|
| | |
Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety When an infant or toddler is anxious about being away from her primary caregiver. Infants can have this as early as 7 months, but separation anxiety usually peaks between a year and 18 months.
RELATED TERMS--------------------------------------
Infant
A child under a year of age.
Anxiety
A psychological and/or biological response to stress. Feelings of anxiety involve discomforting apprehension or concern, which may include symptoms such as cognitive difficulties, hypersensitivity, dizziness, muscular weakness, breathing difficulties, irregular heart beat, sweating, and sensations of fear. Typically, anxiety is a natural and healthy response to life experiences. However, exaggerated or chronic anxiety often indicates an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can be produced by external stress (exogenous anxiety) or internal stress (endogenous anxiety).
SIMILAR TERMS--------------------------------------
Separation anxiety disorder
A disorder with onset before the age of 18 consisting of inappropriate anxiety concerning separation from home or from persons to whom the child is attached. Among the symptoms that may be seen are unrealistic concern about harm befalling or loss of major attachment figures; refusal to go to school (school phobia) in order to stay at home and maintain contact with this figure; refusal to go to sleep unless close to this person; clinging; nightmares about the theme of separation; and development of physical symptoms or mood changes (apathy, depression) when separation occurs or is anticipated.
Separation-individuation
Psychological awareness of one's separateness, described by Margaret Mahler as a phase in the mother-child relationship that follows the symbiotic stage. In the separation-individuation stage, the child begins to perceive himself or herself as distinct from the mother and develops a sense of individual identity and an image of the self as object. Mahler described four subphases of the process: differentiation, practicing, rapprochement (i.e., active approach toward the mother, replacing the relative obliviousness to her that prevailed during the practicing period), and separation-individuation proper (i.e., awareness of discrete identity, separateness, and individuality).
PREVIOUS AND NEXT TERMS--------------------------------------
Scarlet fever
Named for the bright red rash it produces, scarlet fever is caused by the bacteria responsible for strep throat and is most common in children between 2 and 10. The infection is treated with antibiotics.
Sciatica
A common pregnancy-related condition, caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve, which passes through the pelvis. Symptoms, which include pain, tingling, or numbness in the lower back and down the legs, often last only a few hours but can, in severe cases, linger throughout pregnancy.
Secondary infertility
When a woman is unable to get pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term after already having had a child.
Seizure
Convulsions caused sometimes by a fever or by another serious condition such as epilepsy.
Sseparation anxiety
When an infant or toddler is anxious about being away from her primary caregiver. Infants can have this as early as 7 months, but separation anxiety usually peaks between a year and 18 months.
Separation anxiety
Severe combined immunodeficiency disease
When a child is born without most of the defenses of an immune system. SCID is also known as the "bubble" disease because people with SCID are isolated to avoid infection.
Sexually transmitted diseases
Diseases communicable by sexual relations, such as gonorrhea, syphilis, genital warts, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, HIV, hepatitis B, and human papillomavirus (HPV).
Sickle cell anemia
An inherited chronic anemia - caused by abnormally shaped red blood cells - exclusive to populations of African descent. If carefully monitored, women with sickle cell anemia can give birth to healthy babies.
Skin disorders
Any disorder of the skin, including rashes, eczema, and birthmarks.
Sleep disorders
Any of the problems that disturb regular sleep, including night terrors, sleep apnea, or trouble going to sleep.
We thank you for using the Health Dictionary to search for Separation anxiety. If you have a better definition for Separation anxiety than the one presented here, please let us know by making use of the suggest a term option. This definition of Separation anxiety may be disputed by other professionals. Our attempt is to provide easy definitions on Separation anxiety and any other medical topic for the public at large.This dictionary contains 25007 terms. |
|
|
