wince focuses on doing other things, like baking and playing with friends. You can use this book to come up with a list of other great activities for your kid to do when their WorryBug starts to get bigger and bigger.

Is a Worry Worrying You?

“Do you ever have a worry that won’t go away? What is a worry, anyway?”

This book takes a lot of worries that sound silly, and helps figure out what to do about them anyway. It’s a very solutions-focused book, even when the problem is that a gorilla borrows your skateboard and doesn’t want to return it when he said he would.

Why this book is so helpful for child anxiety:

You know what kids with anxiety love? Practical solutions! No joke - anxious minds do really well when we figure out 1. here’s what we can do and 2. here’s how we know it’s helping.

Anxiety therapy in St. Louis for worried kids, teens, and college students at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis:

We specialize in anxiety counseling and anger management therapy for kids, adolescents, and young adults age four on up. Our counseling team tailors their approach to you, your child, and your family’s needs.

It can be tough getting help, and if you’re wondering whether or not your child needs counseling for their anxiety, it can be helpful to talk with an expert. We always offer free phone screenings to talk about what’s going on for you, our clinical approach, and figuring out if counseling is the best next step for you.

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Kelsey Torgerson Dunn, MSW, LCSW is the owner of Compassionate Counseling St. Louis and author of When Anxiety Makes You Angry.

Curious to learn more about how we use books to help child anxiety? Compassionate Counseling St. Louis provides specialized anxiety and anger management therapy for kids, teens, and college students. We work in Clayton, MO and serve kids, teens, and college students throughout St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Ladue, University City, Town and Country, Webster Groves, Creve Coeur, Kirkwood, Richmond Heights, and Brentwood. You can set up your free phone screening to see if we’re a good fit for your needs right on our website

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Kelsey Torgerson Dunn