My son is 10 1/2 and has issues with anxiety. I thought this would help from all the great reviews it received. I think it is a good book but is better suited for slightly younger children. He read it all at once. I asked him did he feel it was going to help him. He said, "No, it really didn't talk about any of the things that I feel nervous about." "I'm not really afraid of dogs." I told him that he should be able to use the information he learned when they discussed dogs in his own situations. But, it doesn't seem to have made any difference with him. I think he just felt it was quite babyish and therefore it made him disinterested.

As with most self-help books, you have to pick and choose what strategies best apply to your unique situation. But this book has a lot of great tools to choose from! It's just what I was looking for and is helping to equip my daughter not only with strategies to deal with her worries and fears, but with a language to talk about them. I recommend reading it along with your child and discussing the ideas together.

This is an excellent book. It acknowledges how worried children feel and gives them tools to deal with those feelings while still validating that this isn't always an easy task. It is in language kids can understand but also also gives the non anxious person insight into what it is like to be anxious. It doesn't blame or judge but rather has an accepting tone. The strategies it gives are actual cognitive behavioral techniques used with kids and adults. What an excellent resource for parents, teachers, and therapists of anxious children! I highly recommend this book!

This book is great for a child that worries more than the average kid. My daughter is 9 1/2 and she has always worried about things that she can't control (house catching on fire, tornados, lightning, etc). This book has been a blessing! I wish I had discovered it a few years ago. It is written on a kid-level with chances for them to write/draw about their own worries.

This book gave my 8 year old the tools necessary to understand and combat her worries. Within a week, we saw an amazing transformation in her ability to manage her worries as well as her body's reaction to those worries. Excellent resource.

If you are a parent of a child with anxiety, you know how it can feel like your family is held hostage by your child's worries! This book saved our family! It was recommended by our child's therapist and I just can't say enough about it. It is written for kids to understand, but it is not condescending so even an older child or teen would benefit from it. Several specific strategies are described in the book. We saw improvements almost immediately and within a month or two, our daughter had actually retrained her brain and she is now a different child. Now, if we see the anxiety coming, all we have to do is mention a few specific words and she is back on track!

This book was just what our family needed. My seven year old couldn't get enough of it. We saw a difference almost immediately. It helped her gain control of what she thought were impossible situations. We still re-read the book as needed. She was diagnosed with OCD recently, but because of the book, she already had a firm foundation for fighting her "worry bullies", and responded dramatically to therapy. I would recommend this book for all kids - from the ones that have just run of the mill anxieties to sudden on-set anxiety caused by a traumatic change to kids that have serious anxiety related disorders.

This is a terrific book -- I use it with my 6-year-old, who really engages with it. It addresses the origins of worries & strategies for controlling worries, all in a very kid-approachable way. Each chapter ends with a space for the child to draw a picture of something related to his/her worries. The book has helped me talk more concretely and openly with my child about worrying.

I used this book with my 8 year old. It was simple enough so that he could follow along while I read yet specific enough so that he could relate and get a sense that he was not alone in being anxious and how to go about feeling better. It had enough humor to keep a child interested yet not so much humor that the child felt like his worries were being made fun of. It helped me to learn new ways to help my child when he was worried. Before I would say that things would be ok. That didn't help. With new tools, I can help him calm down and build skills he can use for the rest of his life.

This book was recommended by our guidance counselor at school...it was a great book to read together with my 7 year old, who recently began worrying excessively! The book was interesting enough to him that some nights he requested to read a chapter to "see what was next" in managing his worries! We still look back when the worries get too big, to see what is recommended. What a great resource!

This is an excellent little book that I bought for my oldest child, who really seems to get carried away with his worries and anxieties. He was diagnosed with ASD when he was 3, and, while greatly improved, still has some residual issues, worries and anxieties being some of them. This book has helped him so much, in part because he believes me now that OTHER kids worry too, not just him, and in part because it provides good strategies for dealing with worries.

When I have trouble with anxieties, rather than fight off negative thoughts, I kind of visualize them entering my mind, where I drop them on a leaf in a river and they float off into the distance. I tried to teach this to my son, but it wasn't particularly effective for him.

The ideas in the book worked much better with him. The idea of being strong against your worries, of treating them like a bully and defending yourself against them, is actually quite empowering. The idea that HE gives his worries power by tending them, like a tomato plant, makes him feel stronger each time he chooses NOT to spend time on a worry.

Anyway, I am so glad I came across this book, because it, in conjunction with a wave CD I purchased, has really reduced his anxiety about falling asleep.

This was a great tool for my child who is 11 with severe anxiety issues. While he is a little older than the book was written for, there were several times when he could really relate to what was being explained in the book as it described exactly how he was feeling. He read the book the day we received it. I would recommend this book to anyone with a child with anxieties.

I have to say that all 3 of my children have been helped by us navigating this book together. I homeschool them and each has had 'worries' about one thing or another that they have been ruminating over. We just started a garden this year (growing tomatoes) so this book was PERFECT for us because the author uses the analogy of a tomato plant that you water and care for every day producing a HUGE bumper crop of tomatoes.. and the worries that you give much time and thought to every day 'taking over' your time and thoughts. It was especially helpful when we got to the chapter about setting aside 'worry time' for each child each day and working through their worries using logic. All 3 of my children (ages 5, 8 1/2 and 10) have reduced their worry time / anxiety since we began our 'group study' of this book. We are still working through it.. and it is GREAT!

As a therapist I am always looking for new resources. This is one of the best for treating anxiety. I had one child this week say "did you type this just for me?" because it resonated so well.
Check out Ms. Huebner's other books on OCD and Depression--they are great too!

I highly recommend this book for social workers/therapists and other professionals who work with children. It is definitely kid-friendly; my clients have been open to using this book because it feels more like a fun activity rather than "therapy".

This book is an excellent resource for the professional or parent of a child with anxiety difficulties. It explains the various ways that a child can less the effects of anxiety in child appropriate language with places for the child to customize his or her feelings and thoughts. Very well done.

When your child's anxiety overtakes and consumes their joy, you'd buy 200 books if they'd help your child to feel better. Don't buy 200 books... BUY THIS ONE for your child.

My daughter is 9, but reads at 8th grade level, so I was a bit apprehensive about getting this book for her; fearing she'd think it was too baby-ish. Much to my surprise and delight, she loves the book! She says "I love the pictures. It's kind of funny and I like that it has activities to do. The book has good ideas about how to fix my worries."

The book does have great kid-friendly concepts like: Worry Time and Worry Bully, with places to draw and write down thoughts. It not only addresses how worries can take over, but empowers kids to fight back and reassures them that when they do, the worries will get smaller and smaller, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...LOSE THEIR POWER OVER YOUR CHILD.

The book talks about the positives of getting rid of worries, like giving kids more time to play with their friends instead of worrying. Simple concepts perhaps, but written in a way that kids relate. The concepts are ones that both kids and parents can easily remember and refer to, which also helps when the Worry Bully shows up unexpectedly.

Other books that have helped my daughter:
Worried No More Worried No More - Second Edition: Help and Hope for Anxious Children by Aureen Wagner, PHD (this is an excellent resource for Cognitive-Behavioral therapy support; workbook pages in the back...) and the meditations books for children by Maureen Garth: StarbrightStarbright--Meditations for Children, Moonbeam Moonbeam: A Book of Meditations for Children, and Earthlight Earthlight (read together before bedtime to help your child visualize a safe, quiet place before they fall asleep...).

The idea is a good one -- to explain anxiety at a level that most kids can understand and give them some steps to take to help them overcome their worries. Unfortunately, at one point in the book, the author makes the point that worries pick on weak people. What? If you purchase this book, you're trying to help your child cope with worry, not scold them for being too weak to conquer it.

Our six-year-old has struggled with anxiety for several years. This workbook has been a valuable tool in getting her to understand what anxiety is and how she can develop coping skills to deal with her anxieties so that they don't stop her from doing the things she wants to do.

What to Do When You Worry Too Much is an exceptional book for children suffering with symptoms of anxiety. Dawn Huebner's analogies gives readers a tangible source to a not so tagible issue. Great book for the children but a must have for counselors, school counselors and parents.

We began working with this book a year ago, when my daughter was 5. When school counselors and psychologists couldn't help, I had to find a way to help my daughter myself. This book is our worry-bible! We go back to it time and time again, to remind her that she is the one in control of this thing that is trying to take over her brain. It includes wonderful activities and practical solutions that she can put into practice. Because that's the hardest part of anxiety - the child is the one who ultimately has to fix it. As parents, the only thing we can do is help them learn how and support them every step of the way. I don't know what we would do without this book!

This book is great! Written at a child's level and it works! I asked doctors for this help and they just wanted to medicate or acted like I was being unreasonable. It really helps children get more in touch with what is going on in their heads and empowers them to defeat it. Empowers parents to be able to help them. For children old enough and with verbal skills enough to discuss what they think and feel. Really opens communication. Children often don't even know how to express their worries.

This workbook helps children understand anxiety and gives some very hands on kind of tools to use to decrease it. The focus is on exposure and extinction and teaching anxiety reducing techniques to lessen the physical complaints that come with anxiety. It's very helpful for parents.

This is a great book for any child that is having difficulty with anxiety and worry. It has great techniques for the child to incorperate into their day to reduce and fear, worry or anxiety. My son really understood this book and we read it often together to remind him of the resources he has within himself to control his anxiety.

My seven year old has made a complete turn around since we started this work book. She finally feels empowered!!!! She understands that worries are like a "bully" that should be told to scram! We are truly thrilled! If you are really feeling the struggle of having a child with some anxiety/worry issues you must buy this book. I bought heaps of books last week and this is definitely the stand out. Today (the 23rd day of school) was the first day that she went into school with a smile on her face! Thank you, Ms. Huebner! Thank you!