10 Strategies for Teens to Manage Anxiety

Introduction

Many different challenges that make being a teenager difficult include dealing with friendships, doing well in school, and coping with teenage hormones. Research has shown an apparent increase in the incidence of teen anxiety across countries that may be connected to COVID-19. “Compared to pre-COVID-19, anxiety severity among our respondents has increased 29%, largely driven by significantly heightened generalized anxiety (up 45%) and school anxiety (up 143%).” (Myruski and Buss) A teen’s feelings of stress, nervousness, or worry might be different from those of someone in their late twenties, and they can affect their body and what they do or say in day-to-day life. Anxiety levels have risen for my students and my daughter as well. Teenagers will continue to encounter many events that they have no control over and deal with unmet expectations. Anxiety isn’t always a bad thing, and it’s all right to feel anxious. Most importantly, it is crucial for them to recognize these feelings and learn how to deal with them with specific strategies. I want to guide students and my daughter on coping with anxiety and have identified ten ways teens can cope with anxiety and stress. Here are 10 strategies that I have curated to help teens manage their anxiety.

Recognize anxiety and describe the experience

Like any other challenge, we have to know what it is and how it affects us to tackle it. For example, students might feel anxious before taking a test or giving a presentation. We can help students learn how to acknowledge that feeling and focus on the physical sensations they’re experiencing in their body. It is difficult for people of all ages to accurately describe how they feel during times of anxiety. Some don’t have the vocabulary and need help learning how to articulate the feelings of anxiety. In addition, anxieties can cause a number of different physical symptoms, such as crying, headaches, chest pain, muscle tension, an increased or uneven heart rate, nausea, etc. They can take a moment to write down what may have caused it and then explore these possible causes. A few questions they can consider.

• Is it worrisome to me that I might feel shame?
• Am I afraid of not meeting my own standards or others’ expectations?
• Do I feel things would always end badly?
• Am I worried others were judging me?

We can help guide students to recognize and verbalize their feelings, physical sensations, and behaviors so they can tackle their anxiety. If a student is made aware of what causes them to feel uneasy and tense, they will be able to handle such anxiety better and make healthier choices. A supportive adult becomes empathetic and attentive, hearing out their worries and helping them to find solutions to manage them.

Learn about the anxiety patterns

Knowing what triggers the anxiety is an important step in addressing it. Students can log negative thoughts, behaviors and situations when they experience anxiety. Keeping a behavior log for one week (or more) can help students identify patterns that may have developed over time. Here are some prompt questions to help students identify their anxiety patterns.

• Are certain people or situations more likely to make me anxious?
• When do I start feeling anxious? What kinds of things do I do when I am anxious?
• How does my body feel?

Getting to know what causes anxiety can help them learn how to manage their fears, with the ultimate goal of relieving or eliminating their anxiety.

Identify unhelpful thoughts

The most common type of anxious thoughts tends to be related to a belief that something terrible will happen in the future, self-criticism, or a feeling of hopelessness. If students know their anxious thought patterns, they are more likely to know what to do when they catch one. Here are three examples of unhelpful thinking. Readers can check out different types of unhelpful thinking styles via Psychology Tools.

What-if questions

It’s easy to get sucked into negative thought spirals. “What if I mess up?”, “What if everyone laughs at me?”, “What if I answer this question in class, I’ll say the wrong things and make a fool of myself?”, “What if I get hit by a car when crossing the street?” Once you start thinking like that, it can be hard to stop. The key is learning how to interrupt these spirals before they get out of control. One way to reduce the anxiety is to change negative ‘what ifs’ from being problems to possibilities.

All-or-nothing thinking

When people believe that something can’t be done unless it’s perfect. All-or-nothing thinking is the inclination to evaluate things in black-and-white terms. It is illogical, because in reality, things are not one-sided or exactly another. Thinking in this way increases the anxiety level. People who tend to think in terms of all or nothing have a hard time choosing between extremes – they’d rather end up with perfection than settle for anything less. For example, thoughts like “I always mess up.”, “I need to do everything perfectly.”, “I am not good enough.” “I must measure up.” We can help students learn to reframe their thinking and recall something they have accomplished despite the difficulties.

“Should” statements

Using the word “should” is appropriate when we need to do something to be responsible or courteous. But when they are unrealistic or irrelevant, they are bothersome and raise anxiety. Students need guidance to avoid using too many “should” statements. An example of this is “I should have studied harder for the math exam.” This kind of language is indicative of an underlying fear that something bad will happen if you don’t do it perfectly. Students can practice substituting “It would be nice if…” for the “should” statement.

Practice self-compassion through journaling

Journaling is a great way to practice self-compassion and take care of our mental health. Self-compassion involves treating ourself with kindness and understanding when struggling or making mistakes. Practicing self-compassion will allow teenagers to develop effective strategies for overcoming anxiety. They can write about their anxiety, or they can use journaling as an outlet for expressing feelings or emotions that come up when they are going through stressful times. In the case of journaling, it is crucial to keep in mind that they do not have to verbalize their entire stream of consciousness or feel they need to tell their story—it is sufficient to keep a written log of the significant happenings in a given day. In this way, if they feel anxious about something specific (e.g. a test), they can write down how they felt leading up to it and after it’s over. This will give context to their feelings and make it easier for them to identify the reason for anxiety.

Keep a gratitude journal

Research has found that expressing gratitude has many positive effects, including increasing optimism and well-being. Keeping a journal with things you’re grateful for each day can help improve our mood and outlook and contribute to our overall mental health. This can help teens reduce their anxiety. If some students struggle with writing, they can keep an audio or video journal instead.

Try new things & record the results

Fear of failure is one of the biggest reasons why people shy away from trying new things. Facing an obstacle we aren’t sure we can get past isn’t easy, but practicing stepping outside our comfort zone can help build our confidence and self-esteem. Hence, it’s important for teens to venture out and face their fears to maintain resiliency and fight off anxiety. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that trying does not always produce success. It would be wise for them to document their attempts and track their accomplishments.

Practice grounding exercises

During times of distress and as a teenager, it can be difficult to control thoughts and emotions. Grounding exercises will allow them to refocus their attention back to the present and enable them to manage the feeling of being overwhelmed. For example, they could focus on their breathing or concentrate on how they feel at that moment. Triangle Breathing is a simple way to calm ourself down when we feel yourself starting to panic or stress out.

They could also find an anchor, such as holding onto something solid or sitting with a trusted friend. Allowing themselves to feel safe at that moment is important because anxiety often stems from fear of what might happen next. By focusing on grounding exercises, teens are able to remain calm and centered during these moments when anxiety is most intense for them.

Use a mood tracker

A mood tracker is one of the best ways to reduce anxiety, especially when teenagers are often stressed over school work and social situations. This type of tool is excellent for helping them track their moods so they can get an idea of how they vary in response to specific situations and learn to manage stress better, and build confidence. In addition, it also helps them to uncover their anxiety patterns and the particular day when they are most tense. There are several ways to track moods. Check out What Is a Mood Tracker for detailed information regarding the mood tracker options.

Do a social media detox week

Although social media can be fun and engaging, it can also come with risks. According to a recent study, teenagers who spend more time on social media sites are more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression. These studies are said to reveal a correlation, not causation. (Miller) It’s worth spending more time thinking about how teens would limit their social media exposure to reduce their risk of developing mental health issues. An idea would be to decrease the time on social media by doing a social media detox. As an adult, I have to do this myself from time to time to take care of my mental health! Adults can encourage teenagers do a social media detox but not force them to do it. It’s necessary for the input to come from the teens as they realize how much social media affects their mental health and behavior in other ways, like family and friend relationships or their schooling.

Practice self-affirmation

Affirmations are positive, self-talk phrases that can be very helpful in combating anxiety when used correctly. When we have negative thoughts about ourselves, we might say things like I’m not good enough, I’m too boring, or I’m always making mistakes in front of people. These self-deprecating thoughts keep us from living our lives to our fullest potential. Practice self-affirmation can help teens build confidence and develop an awareness of their strengths and weaknesses, so they can work on improving areas that need further development. Teens can either make affirmations in their journals or write them on post-it notes and then post them around their environment. They can regularly read through the affirmation statements they wrote and reflect on the things they liked about themselves. It is designed to cultivate a positive, uplifting feeling.

Conclusion

Stress and anxiety are both an unavoidable part of life, but we can learn how to cope with them. Start by educating students on signs of anxiety, identify anxiety patterns, and find ways to cope with unhelpful thinking. The strategies in this post are meant to offer ideas for teens to deal with their anxiety and stress. These are not the recommended Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). Although strategies might help relieve students’ anxiety, when they are feeling overly anxious and nothing else is working, they should talk to a trusted adult such as a school counsellor.

Anxiety management strategy booklet

I put together a strategy booklet to help students manage their anxiety. Strategies can be useful to alleviate students’ anxiety, but if these are not working, then students should talk to a trusted adult such as a school counsellor. The Anxiety Management Strategy for Teens booklet is free for anyone to download to support teenagers.

References

• Alexis. “Social Media Detox | TeenSpeak.” TeenSpeak!, 13 Jan. 2020, teenspeak.org/2020/01/13/social-media-detox/. Accessed 3 May 2022.
• Arlin Cuncic, and Seth Gillihan. The Anxiety Workbook : A 7-Week Plan to Overcome Anxiety, Stop Worrying, and End Panic. Berkeley, Ca, Althea Press, 2017.
• Goldberg, Emma. “Teens in Covid Isolation: “I Felt like I Was Suffocating.”” The New York Times, 12 Nov. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/health/covid-teenagers-mental-health.html. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022.
• Miller, Caroline. “Does Social Media Cause Depression?” Child Mind Institute, Caroline Miller, 30 Apr. 2018, childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/. Accessed 3 May 2022.
• Myruski, Sarah, and Kristin Buss. “Teens and Anxiety during COVID-19 | SSRI COVID-19 Resources.” Covid19.Ssri.psu.edu, 30 Nov. 2020, covid19.ssri.psu.edu/articles/teens-and-anxiety-during-covid-19. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022.
• Scala, Victoria. “How to Help Your Teen to Social Media Detox.” Anchor Therapy, LLC, 21 Sept. 2021, www.anchortherapy.org/blog/how-to-help-your-teen-to-social-media-detox. Accessed 3 May 2022.