Anxiety

For health professionals

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a serious problem for teenagers. Common features of anxiety include tension, worry, frustration, irritability, sadness and withdrawal.

Young people do not often express their anxiety in a straightforward way and can show they are affected through passive or negative behaviours.

About anxiety

Anxiety is the most common presentation in children and young people and can present in a variety of different ways including fears and phobias, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, self-harm, post-traumatic stress, panic disorder.

All children and teenagers experience anxiety as part of their normal development and there are appropriate fears to feel at different developmental stages – e.g. a fear of the dark at three years old. Anxiety becomes a problem when it goes on for a long time and prevents the young person from enjoying their life. This is when anxiety can lapse into depression. About 25% 8-year-olds and 21.7% 17-year-olds report with anxiety. It is more common in girls than in boys.

Four signs of anxiety

PHYSICAL

  • Heart racing
  • Breathing changes
  • Feeling sick
  • Shaky legs and body

  • Racing thoughts, usually scary
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Constantly predicting the worst
  • Overthinking

  • Avoidance of doing things that create anxiety
  • Agitation
  • Getting into arguments and fights more often
  • Checking behaviours

  • Feeling frightened or panicky
  • ‘Short fuse’ – getting irritable and angry easily
  • Tearful
  • Other people’s emotions affecting you more easily

Four steps to bringing about change

ACKNOWLEDGE

  • Acknowledge that there is a problem and that it’s something that will benefit from early change. This may mean engaging the family and/or the school in the treatment plan

  • Provide information on regular sleep, eating regularly, keeping regular activity and exercise – would they benefit from a course of exercise?
  • Suggest they learn breathing techniques and start to get them to keep a diary of negative or self-defeating thoughts
  • Encourage keeping regular contact with friends. Make a referral as necessary

  • Encourage them to keep a diary to note changes
  • Encourage them to keep talking – to friends, to someone who can help them – you may need to make a referral or meet up regularly yourself

  • Anxiety takes time to change but responds very well to psychological treatment. Encourage them to keep putting into practice the changes that they have been asked to implement and keep a copy of these changes in your records so that you can monitor. Make sure relapse is monitored and dealt with as soon as possible

Further Learning

Visit our Further Advice page for details of other organisations that can help.

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