60pc rise in children having anxiety therapy

THE number of children having therapy for anxiety has risen by 60 per cent in two years, new figures show.

Childline said growing distress among children and teenagers was fuelling record numbers of counselling sessions, including thousands for children having panic attacks.

Their figures show 13,746 sessions in 2016-17 for children suffering from anxiety – including 3,304 panic attacks. Peter Wanless, of the NSPCC, said: “Anxiety is a growing problem in young people’s lives today, and it is not going away. We all need to help children and teenagers find ways to cope with their anxious feelings and not dismiss them as an overreaction.”

It follows warnings from Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, that heavy use of social media is fuelling increasing despair, inadequacy and levels of self-harm among children.