Episode 79 - Health Anxiety in Children: Why Waiting Isn't Doing Nothing with Dr Lynette Ewart

So hello, Lynette.

Hi.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

Pleasure.

So the question for you is, what is just one thing parents can do to reduce health anxiety in their children? And perhaps you could start by just saying a little bit about why you feel this is such an important question to talk about.

I am speaking very much in my doctor role when I talk about this.

If people have seen any of the content, they probably will have seen me speak as a personal trainer on one hand and as a doctor on the very next day, or sometimes even the same day.

But this very much comes from my work as a doctor, which is, is almost 20 years now as a GP.

And what I've seen become more and more prevalent among families is a growing level of anxiety about things that are sometimes part of normal functioning of, of bodies.

Mm.

Now, okay, that's all well and good for me to say that as a doctor who knows how bodies function.

But what's happening in the wider culture is that fear sells.

So making somebody anxious and fearful of a symptom is a fantastic marketing angle if you have got no integrity and you're willing to sell to people who are frightened and willing to buy.

And equally, it creates a lot of content.

So we live in a content-filled world, and I can't bite the hand that feeds me.

I have done-

Mm

... very well out of, out of social media content.

But what I've seen through my own parenting journey is, I remember it starting at the school gates.

I remember [laughs] as a doctor, you become, as a GP, you become very highly attuned to coughs.

And, you know, hearing somebody cough, first of all, you flash back to the waiting room, particularly in winter or, or A&E, when you've heard lots of people, lots of young children coughing.

But I would hear in the playground other parents, and sometimes grandparents, telling, uh, parents of younger children, "Oh, you need to sort that out.

That looks terrible." And I would immediately think, "It's not that simple.

You don't get to just sort it out." So I think sometimes the messaging that parents are receiving starts really early on, in that what's going on with your child, it's up to you to fix it, to control it, to prevent it, to get rid of it.

And you, nobody, no, no sane parent that I've ever met wants to be feeling guilt or thought of as not attending to their child's needs.