Just keep the boy's life as as stable as you can. Anxiety isn't a hereditary mental disorder per se: it can be entirely circumstantial and anyone can get it. And it can be overcome. Your boy may just need some stability, calmness, absence of emotional stuff and time to unravel as well as a bit of counselling.

Keep all the rules simple and fair: and enforce them. :D That sort of thing. Maybe help engineer some play dates with friends?

Hi shelbyalr, I have suffered with anxiety for many years. When my daughter developed anxiety issues at 14 yrs old I thought I had passed it on to her through genes. I was wrong, what was going on at home with her father and myself was causing some of the problems. We divorced, and I was on a mission to keep her from suffering as I did. She had a very good adolescent therapist, was on antidepressants for a short time.

I also enrolled her in gymnastics, (her choice), encouraged her to join in activities with other youngsters her age. Since she is an only child I allowed her to have sleep overs, and go to sleep overs (trusted friends. I was also lucky as my sister lived near and assisted me with all of this. What helped her the most were her friends and activity.

She is now anxiety free living a good life as a young adult. As bridgie101 stated do what you can to provide your son a stable life.

I do understand your concern as I had the same feelings when my child was diagnosed with anxiety. I do believe your son will be fine.

Make sure he has a good Dr. a Therapist and on proper medication. You can find several Breathing exercises to relief some of his stress. His anxiety is very treatable when you can't see you were classes. See a good Dr. and Therapist and make sure he is on proper medications. That his glasses. Make sure he knows good breathing techniques when your not there it will help him out alot

Thank you everyone for your advice. My son has a wonderful support system between his school, teachers, therapists and of course my parents and I.
It's refreshing to hear that your children are thriving.
Congratulations. I hope the same for my son.

Have you had his folate levels checked? It seems like such a simple thing, but folate is SUPER important. Along with that, you might want to check his MTHFR gene for a mutation. (This can be done by saliva at 23and me).

If he has the mutation, he can't absorb the folate he needs from food and likely can't tolerate folic acid. That creates a whole host of issues including anxiety, depression, bipolar, stomach issues - and later heart disease and Alzheimer's.

It's an inexpensive and if he does have the mutation, the treatment is to take a special sort of folate that's cheap. I've had anxiety since childhood and they just recently learned I have the mutation. It's been such a blessing because the folate treats the root cause which is far better than medicating symptoms.

Younger children particularly pick up on a parents anxiety. Anxiety may very well have a genetic component, but I remember as a child being very attuned to my mother's mood. She'd get wound up and that would wind me up. Keep yourself level as you can, make what positive changes you can and be reassuring to the child and then just let the rest go. Don't let the doctors drug him at that age for sure. Mainly reassurance from you, and him seeing you not anxious is the best you can do for him. Also, never discuss your worries with him. My mom used to do that. Kids shouldn't ever be in on adult problems.