Teenage Anxiety Counselling

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Seeking medical help for teenage anxiety before it becomes excessive is a way to help teenagers transition from childhood to adulthood in a better state of wellbeing, mentally, emotionally and physically. One of the forms of treatment that can help teenagers understand and manage the anxiety that they are experiencing is Teenage Anxiety Counselling, otherwise known as Adolescent Counselling.

When is counselling necessary?

Teenagers and their family may not be able to identify initially when counselling will help. Some teenagers are against discussing their feelings with others they do not know. Approaching the topic of counselling for anxiety can bring feelings of distrust and anger, and should therefore be approached in the most sensitive manner. Teenagers may need counselling if they suffer from:

l  Sadness and loneliness

l  Frustration, anger and uncontrolled emotions

l  Anxiety and worry on a daily basis

l  Guilty feelings

l  Sleeplessness and restlessness

l  Changes in eating patterns or appetite

l  Signs of bulimia or anorexia

l  Withdrawal or isolation

l  Anxiety in social settings

l  Performance anxiety

l  Meeting expectations and feelings of failure

Is counselling confidential?

Counselling is confidential and is there to help teenagers express their feelings or thoughts about life experiences in a safe setting with someone they can learn to trust. The only time when a counsellor will talk about anything discussed with another person is if the teenager gives their permission or if the teenager is at risk of self-harm or harming another person. The breach of confidentiality is then for safety reasons.

Where can I get counselling?

Counsellors are present in the community through a number of avenues. By approaching your General Practitioner (GP), you can receive referral to a mental health specialist that provides counselling. Sometimes counsellors are present in schools and there are also different types of counsellors.

Who counsels teenagers for anxiety?

There are a number of professionals who are qualified to counsel teenagers for anxiety and these include:

l  Mental Health Counsellors

l  Social Workers

l  Nurse Practitioners who specialise in mental health or psychiatry

l  Psychologists

l  Psychiatrists

Filed Under: Teenage Anxiety Counselling

Teenage Anxiety and Suicide

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When excessive teenage anxiety, sadness and feelings of lack of hope and self-worth are left untreated, teenagers may start to consider suicide as an option to end their feelings of depression. If teenagers are experiencing these thoughts and feelings, help should be sought immediately. Flippant remarks, such as “I feel like ending it all” or when giving away things usually considered precious to them, should be taken seriously as the teen may be feeling suicidal.

What is suicide?

In a nutshell, suicide is the taking on one’s own life or ending one’s own life. Usually as a result of trauma or self-destructive thoughts and feelings combined with excessive stress, an individual makes the choice to either plan or commit suicide as an act. For some, it is a call for help, but for others their goal is death. Teenagers may consider suicide for a number of reasons related to teenage anxiety, mental health and depression. See our section on Anxiety Causes and Types.

What is assisted suicide?

Assisted suicide is when one person helps another person commit suicide. The term is usually used in a medical sense when someone helps a terminally ill person receive relief through death rather than suffering in life. Sometimes teenagers make pacts to die and one teenager will assist another before taking their own life. This too is a form of assisted suicide.

Difference between self-harm and gesture suicidal acts

As a cry for help or attention, some teenagers when highly anxious or emotionally disturbed, opt to harm themselves by cutting or even excessive addictive behaviours. Usually these teens do not want to commit suicide as an act of permanent death. They are looking for help either consciously or unconsciously. Gesture suicide acts are where the person plans to die or commits a suicidal act that will not result in permanent death because they really do not want to die but want help. Such acts may lead to accidental suicide.

Teenage anxiety and suicide-homicide

Some teenagers express extreme anxiety through destruction of property and aggressive acts against others. Their feelings of fear and worthlessness may turn to anger where they experience impulses to want to harm or even murder others. They may feel that their own life is worth nothing, therefore another person’s life isn’t worth anything either. Teens sometimes may want to punish others as a result of their own negative feelings and self-talk. Examples of such behaviour include cult suicide, school massacres and the killing of family members.

Increasing anxiety should not be left untreated

When anxiety becomes abnormal in the development of a teenager, their behaviours and responses show the stress that they are experiencing. Early identification and treatment will help to prevent such anxiety from becoming out of hand, impacting their mental and physical health, and also the possible health and safety of others. Seeing a healthcare professional for treatment options is advisable.

Filed Under: Teenage Anxiety and Suicide

Teenage Anxiety and Mental Illness

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Teenagers are in that limbo period, changing from child to adulthood. During this time, teenagers are neither child nor adult and feeling in-between presents unique sets of pressures, such as taking responsibility, achieving, and making decisions. When teenagers find this hard, they may experience teenage anxiety.

Teenage, like child and adult anxiety, is normal when not excessive. When the emotions and thoughts become excessive, when teenagers feel they cannot cope and feel worthless, this can lead to long term persistent negativity. The mental health of teenagers is then at risk to developing mental illness or disease. Particularly teenagers who suffer long term anxiety without treatment may run the risk of developing an anxiety disorder or a mental illness/disease.

Early identification of anxiety

By being sensitive to the needs of a teenager and within reason observing their behavioural patterns and responses, particularly in social settings, may help to identify teenage anxiety before it becomes a problem.

Steps to prevent teenage anxiety becoming a mental illness

Family and guardians can help teenagers relax and help them understand and manage any anxiety that they do feel. Steps that can be taken to prevent excessive anxiety developing include:

l  Get medical advice for anxiety symptoms

l  Have a medical evaluation for health problems

l  Limit alcohol consumption as excessive drinking can cause depression

l  Avoid use of recreational drugs that can upset the brain’s chemical balance

l  Monitor medications that may cause chemically induced anxiety and depression

l  Relax through use of breathing techniques

l  Do regular physical exercise to bring natural calmness and regulate stress

l  Eat healthy foods

l  Avoid fighting feelings of anxiety, accept them as natural

l  Focusing  on anxiety can cause panic, think positive thoughts

l  Engage in simple, fun, interesting and safe activities

l  Notice how anxiety or depressive symptoms fade over time

l  Enjoy humour and laughter

l  Get to know which actions cause and reduce your symptoms

l  Find positive ways to deal with grief and anger

l  Accept support from family and loved ones

Mental Illness

Mental illness is mental or psychological and emotional distress that is not considered a part of normal development. Some may experience this distress in their spirit. Motivation becomes reduced and feelings numb with a sense of worthlessness or hopelessness. For different people and age groups, mental illness can take on different forms. As the teenage years are so erratic, negative attitudes and behavioural patterns, such as destruction to property or aggressive outbursts, may be indicators that the teens mental health is suffering.

Conditions affecting mental health, such as depression, are considered separate from neurological conditions and learning disabilities. However, people including teens with disabilities such as these may also have mental illness. As a result of adolescence being a developmental phase, it is important to identify mental health needs early for treatment and prevention.

Filed Under: Teenage Anxiety and Mental Illness

Types of Anxiety Disorders

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

According to research, approximately fifteen percent of the population experience anxiety disorders, of which teenage anxiety and teenage anxiety disorders is the fastest growing. There are a number of types of anxiety disorders that may be diagnosed depending on severity and symptoms, this section gives detail on the following types:

Generalised Anxiety Disorder

When teenagers experience excessive anxiety about two or more aspects in life, the anxiety disorder may be classified as Generalized.

Separation Anxiety Disorder

Children and teens may experience anxiety at being separated from a parent or person they love. The anxiety experienced as a result of the separation or loss is Separation Anxiety. When this form of teenage anxiety becomes excessive, it is termed a disorder.

Overanxious Anxiety Disorder

Sometimes diagnosis of teenage anxiety is difficult because the cause cannot be suitably identified. When such anxiety persists, it is known as overanxious anxiety disorder.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Anxiety may start off as a natural form of concern or worry, but once the thoughts, mind images, and impulses become persistent, recurrent and obsessive, then the teen’s behaviour might alter to unreasonable, rigid and excessive patterns. These types of patterns are known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The need to continually wash hands to feel better is an example.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Children or teens sometimes experience traumatic events that they either consciously or unconsciously relive through dreams, flashbacks, and play. The trauma may cause anxiety states that are triggered by certain events, circumstances, and memories. These triggers become a symbolic manifest of the trauma and the continued experience of the stress results in this form of anxiety disorder.

Other types of Anxiety Disorders include:

l  Avoidant Disorder

l  Social Phobia

l  Simple Phobia

l  Agoraphobia

l  Panic Disorder

l  Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia

Once a teen starts to exhibit changes in behavioural patterns that are identifiable and linked with anxiety, there is potential that the teen has a form of anxiety disorder. Qualified and experienced professionals are able to run diagnostic tests to identify if the teen has such a disorder. Following diagnosis, medical advice may be provided to improve the overall wellbeing of the teen sufferer.

Filed Under: Types of Anxiety Disorders

Teenage Anxiety and Depression

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Although there are a number of causes of anxiety, such as genetics, illness, trauma and medication, which can lead to depression, research suggests that the reason more teenagers are experiencing anxiety-linked depression is due to perceptions about lifestyle and lifestyle choices. Contributing lifestyle factors include:

Desire for beauty

All forms of media express the message that beauty is what leads to acceptance, friendships, love and fame. As teenagers develop, they are susceptible to these media messages and become self-critical and sensitive to the responses of others about their appearance. At first this may present as feelings of anxiety for acceptance, but the constant negative self-criticism and feelings of inadequacy or of being deprived of beauty in comparison to a peer may lead to deeper feelings of rejection. These negative depressive feelings and self-talk may cause irritability, withdrawal, tiredness, loss of hope, and a sense that life is not worth living.

Expectation of above average achievement or fame

With all the reality television shows, games and focus on intellectual brilliance, some teenagers place pressure on themselves to achieve. Many of the media messages are subliminal in expressing that fame is what leads to happiness, and that media provides this.

Family members may have high expectation of their performance too, in academics and sports. A teen may not meet peer performance and the stress of trying or feeling they have to meet an expectation can cause stress and anxiety. As these feeling prolong, negative feelings continue until the teen may experience states of depression and gloom that affects their behaviours.

Lifestyle choices

Teenagers often put a lot of pressure on each other to take part in certain activities or to behave a certain way. Non-conformance to these pressures can result in rejection by peers. The pressure alone may cause anxiety and fear of non-acceptance, but the rejection and isolation especially at school can cause teenagers to feel depressed.

Value of money
Parents of teenagers come from different social status and as teenagers make friends, they may feel judged by their peers or may not have the clothing brands and technology that their friends’ parents can afford. Teens may feel deprived and feel angry at their parents for their experience. Placing a high value on money, and not feeling equal with peers can cause teens also to feel that life is not worth living because they cannot afford the same experiences as their friends.

Use of technology

Teenagers nowadays place a lot of value on the technology that they have access to and can use, such as showing off their blackberry or latest iPod. Not having these items because parents cannot afford to provide these can result in teens feeling “out of the social communications loop”. This can generate feelings of non-acceptance, anxiety and depression. Other teenagers may use gaming as an escape, but excessive gaming can result in lack of sleep, difficulty to concentrate, and also result in depressive mood swings.

These factors may lead teenagers to experience symptoms of depression that include defiant behaviour, unusual beliefs, weight changes, lack of sleep or excessive sleeping, tiredness, worthless and hopelessness.

Filed Under: Teenage Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety Treatment and Medication

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The minds and bodies of teenagers are still developing and experiencing excessive anxiety has the potential to become anticipatory anxiety or an anxiety disorder. The first step to understanding the anxiety and getting treatment is to see a medical professional, such as your local General Practitioner (GP) doctor.

The doctor will discuss your symptoms and feelings with you to diagnose the cause and the intensity of the anxiety. Depending on the severity of the anxiety a number of treatments may be suggested to be started either individually or in complement. These may include:
 Self-help or management techniques
 Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or “Talking Therapies”
 Anti-Anxiety Medications
 Complementary Therapies

Self-help or management techniques
When lifestyle factors, such as alcohol or nicotine intake or not enough sleep, contribute to feelings of anxiety, then simple lifestyle changes can help to reduce the levels of anxiety being experienced. Some teens love to eat junk food, others engage in binge and purge eating to feel more accepted in appearance. By having regular exercise and learning healthy eating habits, teens can also adapt their lifestyles in a way that manages their anxiety.

Sometimes teens need to talk without feeling fear of judgement or rejection. Talking with a professional or loving family member can help teens flesh out their feelings and understand how to reduce their anxiety.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or “Talking Therapies”
Usually a GP refers the teenager for counselling if they are experiencing excessive anxiety. Not all respond positively to talking with counsellors. Some feel distrust for the counsellor and cannot open up to discuss feelings.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), although an option, is a short term treatment that promotes positive self-talk and mind imagery. The teen learns to challenge their negative thinking and behaviour for a healthier outcome. CBT can assist teens to learn self-help and management techniques.

Anti-Anxiety Medications
GP’s prescribe anti-anxiety medications, such as Clonazepam (Klonopin in the US), in severe cases of teenage anxiety. The teen and their parents need to take advice before making this decision. Certain anxiety reducing medications can cause depression or moodiness, and some risk addiction. Sometimes a trial of medications is necessary to find the right one. Taking anti-anxiety medications can prevent anxiety becoming chronic or teen suicide.

Complementary therapies
Meditation and relaxations therapies, such as tai chi or yoga, can help to relax teenagers and give them positive feelings of wellbeing. Complementary therapies may be used with other treatments, such as CBT and/or anti-anxiety medications.

Filed Under: Anxiety Treatment and Medication

Types of Anxiety

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Types of Anxiety

Anxiety or Panic Attacks

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Anxiety or panic attack is the experience of intense fear or anxiety that starts suddenly and that may last from fifteen seconds up to half an hour, or repeat in cycles. For some it feels as if they are going to die or go crazy. Teenagers may experience anxiety attacks if something triggers a moment of terror or excessive fear, as part of their teenage anxiety.

Where do anxiety attacks come from?

Anxiety attacks are usually triggered by a cause of anxiety (See Anxiety Causes section). As the body experiences stress, the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) releases a fright, fight or flight response. Usually, the SNS is responsible for regulating the body’s internal organs and maintaining what is known as homeostasis. However, when the fright, fight or flight response is triggered, the body goes into acute stress releasing adrenaline hormone. This hormone is responsible for the physical symptoms of anxiety experienced, such as racing heart beat and accelerated breathing (also see Anxiety Symptoms section).

What triggers anxiety attacks?

Anxiety attacks may be triggered by a number of causes that include:

l  Hereditary – panic disorder may be genetic and run in families

l  Biological – illness, disease or deficiency

l  Phobias – fear of people, objects or situations

l  Traumatic life events, such as death or loss

l  Stimulants – nicotine, caffeine, drugs, alcohol

l  Negative self-talk

l  Lack of Assertiveness – high passivity

l  Medications or chemical substances – antibiotics, anti-depressants

l  Over-breathing or hyperventilation

l  Stress expectation to achieve – school, college, university, employment

These causes may be out of a person’s control, particularly a developing teenager predisposed through genetics to having anxiety attacks. By seeking medical attention, the teenager will gain an understanding of what is triggering or causing their anxiety attacks, and what treatment will be the best solution to managing their anxiety.

Behaviours associated with anxiety attacks or the fright, fight and flight response

Nowadays, young people may commit a crime during a fight or flight response and get into trouble with law enforcement. Common responses during the fight response may be to exhibit anger or argumentative behaviour. Indicators of the flight response may be excessive gaming or television viewing, substance abuse and social withdrawal.

When a teenager experiences an anxiety or panic attack, they may experience temperature changes, palpitations, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, choking, hyperventilation, and shaking. Some may blackout or faint. The person may be rushed to an Emergency Unit at a hospital and receive treatment. However, anxiety can be managed and treated so that emergency treatment can be avoided.

Filed Under: Anxiety or Panic Attacks

Symptoms of Anxiety

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Anxiety, although a normal human occurrence, involves the experience of symptoms that can become intensified when anxiety increases. Teenage anxiety, if experienced for prolonged periods, may involve the following symptoms:

Cognitive / Mental / Emotional Symptoms

When worrying thoughts fill the mind and the person starts to feel troubled, the following anxiety symptoms may be present:

l  Experience of fear

l  Thoughts of danger

l  Feeling moody or irritable

l  Difficulty concentrating or focusing

l  Struggling to remember

l  Finding it hard to differentiate between what is real and unreal

l  Feeling frustrated or impatient

l  Having racing thoughts

l  Thinking fearfully about the future

l  Experiencing terrifying images in the mind

l  Negative repetitive self-talk

Teenagers may feel like an engine or machine is driving their thoughts and they can’t keep up. Their minds start to feel tired, and their inability to concentrate coupled with expectations in friendships and academic achievement may increase anxiety levels.

Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

As the mind and emotions feel more troubled or worried, the body also starts to have a stress response that if left untreated can lead to more severe mental and physical illnesses. The physical symptoms of anxiety may include:

l  Restlessness or increased energy

l  Inability to sleep

l  Rapid heart rate/beat

l  Fast and heavy breathing

l  Chest pain or tension

l  Muscle pain or tension

l  Increased perspiration or sweating

l  Shaking or trembling, noticeable in the hands

l  Diarrhoea or indigestion

l  Stomach ache

l  Weakness or dizziness

l  Fainting or passing out

Some of these physical symptoms to anxiety may increase as teenagers feel more stressed. Excessive experience of symptoms may lead to non-epileptic seizures or blackouts. Feeling physically ill can also accentuate the negative thoughts and emotions triggered by the anxiety. These cognitive or emotional symptoms coupled with the physical symptoms may then start to affect the teenagers’ behaviour, such as:

l  Avoiding friends and people

l  Isolating themselves from social situations

l  No desire to meet new people, have new interests or experiences

l  Appearing traumatised or panicked

l  Repetitive or excessive behaviours

l  Not completing tasks or avoiding responsibility

l  Nightmares

Filed Under: Symptoms of Anxiety

Anxiety: What is it?

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Anxiety is a normal psychological and physiological response in human beings when they experience stress. The word means to feel “vex” or “trouble”. Anxiety may result in feelings of worry, unease, fear and distress – feeling troubled.

Teenage Anxiety

Teenagers, as they grow, tend to feel anxiety a lot. Part of their feelings of anxiety may be driven by the need to fit in with peers, to feel accepted, to achieve academically or in sports, or by thoughts about their future. Some people experience anxiety after an accident, injury, or traumatic event that upsets their emotions. High parental expectations can trigger teenage stress, as does abuse and neglect.

Anxiety also presents as physical symptoms, such as headaches, feeling restless, stomach ache and tension in chest and muscles. Other symptoms may include difficulty remembering, memory confusion and distortion of reality – finding it hard to distinguish between what is real and not real.

Recognising Teenage Anxiety

Teenage anxiety may be recognised by observing the teenager in their experiences and expressions of emotions. Answering some of the following questions may help teenagers identify their anxiety:

l  How are you responding or reacting in social situations?

l  How do you feel about eating?

l  What is your experience of school events like?

l  Do you prefer to avoid situations?

l  Do you feel that you will fail and not succeed?

l  How often do you compare yourself to peers or friends?

l  Do you feel inadequate socially, physically, mentally or in yourself?

l  Do you enjoy making new friends?

l  Do you avoid your friends?

l  Do you feel gloomy or a sense of dread?

l  Do you need constant reassurance about your achievements to feel accepted?

l  Do you complain about not feeling well to avoid school?

l  Does your heart beat faster and do you feel like you cannot breathe?

l  Do you feel fear or terrified about the future?

l  Do you feel confused and unsure of what is real or not real?

Causes of Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal human response when feeling concerned and may be caused by a number of factors within and outside a person’s control. Excessive teenage anxiety may have identifiable causes, such as peer pressure, meeting expectations to achieve, or exposure to recreational drugs and nicotine. As mentioned in the anxiety attacks section, causes of anxiety such as these may fall into the following categories:

Hereditary – panic disorder may be genetic and run in families

l  Biological – illness, disease or deficiency

l  Phobias – fear of people, objects or situations

l  Traumatic life events, such as death or loss

l  Stimulants – nicotine, caffeine, drugs, alcohol

l  Negative self-talk

l  Lack of Assertiveness – high passivity

l  Medications or chemical substances – antibiotics, anti-depressants

l  Over-breathing or hyperventilation

l  Stress expectation to achieve – school, college, university, employment

These causes of anxiety may be present in particular circumstances. Based on the causes and circumstances, a variety of anxiety types can occur.

Anxiety Disorder

When normal feelings of anxiety last for long periods of time or become excessive, people can develop anxiety disorders. Medical professionals distinguish between normal anxiety and excessive anxiety resulting in anxiety disorder by evaluating the reasoning or cause of the anxiety and also how intense the anxiety is experienced.

The amount an anxiety affects a teenager’s normal living and behaviour forms part of consideration when the anxiety becomes an anxiety disorder. Teenagers may be evaluated to determine if they experience anxiety or panic attacks in certain situations.

Filed Under: Anxiety: What is it?