Why Anxiety Help for Teens?

Anxiety is awful.  You know how terrible it feels when you worry about what a friend thinks of you, or whether you’re going to get in trouble with your parents for something you did last week.  Sitting, waiting, hoping for the best but dreading the worst is a really uncomfortable feeling! Sadly, some people live in this feeling of dread all the time. Anxiety help for teens is specific to the worries teens have.

Typical Teen Anxiety

Sometimes our anxieties (or worries) are realistic.  For example, we know we’re terrible at Spanish, and we’re having a lot of anxiety about taking the next Spanish test.  Likewise, we know we did something really foolish at the party Saturday night, and we’re dreading our return to school on Monday.  This kind of anxiety is realistic and common to the whole human race.

When Anxiety Goes Too Far

For some of us though, anxiety starts to pervade our thoughts.  It becomes this ugly overwhelming emotion that is hard to control.  Furthermore, anxiety is often based on things that aren’t very likely.  It is this point where anxiety help for teens becomes necessary.

To demonstrate, here are some examples of things I’ve heard teenagers tell me they’ve worried about, but know they shouldn’t worry about: 1) “I’m going to get cancer.” 2) “Everyone in the classroom will stare at me and think I’m an idiot if I raise my hand in class.” 3) “I’m going to fail my test.” 4) “No college will accept me.” 5) “My parents are secretly disappointed in me.” 6) “What if there’s a school shooter?” The list goes on an on.  The things adolescents worry about come in all shapes and sizes.

Help for the Anxious Teen

Something I’ve found helpful in the past, and you might like too, is the acronym F.E.A.R.  It stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.  This is really what gives us anxiety, or fear about a situation.  We think there’s evidence proving what we worry about will actually happen.  It makes us feel scared and nervous.  Most of the time the situation turns out just fine because the evidence we used to support our fear was actually false.

A Case Study

Here’s an example of anxiety help for a teen.  I once worked with a very bright client who was terrified of giving another class presentation.  He felt completely certain all the other students were judging him and secretly laughing at him.  When asked to provide evidence that supports his theory, he told me that everyone was looking at him.  

What this teen was facing is a great example of false evidence appearing real.  Everyone was looking at him, he was right about that!  Where he was wrong is the reason everyone was looking at him.  They were starting at him because he was in front of the class talking.  Once he realized everyone started at each presenter, and stared at the teacher when she was talking, he recognized he had fallen prey to F.E.A.R.

Of course this tool isn’t strong enough to completely overcome all your anxieties.  However, it is one example of the kinds of things we think about and work on to cope with adolescent anxiety in therapy.  F.E.A.R. is part of a group of help for teen anxiety interventions called CBT (cogntive-behavioral therapy). It is highly effective with adolescent anxiety disorders.

When you realize that many of the things you worry about aren’t totally true, it is a freeing moment. Help for teen anxiety is possible! Help your teen get his/her life back today.

Helping teens grow and families improve connection,
Lauren Goodman, MS, MFT