Chipping Away at Worry

Last week's blog about BIG FEELINGS touched a nerve and revealed an undercurrent in kids and their families lives. So. Much. Worry.

Kids worry about their parents, the dark, the weird bump on their leg, school, being alone, friends, not being smart, being different, insects, and getting sick. Sometimes worries make our kids feel and act a little off. Other times, anxiety is paralyzing, making it impossible for them to get out of the car, walk into a new situation, or put a pencil to paper. And often, a child's outright defiance, fit of tears, or tantrum can be traced back to a worry that spiraled out of control.

As parents, we try to ride out the worries with our children, but the truth is that most of us aren't child psychologists and have no idea how to respond. We Google things, talk to friends, and try our best, but the bottom line is that for the most part, we don't know how to help, and we don't know where to start.

What's a Parent to Do?

GoZen is an exemplary online platform that provides a sequence of video lessons with animated characters to help kids understand and manage anxiety and stress. It is a story-based program that uses videos to help kids learn about their worry.

Highlights:

Within the first few lessons, we meet the cast of characters like Nelly, Thomas, Nutrino, Science Guy, Til, Widdle, who teach us what is happening inside our brains when we begin to worry. Don't be fooled by the cartoonish nature of the videos; the scientific information is incredibly sophisticated. Every time we learn a big idea, the characters break it down into understandable pieces by explaining and creating a visual and often giving it a nickname. For example, after learning about how the amygdala can set off someone's fright-flight-freeze response, this whole process is then called the brain's "worry alarm." When a child is freaking out in real life, it's easy to refer to their worry alarm because it's the shorthand that everyone understands. This shorthand is one of the program's most significant benefits, as it gives kids and parents a common vocabulary when talking about what they are going through.

GoZen's target audience is children, but the program's full benefit happens when parents and kids go through the lessons together. Every module provides an opening for families to talk about mental health concepts, including worry's impacts on a person's body and their thinking, common thought distortions, how to get out of these "thought holes," and ways to access these tools amid a meltdown. Each section has a follow-up specifically designed to help adults coach children through the newly introduced concepts.

A year of GoZen access costs about the same as a therapy session or two ($200 yearly for all the programs). I don't think GoZen could or should replace a therapist. Still, if you don't know whether your child needs to see a professional or if you're looking for a way to begin unpacking what's going on with your child at home, GoZen can be an excellent way to start the work of understanding and chipping away at worry. Likewise, if you have more than one worrier at home (and who doesn't?), the whole family can use one subscription. The price includes GoStrength's other programs, like well-being and resilience, OCD, mindfulness, negativity, panic, and procrastination, as well as a library of printable resources.

Drawbacks but not Dealbreakers: While the videos and cast of animated characters are part of what makes GoZen so incredibly effective, some of the characters' speech patterns and voices are stilted. This seemed to be most noticeable to the adults and did not impact the kids' experience at all, but for this reason, I think the program is more likely to appeal to a slightly younger audience than the website indicates.

Ideal For: GoZen is ideal for families with kids (aged 5-10ish) who worry and whose parents worry about their kids' worry.