How to Cope With Teenage Anxiety
If you're dealing with teenage anxiety, know that it's common to feel worried and stressed but there are ways to cope. One way you can try to alleviate your anxiety is to do relaxing activities like practicing yoga or spending time in nature on a picnic or hike. Since exercise can make you feel better, consider walking home from school instead of taking the bus or go out dancing with friends. Even just 15 minutes of extra exercise a day can help! Along with these coping strategies, try to get about 9 hours of sleep each night, since being tired can make anxiety worse. You may be tempted to turn to alcohol or drugs to ease your anxiety, but those can actually make you feel more on edge so try to stay away from both.
Practice relaxation. Really relax, not just in front of a device or screen. Tai chi , for example, is a physical practice with a mind-body connection that truly help you to relax and cope with your anxiety. Relaxation can't completely take away your anxiety but it will help you deal with it better. Breathe deeply. It's a portable tool that you can use anytime, anywhere, and no one can see you do it. Deep breathing helps a major nerve running to your brain, called the vagus nerve, to send a message to relax and loosen up, so before your next exam or date, try this deep breathing exercise. Gently place a hand on your belly. Breathe in slowly through your nose, to a count of 4, feeling the air inflate your belly, pushing your belly slightly against your hand. Hold the breath for a count of 4 then slowly exhale for a count of 4, feeling your belly sink back. Repeat 3 times or until you feel calmer. Practice it on TV commercials, at a red light in the car, between classes, anytime. The more you practice, the more natural and automatic this helpful response will be. Tense and release your muscles. Sometimes, the stress and anxiety we feel gets built up in our muscles and we don't even realize it. By practicing what experts call progressive muscle relaxation, we release this built up tension and feel better prepared to cope. Headaches, stomach aches, and exhaustion can all be helped by doing tense and release exercises. Focus on one muscle group at a time. People often start with their face and work down to their toes. Take a slow, deep breath, then squeeze the muscles in your face (not so tightly that you hurt yourself) for 5 seconds. Slowly relax the muscles you just tensed, rest 5 seconds, then move to another muscle group, doing each slowly and in turn until your whole body feels more relaxed. This exercise works best in a quiet room where you have privacy and can fully relax but you can even use it in public to deal with an anxious situation. No one can see you squeezing your toes in your runners while you're in class! Just try to practice it at home in your room so that it will come more naturally when you're out in public. Do yoga. Yoga practitioners have known for hundreds of years that doing yoga leaves you feel more calm and mentally ready to face the day's challenges. Yoga helps regulate your body's stress response. Doing yoga helps you practice controlled breathing, another anxiety busting tools. Laughter yoga is a really fun way to get some stress relief. Get some friends on board and sign up for a session – check your local community centre for classes. Stay natural. Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco don't help ease anxiety. They might be psychological short-term band-aids but don't really help you with the situation causing you anxiety. They can actually make you more on edge so avoid these crutches when you're feeling anxious. Stay away from liquid courage – or drinking alcohol to beat social anxiety when hanging out with friends. Being your own natural self is the best way to be. The pressure from friends to drink can be hard. Try offering to be the designated driver if you have your license. Smoking pot can actually make you more anxious, despite what people think about it making you mellow. It's always a good idea to have one friend stay clean while other friends are getting high so that someone can call for help if there's trouble, so you can offer to be that friend. Avoid caffeine. Caffeine in pop, coffee, and energy drinks can actually make you feel more agitated and anxious than you already are. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you get no more than 200 milligrams of caffeine a day and stay away from energy drinks entirely. Caffeine also has negative effects on teen brain development, such as preparing the brain to more easily become addicted to drugs. Get enough sleep. Sleep is the body's time to rest and regenerate so you can be better prepared to deal with your day. In your teen years, you need about 9 hours of sleep a night. If you don't get enough sleep, you can have low energy, memory problems, and difficulty thinking, and be irritable. Avoid sugary snacks, vigorous exercise, and screen time one hour before bed, and avoid caffeine after noon, as these can all interfere with your ability to fall asleep. If you just can't put down your smartphone, get a blue light filter for your screen. These stick-on filters can be easily ordered online. The blue light filter prevents interference with melatonin, which regulates your normal sleep-wake cycle. Try to go to bed at the same time every night and wake at the same time every day. A regular schedule helps regulate the sleep chemical in your brain called melatonin. Relax before bed. Chill out to music, do some meditation, or read a good book. Cuddle your pet or write in your journal. Relaxing before bed sends the message to your brain that it's time to go to sleep. Eat your four food groups. Don't get “hangry” (hungry and angry). Keep your body fuelled throughout the day to prevent getting irritable, run down, confused, and even drowsy. Make sure you get your fruits and vegetables, protein, and have 6 to 8 glasses of water a day. Eating right will prevent you from comfort snacking and having a sugar crash. Exercise. Your brain needs oxygen to cope and the best way to get it there is through exercise. If your brain isn't getting enough oxygen, you'll be on edge, irritable, and tense. Getting more exercise also means reduced tiredness, increased alertness and concentration, and clearer thinking. Exercise releases endorphins, the chemicals in your brain that make you feel good, and is therefore recommended by doctors for everyone who has anxiety or depression. Exercise can also help in having you cope in a fun way, and possibly getting more social interaction. Walk home from school instead of taking the bus. Go dancing with friends. Even 15 minutes of exercise can help ease your anxiety. Know the body’s signs of anxiety. Knowing how your body reacts to anxiety – by thinking that anxiety is a threat - will help you cope with these perfectly normal feelings. Symptoms of general anxiety include tiredness, restlessness, difficulty sleeping or eating, irritability, and tense muscles. Make the distinction between anxiety and panic attacks. If you have experienced a racing heart and worried that you were having a heart attack, you might have been experiencing a panic attack instead. Understanding how your body works to protect you can help you manage these symptoms. Your fingers and toes will tingle as blood rushes away to feed larger muscles as your body prepares for what it thinks is an attack. Your pupils dilate to let in more light so you can see better, though it might actually make things look blurry. You might hyperventilate (breathe faster) to send more oxygen to your brain so it's ready to react. Your heart races as it sends blood across your body so your muscles are prepared to act. Your mind races and you feel like you are dying or that you might “go crazy” or “lose control.” Your stomach gets upset as digestion shuts down, saving precious energy for the rest of the body. Tell someone. Sharing how you feel can lift a load off your mind and release some of the tension of carrying around a secret burden. Tell someone you trust, like a best friend, or a trusted adult. You might also want to talk to your doctor about your anxiety. A doctor will be able to make sure that there isn't anything else making you feel this way. Arm yourself with distractions. If you are a music lover, keep your earphones with you. If you are a gamer, play a bit and distract yourself until you feel calmer. Distraction works only in the short term, however, and doesn't get to the root of the problem causing you the anxiety. Connect with other people. Spend quality time with friends and family. Share the good times and the bad. You have people to talk to and to let loose and have fun with. You're not alone and you never have to be. Just reach out. It doesn't have to be organized activities, just hang out and have some company. Explore nature. Research shows that people who spend time in nature – whether it be a picnic on the grass, a game of football, or a bike ride or hike in the woods – feel better, more relaxed, and mentally grounded. Choose to go somewhere safe where you know your surroundings. Let someone know where you'll be. Bring a friend or family member to be connected to other people. Choose something active to do and get the added benefit of exercise. Think positively. It's not always easy, but trying to stay on the bright side keeps the anxiety from getting worse. This technique is called reframing and suggests you refocus any negative thoughts you might have as positives instead. Teens tend to automatically personalize problems and jump to conclusions. Instead of making it about you, take a step back and look at the reality of a negative event and try to see it as an opportunity. For example, If someone cancels a date, don't automatically assume it's because he doesn't like you – that is, don't personalize it because maybe something came up with his family. Try to think instead that now you have extra time to work on your essay that's due next week. Stay in the grey zone. Another automatic reflex when things go wrong is to look at it in terms of black and white, either/or, and all or nothing. If you fail a test at school, for example, this would mean you might see yourself as a complete failure and this only increases your anxiety. Instead, try to remember that life is all about the in-betweens and no one is a complete failure or completely perfect. Allow yourself to be in the middle ground. You don't have to be perfect but remember the good, too, instead of mistakenly thinking you're a total failure. We are complex people in complex situations and nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan. Don’t filter. You might be filtering if all you can think about are the mistakes you've made, the silly things you said, or the negative aspects of a situation. Filtering increases your anxiety. Remember the good, too! If a girl you like talks about how cool your outfit is one day but also offhandedly teased you that your hair was a mess, filtering to just remember the hair comment would increase your anxiety. Remember she liked your outfit, instead! Visualize. Putting images in your head to help you relax and calm down is called visualization. You can also visualize yourself succeeding at something like a test or a presentation to help you be more confident. Daydream. Life can be hard but you deserve some time to think about the good things you wish for. Allow yourself to dream and hope. Take a vacation in your head. Imagine yourself in your happy place or somewhere peaceful. Really imagine it – think of the sights and sounds and smells associated with that place. If you love the forest, listen to the birds and crickets chirping, see the green of the fir trees waving in the breeze, smell the pine needles. Practice mindfulness. Focus on the here-and-now, in the moment. Being mindful of your present surroundings will help you ease an anxious and racing brain. Being mindful stops you from stressing about the future and things you cannot control – which is one the biggest sources of worry we have. Try the three senses technique. Breathe slowly and observe 3 things you see, 3 things you hear, and 3 things you feel. If you're at school, maybe you see the girl in front of you doodling on her paper, hear the clock ticking, and feel the hardness of the chair underneath you. Focusing for a few minutes on what's present keeps you from worrying about other things. Surround yourself with the right people. Toxic friends - people who complain, insult, argue, and fight - can draw a lot of energy out of you and exhaust you mentally and physically. You don't have to be around constantly happy people, just avoid those toxic friends when you're feeling anxious. Don’t label yourself or feel guilty about your anxiety. If you find yourself thinking you're a “bad” kid or that you're messed up, give yourself a break. Labelling yourself won't help. Don't let others do it to you, either. Know that everyone worries and gets anxious and you're not doing anything on purpose to make life harder for anyone, including yourself. Know that it's ok to be imperfect. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone gets embarrassed, and everyone feels the need to impress others. Engage in positive self-talk. Tell yourself that you are a good person and you can do it! Know your triggers. Be aware and know yourself so you can mentally prepare. If you know that public speaking makes you anxious, you can mentally prepare to deal with it and have some tricks up your sleeve to cope with the anxiety in the moment. Make a list of your triggers and fears so you can work on a plan of how to face them. Break the plan down into small steps, such as just going up to someone new and saying hi to deal with your fear of meeting new people. Be brave. Talk about your anxiety. Make efforts to face your fears. Take reasonable risks and get involved. Your confidence will increase, as will your ability to deal with anxiety-inducing situations. Don't avoid school or social situations that make you anxious. You're just delaying the inevitable. Instead, leave your comfort zone and push yourself a bit. Tackle things that are making you anxious. If you're nervous before a test, be sure to study enough or get some extra afterschool help. 
Practice relaxation. Breathe deeply. Tense and release your muscles. Do yoga. Stay natural. Avoid caffeine. Get enough sleep. Eat your four food groups. Exercise. Know the body’s signs of anxiety. Make the distinction between anxiety and panic attacks. Tell someone. Arm yourself with distractions. Connect with other people. Explore nature. Think positively. Stay in the grey zone. Don’t filter. Visualize. Practice mindfulness. Surround yourself with the right people. Don’t label yourself or feel guilty about your anxiety. Know your triggers. Be brave. 