Teen Anxiety: You're Not Alone
You have a big paper due soon, an exam in a tough class, and your team is going to sectionals. When you get a little older, maybe you’re applying to college on top of that. For some reason, you can’t sleep, focus your thoughts, sometimes you feel short of breath, and you notice your body shaking at random times. Maybe you cover it by overpreparing and pursuing perfectionism – what’s going on?
Anxiety is something everyone experiences—but for some teens, it goes beyond occasional stress. If you’re constantly worrying, avoiding things you used to enjoy, or feeling on edge more often than not, you’re not alone. Anxiety is actually one of the most common mental health concerns for teens today. In fact, around 1 in 3 teens in the U.S. will experience an anxiety disorder between ages 13 and 18 (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2017).
Anxiety can show up in all kinds of ways. As above, maybe you’re having trouble sleeping; maybe your heart races when you think about school, or you get stuck overthinking everything you say or do. You might feel tired all the time, irritable, or even physically sick—like headaches or stomachaches that don’t seem to have a clear cause.
Sometimes anxiety is easy to spot. Other times, it hides behind perfectionism, procrastination, or a need to keep everything under control. It can feel exhausting. The truth is, anxiety happens for lots of reasons—stress, social media, trauma, family pressure, school demands, or just the way your brain is wired. It’s not wrong to be anxious; in fact, it’s a remnant of a survival mechanism from the earliest humans, and, at times serves a purpose It keeps us safe, lets us know what we care about, and can take on the voice in our heads of the “worry wart.” Anxiety isn’t bad, it’s human. However, sometimes, it can get in the way.
And the good news? You don’t have to deal with it alone.
Therapy can help you discover various tools and techniques so you can start to understand what’s going on and learn how to manage. At Grander Peace Counseling, I work with teens and young adults in a nonjudgmental, supportive space. Using proven tools like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and parts work, you will build the skills to cope with anxiety—and, with time and practice, you will start to feel more like yourself again (Ginsburg et al., 2011). As someone who has experienced anxiety, I wouldn’t be where I am today without my own therapy. Whether you’re a teen looking for support or a parent trying to help, we’re here. Reach out today to schedule a free consultation and take the next right step.
With warm wishes for a calmer future,
References
Ginsburg, G. S., Becker-Haimes, E. M., Keeton, C. P., Kendall, P. C., Iyengar, S., Sakolsky, D., & Albano, A. M. (2011). Results from the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Extended Long-term Study (CAMELS): Primary anxiety outcomes. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 50(3), 246–256.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2017). Any anxietydisorder. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder