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Mardi Gras dates back thousands of years to pagan celebrations of spring and fertility. When Christianity arrived in Rome, religious leaders decided to incorporate the popular tradition into the new faith, so the excess and debauchery of the Carnival season became a prelude to Lent, the 40 days of penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Mardi Gras marks the final day of feasting and revelry before the fasting, prayer and moderation of Lent. So, in its most basic form, Carnival and Mardi Gras is all about overindulging.

Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, or the beginning of Lent. The term refers to the last chance to eat rich, fatty foods-- before the Lenten season and its penance, which for many includes giving up something for the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

A common misconception is that Mardi Gras is the name for all of the revelry that begins Jan. 6 and continues through Ash Wednesday. This season of revelry is called Carnival; Mardi Gras is the culmination of it all.The day Carnival season officially begins, Jan. 6, is the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night or Kings Day. Traditionally, this is the day the first king cakes are eaten.

From Youngminds.org

A young person may feel anxious for a number of different reasons, depending on the individual. If your child is feeling unmanageable amounts of worry and fear, this is often a sign that something in their life isn’t right and they need support to work out what the problem is.

The following kinds of things can make some children and young people feel more anxious:

• experiencing lots of change in a short space of time, such as moving house or school
• having responsibilities that are beyond their age and development, for example caring for other people in their family
• being around someone who is very anxious, such as a parent
• struggling at school, including feeling overwhelmed by work, exams or peer groups
• experiencing family stress around things like housing, money and debt
• going through distressing or traumatic experiences in which they do not feel safe, such as being bullied or witnessing or experiencing abuse.

When your child is in the middle of a very anxious moment, they may feel frightened, agitated or worried about having a panic attack. The important thing to do in the moment is to help them calm down and feel safe.

These strategies can help:

• Breathe slowly and deeply together.

  You can count slowly to five as you breathe in, and then five as you breathe out. If this is too much, try starting with shorter counts. If it works for them, gradually encourage your child to breathe out for one or two counts longer than they breathe in, as this can help their body relax.

• Sit with them and offer calm physical reassurance.

  Feeling you nearby, or holding your hand or having a cuddle if it’s possible, can be soothing.

• Try using all five senses together.

  Connecting with what they can see, touch, hear, smell and taste can bring them closer to the present moment and reduce the intensity of their anxiety. You might think together about five things they can see, four things they can touch, three things they can hear, two things they can smell and one thing they can taste.

• Reassure them that the anxiety will pass and that they will be okay.

  It can be helpful to describe it as a wave that they can ride or surf until it peaks, breaks and gets smaller.

• Ask them to think of a safe and relaxing place or person in their mind.

  If you haven’t tried this before, agree with them when they’re feeling calm what this place or person is. It could be their bedroom, a grandparent’s house, a favourite place in nature or somewhere they’ve been on holiday. Sometimes holding a memento of a relaxing place, like a seashell or pebble, can help.

• Encourage them to do something that helps them to feel calmer.

  This could be running, walking, listening to music, painting, drawing or colouring-in, writing in a journal, watching a favourite film or reading a favourite book.

Remember that everyone is different, and that over time you and your child can work together to find the things that work best for them in these moments.

From Kidshealth.org

What Are Anxiety Disorders?

Anxiety disorders cause extreme fear and worry, and changes in a child's behavior, sleep, eating, or mood.

What Are the Kinds of Anxiety Disorders?

Different anxiety disorders can affect kids and teens. They include:

• generalized anxiety disorder
• separation anxiety disorder
• social anxiety disorder
• panic disorder
• selective mutism
• specific phobias

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). GAD causes kids to worry almost every day — and over lots of things. Kids with GAD worry over things that most kids worry about, like homework, tests, or making mistakes.

But with GAD, kids worry more, and more often, about these things. Kids with GAD also worry over things parents might not expect would cause worry. For example, they might worry about recess, lunchtime, birthday parties, playtime with friends, or riding the school bus. Kids with GAD may also worry about war, weather, or the future. Or about loved ones, safety, illness, or getting hurt.

Having GAD can make it hard for kids to focus in school. Because with GAD, there is almost always a worry on a kid's mind. GAD makes it hard for kids to relax and have fun, eat well, or fall asleep at night. They may miss many days of school because worry makes them feel sick, afraid, or tired.

Some kids with GAD keep worries to themselves. Others talk about their worries with a parent or teacher. They might ask over and over whether something they worry about will happen. But it's hard for them to feel OK, no matter what a parent says.

Separation anxiety disorder (SAD). It's normal for babies and very young kids to feel anxious the first times they are apart from their parent. But soon they get used to being with a grandparent, babysitter, or teacher. And they start to feel at home at daycare or school.

But when kids don't outgrow the fear of being apart from a parent, it's called separation anxiety disorder. Even as they get older, kids with SAD feel very anxious about being away from their parent or away from home. They may miss many days of school. They may say they feel too sick or upset to go. They may cling to a parent, cry, or refuse to go to school, sleepovers, playdates, or other activities without their parent. At home, they may have trouble falling asleep or sleeping alone. They may avoid being in a room at home if their parent isn't close by.

Social phobia (social anxiety disorder). With social phobia, kids to feel too afraid of what others will think or say. They are always afraid they might do or say something embarrassing. They worry they might sound or look weird. They don't like to be the center of attention. They don't want others to notice them, so they might avoid raising their hand in class. If they get called on in class, they may freeze or panic and can't answer. With social phobia, a class presentation or a group activity with classmates can cause extreme fear.

Social phobia can cause kids and teens to avoid school or friends. They may feel sick or tired before or during school. They may complain of other body sensations that go with anxiety too. For example, they may feel their heart racing or feel short of breath. They may feel jumpy and feel they can't sit still. They may feel their face get hot or blush. They may feel shaky or lightheaded.

Panic disorder. These sudden anxiety attacks can cause overwhelming physicals symptoms, such as feeling shaky or jittery, trembling, a racing heart rate, and shortness of breath. Panic attacks can happen any time. They’re more common in teens than kids.

Selective mutism. This extreme form of social phobia causes kids to be so afraid they don't talk. Kids and teens who have it can talk. And they do talk at home or with their closest people. But they refuse to talk at all at school, with friends, or in other places where they have this fear.

Specific phobias. It's normal for young kids to feel scared of the dark, monsters, big animals, or loud noises like thunder or fireworks. Most of the time, when kids feel afraid, adults can help them feel safe and calm again. But a phobia is a more intense, more extreme, and longer lasting fear of a specific thing. With a phobia, a child dreads the thing they fear and tries to avoid it. If they are near what they fear, they feel terrified and are hard to comfort.

With a specific phobia, kids may have an extreme fear of things like animals, spiders, needles or shots, blood, throwing up, thunderstorms, people in costumes, or the dark. A phobia causes kids to avoid going places where they think they might see the thing they fear. For example, a kid with a phobia of dogs may not go to a friend's house, to a park, or to a party because dogs might be there.

What Are the Signs & Symptoms of Anxiety?

A parent or teacher may see signs that a child or teen is anxious. For example, a kid might cling, miss school, or cry. They might act scared or upset, or refuse to talk or do things. Kids and teens with anxiety also feel symptoms that others can't see. It can make them feel afraid, worried, or nervous.

It can affect their body too. They might feel shaky, jittery, or short of breath. They may feel "butterflies" in their stomach, a hot face, clammy hands, dry mouth, or a racing heart.

These symptoms of anxiety are the result of the "fight or flight" response. This is the body's normal response to danger. It triggers the release of natural chemicals in the body. These chemicals prepare us to deal with a real danger. They affect heart rate, breathing, muscles, nerves, and digestion. This response is meant to protect us from danger. But with anxiety disorders, the "fight or flight" response is overactive. It happens even when there is no real danger.

What Causes Anxiety Disorders?

Several things play a role in causing the overactive "fight or flight" that happens with anxiety disorders. They include:

Genetics. A child who has a family member with an anxiety disorder is more likely to have one too. Kids may inherit genes that make them prone to anxiety.

Brain chemistry. Genes help direct the way brain chemicals (called neurotransmitters) work. If specific brain chemicals are in short supply, or not working well, it can cause anxiety.

Life situations. Things that happen in a child's life can be stressful and difficult to cope with. Loss, serious illness, death of a loved one, violence, or abuse can lead some kids to become anxious.

Learned behaviors. Growing up in a family where others are fearful or anxious also can "teach" a child to be afraid too.

How Are Anxiety Disorders Diagnosed?

Anxiety disorders can be diagnosed by a trained therapist. They talk with you and your child, ask questions, and listen carefully. They'll ask how and when the child's anxiety and fears happen most. That helps them diagnose the specific anxiety disorder the child has.

A child or teen with symptoms of anxiety should also have a regular health checkup. This helps make sure no other health problem is causing the symptoms.

How Are Anxiety Disorders Treated?

Most often, anxiety disorders are treated with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This is a type of talk therapy that helps families, kids, and teens learn to manage worry, fear, and anxiety.

CBT teaches kids that what they think and do affects how they feel. In CBT, kids learn that when they avoid what they fear, the fear stays strong. They learn that when they face a fear, the fear gets weak and goes away.

In CBT:

• Parents learn how to best respond when a child is anxious. They learn how to help kids face fears.
• Kids learn coping skills so they can face fear and worry less.

The therapist helps kids practice, and gives support and praise as they try. Over time, kids learn to face fears and feel better. They learn to get used to situations they're afraid of. They feel proud of what they've learned. And without so many worries, they can focus on other things — like school, activities, and fun. Sometimes, medicines are also used to help treat anxiety.

How Can I Help My Child?

If your child has an anxiety disorder, here are some ways you can help:

• Find a trained therapist and take your child to all the therapy appointments.
• Talk often with the therapist, and ask how you can best help your child.
• Help your child face fears. Ask the therapist how you can help your child practice at home. Praise your child for efforts to cope with fears and worry.
• Help kids talk about feelings. Listen, and let them know you understand, love, and accept them. A caring relationship with you helps your child build inner strengths.
• Encourage your child to take small steps forward. Don't let your child give up or avoid what they're afraid of. Help them take small positive steps forward.
• Be patient. It takes a while for therapy to work and for kids to feel better.

Reviewed by: Shirin Hasan, MD

Date reviewed: June 2020

From Kidshealth.org

You've done all of your homework and studied hard, and you think you have a grip on the material. But then the day of the test comes. Suddenly, you blank out, freeze up, zone out, or feel so nervous that you can't get it together to respond to those questions you knew the answers to just last night.

If this sounds like you, you may have a case of test anxiety — that nervous feeling that people sometimes get when they're about to take a test.

It's normal to feel a little nervous and stressed before a test. Just about everyone does. And a little nervous anticipation can actually help you do better on a test.

But for some people, test anxiety is more intense. The nervousness they feel before a test can be so strong that it interferes with their concentration or performance.

What Is Test Anxiety?

Test anxiety is actually a type of performance anxiety — a feeling someone might have in a situation where performance really counts or when the pressure's on to do well. For example, a person might have performance anxiety just before trying out for the school play, singing a solo on stage, getting into position at the pitcher's mound, stepping onto the platform in a diving meet, or going into an important interview.

Like other situations in which a person might feel performance anxiety, test anxiety can bring on "butterflies," a stomachache, or a headache. Some people might feel shaky or sweaty, or feel their heart beating quickly as they wait for the test to be given out. A student with really strong test anxiety may even feel like he or she might pass out or throw up.

Test anxiety is not the same as doing poorly on a certain test because your mind is on something else. Most people know that having other things on their minds — such as a breakup or the death of someone close — can interfere with their concentration and prevent them from doing their best on a test.

What Causes It?

All anxiety is a reaction to anticipating something stressful. Like other anxiety reactions, test anxiety affects the body and the mind.

When you're under stress, your body releases the hormone adrenaline, which prepares it for danger (you may hear this referred to as the "fight or flight" reaction). That's what causes the physical symptoms, such as sweating, a pounding heart, and rapid breathing. These sensations might be mild or intense.

Focusing on the bad things that could happen also fuels test anxiety. For example, someone worrying about doing poorly might have thoughts like, "What if I forget everything I know?" or "What if the test is too hard?" Too many thoughts like these leave no mental space for thinking about the test questions. People with test anxiety can also feel stressed out by their physical reaction: "What if I throw up?" or "Oh no, my hands are shaking."

Just like other types of anxiety, test anxiety can create a bad cycle: The more a person focuses on the negative things that could happen, the stronger the feeling of anxiety becomes. This makes the person feel worse and, with a head is full of distracting thoughts and fears, can increase the chances that he or she will do poorly on the test.

Who's Likely to Have Test Anxiety?

People who worry a lot or who are perfectionists are more likely to have trouble with test anxiety. People with these traits sometimes find it hard to accept mistakes they might make or to get anything less than a perfect score. In this way, even without meaning to, they might really pressure themselves. Test anxiety is bound to thrive in a situation like this.

Students who aren't prepared for tests but who care about doing well are also likely to have test anxiety. If you know you're not prepared, it's a no-brainer to realize that you'll be worried about doing poorly. People can feel unprepared for tests for several reasons: They may not have studied enough, they may find the material difficult, or perhaps they feel tired because didn't get enough sleep the night before.

What Can You Do?

Test anxiety can be a real problem if you're so stressed out over a test that you can't get past the nervousness to focus on the test questions and do your best work. Feeling ready to meet the challenge, though, can keep test anxiety at a manageable level.

Use a little stress to your advantage. Stress is your body's warning mechanism — it's a signal that helps you prepare for something important that's about to happen. So use it to your advantage. Instead of reacting to the stress by dreading, complaining, or fretting about the test with friends, take an active approach. Let stress remind you to study well in advance of a test. Chances are, you'll keep your stress from spinning out of control. After all, nobody ever feels stressed out by thoughts that they might do well on a test.

Ask for help. Although a little test anxiety can be a good thing, an overdose of it is another story. If sitting for a test gets you so stressed out that your mind goes blank and causes you to miss answers that you know, then your level of test anxiety probably needs some attention. Your teacher, a school guidance counselor, or a tutor can be good people to talk to test anxiety gets to be too much to handle

Be prepared. Some students think that going to class is all it should take to learn and do well on tests. But there's much more to learning than just hoping to soak up everything in class. That's why good study habits and skills are so important — and why no amount of cramming or studying the night before a test can take the place of the deeper level of learning that happens over time with good study skills.

Many students find that their test anxiety eases when they start to study better or more regularly. It makes sense — the more you know the material, the more confident you'll feel. Having confidence going into a test means you expect to do well. When you expect to do well, you'll be able to relax into a test after the normal first-moment jitters pass.

Watch what you're thinking. If expecting to do well on a test can help you relax, what about if you expect you won't do well? Watch out for any negative messages you might be sending yourself about the test. They can contribute to your anxiety.

If you find yourself thinking negative thoughts ("I'm never any good at taking tests" or "It's going to be terrible if I do badly on this test"), replace them with positive messages. Not unrealistic positive messages, of course, but ones that are practical and true, such as "I've studied hard and I know the material, so I'm ready to do the best I can."

Accept mistakes. Another thing you can do is to learn to keep mistakes in perspective — especially if you're a perfectionist or you tend to be hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes, and you may have even heard teachers or coaches refer to mistakes as "learning opportunities." Learning to tolerate small failures and mistakes — like that one problem you got wrong in the math pop quiz — is a valuable skill.

Take care of yourself. It can help to learn ways to calm yourself down and relax when you're tense or anxious. For some people, this might mean learning a simple breathing exercise. Practicing breathing exercises regularly (when you're not stressed out) helps your body see these exercises as a signal to relax.

And, of course, taking care of your health — such as getting enough sleep, exercise, and healthy eats before a test — can help keep your mind working at its best.

Everything takes time and practice, and learning to beat test anxiety is no different. Although it won't go away overnight, facing and dealing with test anxiety will help you learn stress management, which can prove to be a valuable skill in many situations besides taking tests.

Reviewed by: Kathryn Hoffses, PhD

Date reviewed: July 2018

Month

African American History Month

Career and Technical Education Month

International Boost Self Esteem Month

National Children's Dental Health Month

Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month

Week

6-10: National School Counseling Week

14-20: Random Acts of Kindness Week

23-1: National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Day

1- National Freedom day

2- Read Across America Day/Dr. Seuss Day

14- International Safer Internet Day

17- Random Acts of Kindness Day

22- World Thinking Day

ROBERTSDALE (251) 947-4700

About Gulf Coast Family Center, formerly Exchange Club Family Center

• Private, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation
• All donations are tax deductible
• Established in July, 1991 by the Exchange Club of Mobile
• Opened second office in Robertsdale in 2017
• Two emphases:
  * Prevention of child abuse and neglect
  * Stressing the importance of both parents in children’s lives
• Healthy Start program taught at USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital to new parents
• Only non-profit supervised visitation sites south of Birmingham and open to all US residents
• Monitored exchanges of children offered at the Mobile and Robertsdale office free of charge thanks to funding provided by Alabama Office of the Courts
• Serving approximately 6,000 individuals each year
• All staff are mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect
• We accept voluntary participants and those referred by the courts and by DHR
• Speakers available to visit your group and explain our services and child abuse prevention (honorariums appreciated)
• Services offered for nominal fees, dependent on funding

Strengthening Families Responsible Parenting Program

Our Strengthening Families program is funded by Children’s Trust Fund and Alabama State Department of Human Resources. The program is focused on strengthen families by providing parenting classes, workshops, case management, by focusing on strengthening and establishing high quality, emotionally supportive parent-child relationships. Parents are supported by Parent Coaches who help them to identify a career pathway which improves their employment opportunities, helping to stabilize their family through the increased financial income, ensuring regular payment of child support and other financial support for their children.

Our focus is on teaching parents how to coparent effectively and how to maintain a healthy parent relationship. The target population for our program: custodial and non-custodial fathers and mothers who are underemployed or unemployed, who may lack a high school diploma or GED, they also may lack the skills or the knowledge to obtain gainful career employment.

We accomplish these goals by providing parent coaches to parents. Coaches help guide parents through programs that will help them gain employment skills and the needed certification, to find suitable employment.

Our coaches assist parents in the development of family plans that address their hopes, wants, and wishes for their family. Including employment goals, educational goals, housing, transportation, and how to overcome obstacles, handle setbacks, legal issues, illness, and other problematic situations.

Funding prevention work has the potential to reduce not only the social, emotional, and achievement costs to our youth and families, but also to reduce the real financial costs associated with intervention.

E-mail contact@gulfcoastfamilycenter.org to register for programs:

Positive Parenting Classes

Positive Parenting and Nurturing Parenting education classes built on the premise that maltreatment of children can be treated and prevented through a systematic application of family-based parenting classes. The classes are designed to replace old, unwanted, and hurtful patterns of parenting with newer, healthier patterns of bonding and attachment; displaying empathy and positively responding to the needs of their children; discipline that maintains the dignity of children; self-awareness and enlightenment of the adult’s own personal childhood; and a sense of empowerment to make good choices that promote personal and community health. With this program we identify nine primary goals for our participants to work on.
These goals are:

1. Empowering parents to understand how to meet their children’s needs for health and safety.
2. Making parents aware of when their emotions interfere with their abilities to parent effectively.
3. Equipping parents with the knowledge to employ non-violent methods of stress and anger management.
4. Ensuring that parents are knowledgeable about how to create a safe home environment.
5. Enabling parents to understand the effects of alcohol, smoking, substance on families.
6. Training parents on initiating self-care and ensuring and maintaining emotional wellbeing.
7. Equipping parents to understand the dynamics of physical, emotional, and domestic violence.
8. Teaching parents to understand the effects of domestic violence, both physical and emotional, on their children.
9. Empowering parents to manage their children’s behavior in a nurturing and effective manner.

FREE Positive Parenting Classes! Completion certificates provided after 8 classes attended.

E-mail contact@gulfcoastfamilycenter.org to register for classes.

Funded by Alabama Children’s Trust Fund & Community Foundation of South Alabama

Supervised Visitation

Many parents are court ordered to have supervised visitation with their children. Our centers provide welcoming and home-like atmospheres where parents and children can visit each other.

Funded by Alabama Children’s Trust Fund, Alabama Office of the Court and United Way of Baldwin County.

Monitored Exchanges

Monitored Exchanges are funded by the Children’s Trust Fund. In 2006 we began offering a service formerly performed by the Mobile Police Department. When exchanging children for weekend or holiday visitations, parents can now come to the Family Center and avoid contact per restraining orders.

Healthy Start – Never Shake a Baby

All mothers delivering at USA Women’s & Children’s Hospital are visited by a HealthyStart instructor.

This prevention program deals directly with one of the most serious forms of child abuse in children: Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS). The Family Center was asked by the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Child Death Review Team to develop a hospital-based prevention program in 2002.

Loving Solutions

Loving Solutions is a parent program for parents raising difficult or out-of-control children, ages 5 to 10. It offers step-by-step solutions for parents raising adolescent children in today’s complex society. A built-in parent support group offers parents both emotional and practical support as they make necessary changes at home. This program is funded partially by The Community Foundation of South Alabama and Mobile County Public School System.

Parent Project Sr.

Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior is a parent program to meet the specific needs of parents who are raising strong-willed or out-of-control adolescents. It is unique in that it focuses on the most destructive adolescent behaviors (Alcohol and Drug Use, Violence, Sexual activity). Most parents who take this course believe that “Nothing works with my child.” Using the Steps for Success’s parents will see positive changes at home. T

Preparing our Children for Success 2-hour Program

The parenting techniques presented here are specifically designed to help our children improve their school attendance and performance. The strategies provided in this training program are to help reduce truancy and poor academic performance.

My mission is to provide and assist families in finding mental health and community resources in our area. I work closely with our guidance counselors and administrators at both Orange Beach Elementary School and Orange Beach Middle & High School to ensure our students have the support necessary to be successful.

Email: lrogula@orangebeachboe.org
Website: https://www.orangebeachboe.org/families/mental-health
Location: 23908 Canal Rd, Orange Beach, AL 3656
Phone: 251-201-9975