Types of anxiety, such as teenage anxiety, may be caused by certain circumstances, such as if a teenager is ill or is using specific medication. Not only can anxiety be classified by cause but also by type:
l Medical-related Anxiety and Anxiety-Reduction
l Awareness Anxiety
l Performance or Test Anxiety
l Social Anxiety
l Trait Anxiety
l Choice and Decision-Making Anxiety
Medical-related Anxiety
Medical-related anxiety may arise when a teenager has an underlying health condition, such as heart arrhythmia. Teenagers sometimes fear the worst when they become ill and may feel anxiety about feeling anxious. Some children and teenagers sometimes experience a migraine-related condition known as Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, aptly named because of perceived experiences of unreal size, shape, sound, time and body distortion. These symptoms in themselves may trigger anxiety. Certain medications sometimes trigger anxiety too, even medications used to treat depression and anxiety. The mere focus on anxiety reduction can sometimes also trigger higher anxiety in certain youngsters.
Awareness Anxiety
Awareness Anxiety may be better known as Existential Anxiety. This anxiety develops when a person becomes aware of their role in humanity, feeling moral duty and sense of guilt. Sometimes teenagers feel this form of anxiety when a parent becomes terminally ill. Some feel a moral duty to care or may feel a sense of guilt that an action they have done contributed to the illness. Philosophers describe this anxiety as self-consciousness where the individual becomes aware of the shortness of life or a form of non-existence. Sometimes very talented or gifted teenagers may feel fear due to differentiation or individuation. Children also sometimes feel separation anxiety from parents or loved ones and this anxiety can extend into their teens.
Performance or Test Anxiety
Performance or test anxiety occurs when teenagers feel excessive anxiety about writing tests or exams, or meeting expectations that parents have about their performance. Some young people have a natural fear of failure that causes their anxiety to rise. Teachers and parents can play a reassuring and supportive role to help reduce the teenager’s anxiety.
Social Anxiety
While some young people enjoy new adventures and meeting new people, other teens experience high anxiety at the thought. It’s considered normal for young children to have a fear of strangers, but to have a fear of interacting with non-strangers is considered to be social anxiety. Teens sometimes feel social anxiety because of fear of non-acceptance by peers. Teenagers have a high need to fit in and sometimes what peers expect for them to “fit in” is anxiety provoking. The fear is to be judged negatively by others that you want to feel accepted by. Some teens start to restrict their lifestyles and avoid contact with people as a result.
Trait Anxiety
Trait anxiety is a form of habitual anticipatory anxiety that develops when the teenager feels threatened, and may be consciously or unconsciously experienced.
Choice or Decision-Making Anxiety
Teenage peers sometimes put a lot of pressure on one another to perform certain acts or to partake in certain activities, such as drinking or sexual experimentation. When teens are faced with such choices they may experience a conflict with their values or upbringing. Being expected to make a choice as part of acceptance can cause the teen to experience high levels of stress and anxiety. Another example is when parents divorce and the young teen has a choice of which parent to live with. The guilt and the feeling of being forced to choose, and the fear of losing one parents love as a result, may cause a young teen to feel excessive anxiety.
