Jamie Diemert response to Kathryn Meleky

I found your paper very interesting and informative especially due to the fact that I suffer from anxiety. I never associated feelings I had as a student to the possible fact that I could been experiencing anxiety as a child as well as now that I am an adult. I never knew that there was such extensive testing that could be done to diagnose this disorder. As a child I was the student that sat in the back of the room and avoided any attention that I could. I did have close friends but other than that I did not care to meet new people, I never volunteered for anything, and when put in stressful situations I would panic, sweat, and have a lot of self doubt. I can remember being invited to sleepovers and faking that I was sick so that my mom or dad would come get me and I could sleep at home. Even though I had these experiences I feel they are mild to what children with anxiety disorders go through.

As an adult I use most of the techniques that you described when I have anxiety attacks such as relaxation breaths and self talk. I try to analyze the situation and talk to myself to calm down. The information you shared really does work and it is good that others can learn how to help others when an anxiety attack takes place. I was interested to learn that SWPBS is something that can be correlated to anxiety. We use this method in my school and try to turn behaviors around before we have to resort to suspensions or out of class punishments. It does make sense to me after reading your information how this system could be effective in reducing the stress factor for a student when dealing with negative behaviors. We first talk it through not only with the teacher of the classroom but a buddy teacher. This way if the student has some sort of uncomfortable or angry feelings toward their direct teacher another teacher can step in and reduce the tension by talking to them. We talk about consequences and other choices that could of been made to avoid the problems.

I enjoyed your paper very much and hope that others who do not know much about anxiety will read it and learn how much this disorder can affect a student. I believe that this disorder is sometimes brushed off and people feel that it can be outgrown, but that is not always the case. In today's society our students have so many experiences that could cause them stress and anxiety such as poverty, poor family structure or support, or personal self esteem issues it is very important to take each symptom and diagnosis very serious as a classroom teacher.