I was born in Philadelphia. My family and I lived in Cherry Hill, NJ until the 3rd grade, when we moved to Munich, Germany for 3 months. We then moved back to Cherry Hill. I resumed life as a happy child, learning in school and having fun with friends, until the end of the 3rd grade. At this time my sisters and I had discovered we were moving to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. So we went through the transition, which was a rather large one, and eventually settled into our new European lifestyle. At the conclusion of 5th grade at the International School of Amsterdam, I had a very strange feeling that I had never felt before. I constantly felt nervous about some unknown topic. For a while, I had just dismissed it and though it would simply leave. After I realized that it was more than just a shakable feeling, my mom and I took action in finding out what it was and how I could manage it. We eventually discovered that this negative feeling was anxiety. I then tried so, so many techniques in an attempt to exile this feeling, some more successful than others, until the idea of seeing a counsellor might help. We met with a very nice woman named Kate, who was working with a company which helped expats kids with anxiety, like me. I began having weekly meetings with Kate until she had helped me gain various tools and techniques to handle the anxiety that I had. I still talk to Kate when needed, but I now have the tools I need to handle anxiety on my own. My mom and Kate have helped me in such a huge way all through my years of anxiety, and I don't think I could've been nearly as successful as I am now. My mom and family have always been there for me when I needed help or I was feeling anxious, and they have always been supportive of me and made me feel better when I felt anxious. Now that I've settled into my new home in NJ and have strong control over my anxiety, I've decided to help out other kids who might be going through what I went through. I have created a 12-card deck of various techniques that can assist kids in the "4 areas of anxiety" as I call them: General anxiety, focused problems, irrational worries, and panic attacks. I wanted to do this because I personally know how hard it can be to have anxiety and feel like you aren't normal, or feel like there's no solution, or feel like you're the only one in the world with this feeling etc. and no kid should have to feel that way. So give these cards a try and let me know how they worked out for you :)
-Christian