How Does Anxiety Affect Teens?

Anxiety plagues all people but in teens anxiety can be the factor that shapes how they live and how they conduct the actions that they make in day-to-day life. Anxiety affects a teens physical health and mental wellbeing. I will cover anxiety disorders in this article as well. Anxiety can lead to people and especially teens to feel isolated in society. However, teens can benefit from an anxious feeling because it makes the teen think about the situation they are in.

How Does Anxiety Affect Teens' Physical Health?

According to the National Institutes of Health, 1 in 3 of all teens will experience an anxiety disorder. Since 2007 they have risen steadily and to the present day it has risen by 20%. The physical effects of anxiety can be headaches, chronic pain, digestive problems, and heart disease later in life. The body systems that anxiety affects are the nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, and digestive systems. It can also cause insomnia, fatigue, chest pains, indigestion, dizziness, high heart rate, and abdominal pain.

How Does Anxiety Affect Teens' Mental Wellbeing?

High anxiety levels can lead to depression, trouble sleeping, making them more irritable, reluctant to participate in social activities, attracting them to substance usage, and concentration problems. There are some cases where the person affected by anxiety will sometimes get a sense of doom and lead to a panic attack. The sense of doom can cause problems concentrating. Panic attacks can cause heart rate to sharply increase causing chest pain and dizziness. Physical problems can be caused by the mental problems that are caused by anxiety.

What Are Anxiety Disorders in Teens?

Anxiety can be cause be having family history with anxiety, certain personality traits, stressful life events, and social isolation can cause anxiety. The main types of anxiety disorders are Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Agoraphobia, Panic disorder, Any specific phobias, social anxiety disorder, Separation anxiety disorder, and Selective mutism disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, women are more vulnerable to anxiety disorders than men are. Twelve percent of the U.S. population is affected by phobias, seven percent is affected by social anxiety, GAD affects three percent, agoraphobia affects one point seven percent, separation anxiety affects seven-point five percent, and selective mutism affects one point twenty-three percent of the U.S. population. There are more types of anxiety disorders.

How Can You Deal with Anxiety?

There are some ways to deal with anxiety and stress levels naturally without using any sort of medications. One way is to exercise. Exercising can help you both physically and mentally by working out your body for the physical benefits and releasing hormones that improve your mood and lower stress levels. Exercise can also improve your sleep quality. Another way to lower anxiety levels naturally is psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is more effective than medication because it gives the person a chance to talk about the anxiety with which they are dealing. This also talks about ways to cope with their anxiety. Another form of therapy they can do is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This form of therapy talks about the anxiety they feel and helps them understand these thoughts. Another way is to make some changes to your diet. There are some foods that cause high anxiety levels which include caffeine and alcohol. Aim to minimize or completely avoid these foods.

Written by: Ariya

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse