Why Are You So Scared?

When a parent has PTSD, children can often feel confused, scared, or helpless. Why Are You So Scared? explains PTSD and its symptoms in nonthreatening, kid-friendly language, and is full of questions and exercises that kids and parents can work through together.

The interactive layout encourages kids to express their thoughts and feelings about PTSD through writing, drawing, and designing. This book can serve as a practical tool for kids to cope with and eventually feel better about their parent's PTSD.

A comprehensive note to parents offers advice for using this book to help children communicate the emotions that may accompany their parent's PTSD recovery.

Beth Andrews is a licensed clinical social worker, program supervisor for a community mental health center in Colorado, and college instructor. She is the author of two other self-help books for children — Why Are You So Sad? A Child's Book About Parental Depression and I Miss You! A Military Kid's Book About Deployment.

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Katherine Kirkland is an illustrator living in the Gloucestershire countryside in England with her husband and son. Katherine illustrates greeting cards and children's books and has always had a passion for drawing.

An empathetic and honest text introduces scenarios that might trigger PTSD, such as assault, car or plane accident, military service, police or fire service, natural disasters and war-related or terrorist bombings. Explanations as to how someone with PTSD might react follow, with examples including panic attacks, nervous or jumpy behavior, sleep issues or nightmares. The text acknowledges children's feelings of helplessness as well as the false sense that their behavior might be responsible, providing strong reassurance that that is not the case, and it also emphasizes that feelings of sadness, anger and despair do not cancel the love of a parent…Loose, child-friendly watercolors offer a window into a series of emotions and depict a wide variety of family configurations, ages, cultures and races, encompassing the spectrum of American society.
—Kirkus