Do you feel like you hear about anxiety in kids and teenagers more than ever before? I just don’t remember hearing about my friends or classmates dealing with anxiety when I was growing up.
Granted, I know there was considerable stigma surrounding mental health back in the day, so surely there was plenty of it happening, considering all the brown plaid that parents were dressing their kids in, and I guess we didn’t hear about these struggles because people just didn’t talk about it.
The truth is, anxiety does exist more nowadays - especially with our ONGOING health crisis - but there’s no denying that people also feel safer in speaking up about it.
Thankfully, there are also a lot of books on the subject, and I can safely report that I own most of them, thanks to seeing the familiar signs of illogical panic bubbling up in my eldest child when he was just a toddler.
I started buying self-help books on anxiety in kids because I need all the help I can get in raising these children to be functioning and contributing adults, and for them to realize how capable they are - and not to crumble every time things get hard or they’re met with a stitch of criticism.
As my first-born got a little older, I started buying books written for kids with anxiety, because I felt like he could benefit from reading the books himself, but he read exactly ZERO of them.
My kids have never had the motivation to do things that aren’t directly associated with a video game or a hamburger.
The six books I’m recommending here are a mixed bag: some for kids who struggle with anxiety, and some for the adults who care for them.
And one is an ebook I wrote for kids who worry about COVID-19.
These are titles that are recommended not just by me and my focus group of one, but resources that have been turned to again and again by moms, dads, caretakers of anxious kids, adolescents, and young adults, and even therapists I reached out to.
And also for the anxious kids themselves, if you have kids with more gumption than mine, for the love.
6 Books You Need To Read Right Now To Help With Your Kid’s Anxiety
This post has affiliate links, which means that brands reward me for purchases made using links I’ve shared. I only share links to products I have used and love myself, or for which I have received recommendations from sources I admire and trust.
FOR KIDS
What To Do When You Worry Too Much, A Kid’s Guide To Overcoming Anxiety by Dawn Huebner
Far and away the most recommended title, and one that is sitting - still to this day - on our bookshelf.
It’s also one of the zero that my son read, although I did force him to listen as I read it to him.
I bought this book for him in 2007, when he was eight years old, and he was at what I thought would be the height of his panic attacks. Boy was I wrong.
This was three years after he spent half a semester of his kindergarten year in the counselor’s office instead of going to PE because there was a flickering light in the gym that he was convinced would burst into flames, and about a year prior to him having a night terror so vivid, he’d run down the stairs, out the front door, and across the street, and bang on the front door of our neighbor’s house screaming, “Mommy!! Mommy!!” in the middle of the night.
With an introduction written for parents and caretakers, this book is a practical and interactive what-to-do guide to help teach kids that they’re in control and empower them to take the reins over their anxiety.
Jonathan James and the Whatif Monster, by Kane Miller
I wasn’t familiar with this one, but it was recommended by several moms in two local moms Facebook groups I’m in.
One mom said it’s about a boy who’s afraid to try anything new that the What-If Monster throws at him, and that the boy realizes he might miss out on fun things if he keeps listening to the monster. I’m thinking I could use this book, to be honest.
It says in its description that it’s for ages 3 and up.
CBT Doodling for Kids, by Tanja Sharpe
If you’ve gone through any counseling or therapy with your child for anxiety, you have no doubt heard about “CBT,” or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In a nutshell, CBT is a goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment geared at changing a person’s thinking or behavior, thereby changing how they feel.
I love this book because it’s written for kids aged 6 - 11, when it’s still so hard for kids to be able to verbalize their thoughts. The book serves as a sort of communication tool to help kids share what it is they’re grappling with.
Feeling Better: CBT Workbook for Teens, by Rachel L. Hutt, PhD
Another one based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but tailored especially for teenagers, Feeling Better: CBT Workbook for Teens helps teens - if you can get them to actually go through the workbook - understand that their anxious brain is playing tricks on them, and teaches them tools they can employ throughout their life.
This one is a free ebook that I wrote and illustrated to help explain Covid-19 to kids who worry about the illness. Tailored to children aged 6-9, the book is about a young boy who turns to his older brother to talk about his concerns about Covid-19.
The book not only shares the CDC guidelines for staying safe in terms young kids can understand, but it also encourages children to talk to someone they trust about their worries - an important tool for mental health.
FOR PARENTS & CARETAKERS
You Can Do All Things - Drawings, Affirmations, & Mindfulness to Help With Anxiety and Depression by Kate Allan
This is one I recommend for people who have an anxious child in their life, and want to know more about what their loved one’s anxious experiences feel like.
But it’s also fantastic for tweens and teens, and even adults who struggle themselves, because it helps acknowledge what those feelings are, and gives a sense of, “Ok, I’m not the only one.”
This book succinctly describes the experience of life with anxiety and does so in such an easy-to-consume manner, it feels like a friend translating the thoughts and feelings of someone struggling with their mind in a way that you can understand.
Talking Back to OCD, by John S. March, MD and Christine M. Benton
This one’s really for both kids AND adults, with each chapter giving practical tools for taking control of compulsions, followed by a section written for the adults in their life.
It’s the second part of each chapter that I found most helpful, because - as important as it is for kids to read OCD-managing techniques, it’s the support of those around them, who can help them implement the techniques.
I’m including this one because we found that my son’s anxiety (and mine, too) is tied to OCD, and this book was infinitely helpful in managing both the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder itself and the anxiety that was borne from it.
RESOURCES & FURTHER READING:
Anxiety And Depression Association of America (ADAA) Bookstore | ADAA
How To Help A Child Struggling With Anxiety | NPR // by Cory Turner
25 Thoughtful Anxiety Books For Kids | BookRiot // by Alice Nuttall
Anxiety and Depression In Children | CDC
When Your Teen Is Struggling With Anxiety | PsychCentral // by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S.
When Your Child Experiences Anxiety | Psychology Today // by Katherine Nguyen Williams, Ph.D.
