What is Separation Anxiety Disorder? In simple terms, it is the feeling of anxiety felt by a young child when a parent (or both) says goodbye. The child will naturally assume she will be left behind and she doesn’t know if her parent(s) will come back for her. It is natural for a young child to feel this way. It can easily be solved by making her understand that you are coming back and that goodbye is only temporary. As the child grows older, the anxiety will naturally go away.

But when it does intensify, it becomes a disorder that needs to be addressed by a professional. Treatment is necessary so that the anxiety, the fear, felt by the child will be eased.

I am reminded of my younger sisters who underwent separation anxiety when they were new in school. I had to take care of them so that they wouldn’t feel like they were abandoned. I remember them crying so much I couldn’t leave them even when the school bell already rang. I had to take them with me to my classroom at times just to make them stop crying.

I didn’t know it was separation anxiety back then. It was only now that I am tackling these topics related to schooling that I am enlightened as to what my siblings and I underwent in school.