Teen Anxiety Treatment
Teenage Anxiety is Rising
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that one out of every three teens between the ages of 13 and 18 will experience some form of anxiety disorder. Over the last decade, children and teens with anxiety disorders have shown to increase by above 20 percent and hospitalizations for suicidal teens have doubled. There are thought to be a few main factors contributing to the increase in anxiety for children and teens:
- More outlets for sharing and receiving information = more visibility into a sometimes scary and threatening world
- Increased pressure to meet higher expectations based on unrealistic or exaggerated expectations.
- Social media allows teens to meet people they normally wouldn’t but also allows a perfect platform for bullying, judgment based on looks alone, and a need to constantly be in touch to avoid FOMO (fear of missing out).
BasePoint Academy INQUIRY
Types of Anxiety
The types of anxiety that children and adolescents can suffer from may include the following:
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Panic attacks
- Social anxiety
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Generalized anxiety
- Separation anxiety
If you are concerned about your teen, it’s time to seek assistance from professionals that can help so they can begin an active treatment plan and begin the healing process.
Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of it’s strength.
– Charles Spurgeon
Warning Signs of Anxiety
As the parent of a teen, it is vital that you know the warning signs of anxiety. They include any of the following:
- Irritability or other unprompted changes in behavior
- Fearful of everyday routines
- Recurring fears about life
- Skipping school and/ or drastic drop in academic performance
- Avoiding school activities, dates with friends, and other social settings
- Substance use and abuse
- Trouble concentrating or sleeping
- Complaints of chronic headaches, body aches, fatigue, stomachaches, or other physical ailments
This list of teen symptoms is not exhaustive. Every teen will react differently to anxiety, panic, stress, and other mental health disorders. These are, however, the symptoms most commonly seen as reported by doctors and other medical professionals.
Teen Treatment Options for Anxiety
cognitive-behavioral therapy
Family Therapy Sessions
ANXIETY CAN BE TREATED
Anxiety is treatable and BasePoint Academy can help you and your teen learn to navigate through their triggers and stressors. At BasePoint Academy, we help your teen overcome their challenges through a holistic, interdisciplinary treatment team approach that incorporates innovative therapeutic interventions and medication management. The sooner your teen is empowered to take action, the sooner they can begin to heal.
Create a Safe Space at Home
One of the most important ways you can support your teen with debilitating anxiety is to help them create a safe space at home. This can be a room in the house or a portion of their own teen bedroom where they can be creative when it comes to painting or designing the safe space so it makes them feel comfortable. This safe space not only provides privacy for your teen to practice self-soothing and relaxation exercises when feeling anxious but can also help them immensely when dealing with symptoms of anxiety or other challenges to their mental well-being because it promotes autonomy and independence.