Don’t Think About Purple Elephants

Anxiety is more than feeling nervous. For some peoplewho describe themselves as feeling anxious, it may pertain to a single episode, but often anxiety is triggered by the same thing over and over again, and causes physical symptoms.

Anxiety is not something that one can simply ‘snap out of,’ nor is it ‘put on.’ For children who experience anxiety, it  can present as bad or rude behavior when they feel overwhelmed, or in the form of panic attacks where they have trouble controlling their breathing.

Anxiety can affect the whole family if it is not managed. 

Susan Whelan's daughter was affected by anxiety as a seven year old, which often presented at bed time. They sought professional help and found that careful management of her rest, food and routine helped. “The hard thing is when you are up late with an anxious child, they are overtired and not thinking straight and neither are you,” says Susan. “I was so relieved when my GP took it seriously and referred us.”

As a writer (usually profiling other authors), Susan also found that playing silly word games and other fun activities at bedtime helped her daughter relax and fall asleep more easily, which in turn helped relieve her anxiety.

“The worst thing to do is to tell an anxious person to calm down or snap out of it,” she says. “It focuses on the negative and isn’t a clear instruction – in the midst of a panic attack, it is not as simple as calming down.”

Susan had often said that she ‘didn’t have a book in her,’ even though she wrote for a living.

However, one of the games she played with her daughter involved thinking of a whole lot of coloured animals; green meerkats, pink giraffes and purple elephants, and telling her NOT to think about them. The game inspired her to write her first book, a children’s title called Don’t Think About Purple Elephants, designed to help the little girl in the story worry less.

“I am not an ‘issues’ author,” says Susan. “I am a mother who found something that worked for my child and other children I passed the story on to. It gives the child something to focus on that isn’t feeling anxious. The illustrations are amazing and it is a lovely story, regardless of the message.”

Untreated anxiety in children can lead to depression and other related mental health conditions in teenagers and adults. Health professionals who have read Don’t Think About Purple Elephants have been really positive about the approach.

“Writing Don’t Think About Purple Elephants was a huge task – it gave me such respect for children’s authors,” she says.  “I love books that start conversations and I hope this one will do just that.”

For someone who didn’t think she had one book in her, Susan now keeps a notebook to record her ideas.

Don’t Think About Purple Elephants is available in bookstores now.