Teen Anxiety

Anxiety, also known as generalized anxiety disorder, is categorized by Mayo Clinic as “ongoing anxiety and worry that are difficult to control and interfere with day-to-day activities”(“Generalized”). According to Mayo Clinics article Generalized Anxiety Disorder that not only adults but also children and adolescent who have this disorder that “Your anxiety, worry or physical symptoms cause you significant distress in social, work or other areas of your life.” Everyone experiences anxiety at one point in their life it; however, becomes a disorder once it starts to interfere with the everyday life of that person. The symptoms of anxiety in adults are persistent worrying over normally insignificant details in life, overthinking, having difficulty

Untreated anxiety symptoms can develop into various disorders, significantly affecting children’s cognitive, behavioral, and somatic functioning (Maid, Smokowski, & Bacallao, 2008). Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses experienced by children and adolescents. According to Walkup et al. (2008) the prevalence of anxiety disorders among children remains within a range of 10-20%. Anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive fears and worry causing discomfort that interferes with a child’s well-being and affects all areas of a child’s life, including school, home, and social life (Cooley & Boyce, 2004).

To experience any form of anxiety, such as interviews, a drive in traffic, or even a first date is a natural- human experience. For instance, one begins to undergo a feeling of failure regarding specific class. Nevertheless, sometimes, the emotion, keeps us motivated and school work-orientated. Yet, now and then, anxiety can take a hold on one when intense fear and distress becomes too overwhelming; it can prevent one from doing everyday thing. As a result, anxiety disorder can be the cause (B. T. Anxiety Disorders, 2016). According to National Alliance of Mental Illness, known as NAMI (2016), anxiety disorders are a common mental health concern in the United States. Roughly, forty million adults in the United States, and eight percent of children and teenagers face some sort of a negative impact of an anxiety disorder. Consequently, people develop symptoms of anxiety disorder before the age twenty-one.

As a Year 12 student in today’s society, anxiety disorders are notably problematic and an increasing issue. Anxiety is a crippling feeling of apprehensiveness and powerlessness; sometimes there is a sense of impending danger. Anxiety can interfere with an individual’s ability to carry out or take pleasure in certain aspects of their life. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorder in Australia.

Ever wonder what it is like for someone to live with anxiety as a teenager? It was the winter of my junior year of high school; a particularly stressful time for many students. I had schoolwork to do, finals to study for, nightly wrestling practice, and a job to handle. To put it lightly, I was overloaded. In my life as a teenager, I have frequently dealt with anxiety.

18.1% of American adults have some sort of anxiety disorder. That percentage may seem low, but when calculated person for person it adds up to approximately 42 million people. Anxiety symptoms include feeling powerless, nervous, or helpless, even over mundane tasks; having a sense of impending doom or increased heart rate; sweating and shaking; restricted breathing or hyperventilating; and trouble thinking about or concentrating on anything other than the present worry. Anxiety disorders can have specific focuses, like phobias, or just be about everyday trivial tasks, known as generalized anxiety.

Anxiety has several disorders that causes fear, worrying, nervousness and apprehension. Dealing with these disorders can affect how we feel which can cause physical symptoms. “Individuals find it difficult to control the worry” (Page 107). Generalized anxiety disorder has many different levels of various events or activities. People with that disorder have difficulties with concentrating sleeping or resting. This can mostly affect you when dealing with worrying like health issues, chores, being on time, work related task. Theirs other different types of link anxieties likes Panic disorder is an abrupt of intense fear or intense discomfort which you start to sweat, trembling, or shaking, feelings, or choking, chills, feeling, dizzy, Fear of dying and more.

Anxiety affects the entire person. It affects the physiological, behavioral and psychologically. Physiological anxiety include body reactions like rapid heartbeat, muscle tension, queasiness, dry mouth and sweating. Behavioral it can interfere with the ability to act, express yourself or handle everyday situations. Psychologically anxiety causes apprehension and uneasiness. It can cause one to feel detached from one’s body or fearful of dying or going crazy. Criteria must be met are 1. Symptoms must interfere with important areas of functioning or cause marked distress. 2. Symptoms are not caused by a drug or a medical condition. 3. The fears and anxieties are distinct from the symptoms of another anxiety disorder (Kring, p. 174).

General anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent, debilitating disorder recognized by the DSM-5. Some of the symptoms that are associated with GAD are restlessness/ feeling keyed up, being easily fatigues, difficulty concentrating/ having a blank mind, irritability, muscle tension, and disturbed sleep. Excessive anxiety, the most common mental health problem experienced in average youth, causes individual distress and functional impairment throughout children’s lives (Gross & Hen, 2004). Anxiety is also a mental status that is elicited in anticipation of threat of some kind. Sensations of anxiety are a normal part of human experiences, but excessive or inappropriate anxiety can become an illness. High levels of anxiety can be accompanied by a set of behavioral and physiological responses including avoidance, vigilance and arousal from a stimuli or stimulus. Children and adolescence of both genders usually experience anxiety symptoms at different levels of intensity that frequently afflicts their everyday life. Anxiety has been treated with drug therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), relaxation training and even systematic desensitization. To diagnose general anxiety disorder, one would look for many presenting symptoms, characteristics, and treatments.

Data gathered from responses to a popular personality test called the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or MMPI for short, and analyzed by researchers from five different universities shows that there is as many as five times the number of teenagers suffering from anxiety and depression as there were in the early twentieth century. The exact cause of the sharp incline in identified mental disorders amongst our youth is still yet unknown. In order to curtail the escalating numbers we must identify the underlying issues that result in these troubling mindsets.

Anxiety disorders are some of the most prominent mental disorders that people face. Anyone can have them, young or old. These disorders can be extremely debilitating and exhausting for a person to live with. Every little thing they do could evoke the symptoms of their anxiety disorders. Everyday these various symptoms must be overcome for them to enjoy their daily activities. Throughout the world there are many people who suffer from anxiety disorders, a few of the most common ones are Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I will discuss what Anxiety is, how to diagnose it, and also how to treat it. It is very common and I’m pretty sure most of you know basically what it is. But just in case I will go over the main important things to know about Anxiety. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worry or fear. For a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. The feelings can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, school work, and relationships. There are several different types of anxiety disorders. Examples include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder. According to the American psychological association, Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and invisible changes like increased blood pressure. You can have OCD, phobias, panic attacks, and PTSD. OCD is basically anxiety that takes the form of obsessions and compulsions. I know many of you guys are scared of spiders or bees and that is

Anxiety is a common reaction in the human body. So becoming a little scared when watching a movie, or beginning to become nervous right before a test, or maybe even a little shy talking to your crush is completely normal. It starts to become a problem when anxiety takes control and cuts out important things in our life. Children with anxiety might start to feel more often than usual fear, nervousness, shyness, and often will try to avoid social events. Anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and usually the child is just going through a phase and will grow out of it. But when it continuously keeps recurring it begins to become a problem. There are a multitude of anxiety disorder ranging from General Anxiety Disorder(G.A.D), Panic Disorder, Social

In teens, many symptoms primarily include wariness, nervousness, muscle tension or cramps, and stomach or headaches (AACAP). Having an anxiety disorder brings about exposure to these symptoms daily, all of which are unfavorable.

Susanna Schrobsdorff claims in her informative essay “Teen Depression and Anxiety: Why the Kids Are Not Alright” that social media is one of the most constant pressures that increase depression and anxiety within teenagers. The pressure of their peers and the pressure they put on themselves can cause the overwhelming sense of emotion that many teens with these disorders are feeling. Because technology has become such an influence on the lives of teenagers within the past decade, the increase in depression and anxiety has risen. Teenagers are becoming more aware of the world around them and the situations that many others go through, and find it hard to separate what they see online from the lives they live and the emotions they feel in their own lives. It becomes difficult to separate their lives from the influences, both positive and negative, of others they view online. Though social media is the biggest influencer in the increase of depression and anxiety, other factors such as stress from school and feeling the inability to express their emotions verbally can have an influence on depression. Schrobsdorff notes that there is a mixing of many influences that cause teens to resort to self-harm or wanting to shut away from people. She alludes to the idea that parents need to have a larger presence within their children's lives to notice the emotions and changes within their children to be able to sense these disorders and stop the effects before more violence occurs.