Coping with anxiety in teenagers and children

You may have been aware of a lot of talk about a program developed by a Mr. Joe Barry that can help you deal with the anxiety in your life, or in the lives of your loved ones and friends. When I heard about it, I found out that the program is called Panic Away, and Mr. Barry created it a while back It makes the claims that it can eliminate anxiety and panic from one's life. His members and users apparently are coping with anxiety successfully. The claims were pretty strong, so I wanted to check it out for myself. Since it is available online, I am normally skeptical, as I wondered how anyone who hasn't met me can give me advice on such an important issue and severe problem as coping with anxiety.

So I obtained his materials so that I could review what was being said, and applied some of the strategies to judge their effectiveness. I report here that I was pleasantly surprised. There are techniques that can be easily applied just like it said in the literature. In particular, his "One-Move Technique" made a lot of sense for me; it was very simple to use. I am confident that having this information can help me as I encourage others in their struggles with coping with anxiety. This program can be used by anyone, and to whatever degree is appropriate.

There are many, many people who have shared their stories if that is something you would be interested in. You can check them out by going to this page.

In a more technical vein, The Panic Away process is not based on some of the outdated anxiety treatments such as 'deep breathing', distraction, or positive affirmations. It is easy to implement, and can be used almost instantaneously no matter where you are. And, I liked the fact that it is not based on hypnosis, or NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). Best for me is the fact that the results occur pretty rapidly, rather than after weeks of work. Of course, it does take time because this is a serious problem. However, some immediate help for anxiety problems is very important.

Because it is easy to use these techniques of coping with anxiety, anyone can have the confidence to go anywhere or do any of the things they have been avoiding. This program is totally useful and very straight forward and helpful!

Panic Away coaches you on how to recognize the symptoms of anxiety, and then respond and handle anxiety attacks each and every time you are faced with an episode. Like anything worthwhile, it takes some time to make permanent or lasting changes. But, you will be able to handle anxiety attacks the right way and have the freedom to live your life as you want to...you will no longer worry about a sudden attack.

Many of us would say that the words adolescence and anxiety should always occur in the same sentence. There can be no doubt that the period in a person's life from about 12 to 20 is full of significant physical and emotional changes. No wonder the teenage years of also full of anxiety. Think about it. A child turns 13 and then over the next 7 years, grows all the way into adulthood. The changes in this transitional period are striking.

It is of no wonder that adolescence is completely full of storm and stress. If our teenagers had some information and advice on ways of coping with anxiety, this time in their lives could be as enjoyable as many of them pretend it is.

But before we can look at some methods of anxiety management, we should be aware that the changes occur in both their minds, and their bodies. As to the bodily changes, there is an extremely complex set of hormonal changes that actually start before they are ten. This explains the quick growth spurts resulting in height, weight, muscle mass, and fat increases.

This could be the first bout of anxiety for our kids, since the girls add more fat at this age. Of course, boys can gain weight as well, but they tend to become more muscular in addition to adding body fat. For girls, at the same time as they are fighting the tendency to add fat, they are also approaching sexual maturity due to their hormones. Girls, then, are getting a double dose of changes that can lead to anxiety disorders.

Another change that they undergo can result in need to consider anxiety treatment. That change is in their tendency to be much more self-conscious. These are the years that children and adolescents develop their self concepts, or what they think of themselves. And before the decade is finished, they have gone through self evaluation leading to potential career choices and their young adult years. All of these combined make for some prime anxiety disorder issues.

Along with their maturity, teenagers began to ponder the larger questions about life, purpose, and personal relations. While we all deal with these issues even into adulthood, many teenagers are wrestling with these for the first time. As any adult who has had to go through a career change, anxiety or even panic attacks could possibly occur during these times.

So, that's the problem in a brief overview. Of course, that's not the whole story. We need to look at some ways that can help adolescents coping with anxiety and suffering with anxiety disorders.

There are many different types of therapies available for someone coping with anxiety. These anxiety treatments involve medicines, alternative medicines such as Chinese herbs and practices, and then the natural, personally managed methods of treating anxiety. For adolescents, let's look at these natural ways to manage and cope with anxiety or extreme nervousness.

Before we go further, you may want to read this article from WebMD regarding teen anxiety

The first method of coping with anxiety has to do with attitude. Keep in mind who is in control in these circumstances and occurrences. It is the person themselves. One should exercise that control and learn some calming techniques. Measured breathing, and brief meditation can do wonders to avoid an upcoming episode of an anxiety attack.

Another way of treating anxiety is to be honest with yourself, and with others, and just admit the feelings of nervousness and stress. This honesty can put you and your friends and family at ease, thereby reducing the feelings of being out of control and impending anxiety. Don't try to hide it, or pretend it doesn't exist. That can serve to increase the problem.

Knowledge is power. Learn and read all you can about the problems of anxiety disorders. This is another way to gain back control, and reduce the frequency or severity of the problem. And also, you should practice coping with anxiety by handling the type of situation that gives you the most problems. Do this in a controlled environment and gain some confidence. This will spill over into your non-controlled situations.

And what list would be complete without the recommendations to maintain your diet and exercise regimen. It has been proven that certain foods, mainly the acidic ones, contribute to feelings of nervousness, which can lead to anxiety. And imbalances of your vitamins and minerals in your body chemistry can lead to problems. So, your anxiety treatment should include taking those vitamins and supplements, eat a balanced diet, and get plenty of rest. Even though that sounds like cliche' advice, it is really necessary in coping with anxiety.

And, exercise will help maintain overall feelings of well-being, as well as encourage your body to produce endorphins, a calming agent in your body, and the perfect way of coping with stress.

All of these combined will mean that you are taking charge and combating your anxiety disorder, rather than succumb to the feelings and stress. Being in control is an excellent way of coping with anxiety.

Here is a good informational video from Youtube about anxiety disorders, and suggestions on coping with anxiety.

In the year 2000--even before terrorism hit so close to home for Americans on 9/11, and before the United States went to war with Iraq--an interesting study appeared in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In her report social psychologist Jean Twenge observed that anxiety levels in American children had increased dramatically since the first effective scale for measuring childhood anxiety was published in 1956. The increases were so large and linear, Twenge explained, that by the 1980s normal children scored higher on the anxiety scale than did children in the 1950s who were psychiatric patients. The culprits? According to Twenge, disconnected relationships and looming environmental threats were the underlying factors. In particular she notes that "changes in the divorce rate, the birth rate, and the crime rate are all highly correlated with children's anxiety." In contrast, she discovered that "surprisingly, economic indices had very little independent effect on anxiety. Apparently, children are less concerned with whether their family has enough money than whether it is threatened by violence or dissolution." If modern young Americans are indeed feeling the strain, they are certainly not alone in the world. According to a March 2008 article in the online Independent, Britain may actually be the "unhappiest place on earth" for children. Education editor Richard Garner notes the "welter of evidence highlighting the fragile states of mind of many of the country's seven million primary and secondary school pupils," while reporting that British teachers had called for an independent Royal Commission to discover the reasons behind the widespread anxiety and unhappiness among the nation's children. The concern expressed by Britain's Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) stems from the fact that the United Nations Children's Fund actually ranks British schoolchildren the unhappiest in the West, focusing on Britain's lack of social cohesion as the culprit. But British teachers have their own speculations to offer regarding the factors at fault. Among the stressors suggested by the ATL were not only social dysfunction and family breakdown, but also peer pressure and heavy academic pressure. Could this argument have some merit? Could all of these factors underlying childhood anxiety on both sides of the Atlantic be intertwined? Is it possible that Western society places too much emphasis on academic success and too little on the importance of cohesive family relationships? Britain's ATL hints that in their opinion this is, in fact, the case. Citing stringent government homework standards as the last straw on the backs of children, some teachers say that their own pressure to teach to standardized tests while increasing homework has resulted in reduced family and play time for children rather than improved academic scores. While it is unlikely that increased academic pressure is the only problem--or even the main problem behind increased childhood anxiety--the ATL may actually be on to something in juxtaposing academic priorities to family ones. Of course, few would argue that family time is unimportant. But without an equally firm emphasis on homework and scholastic achievement, how are academically lagging nations to maintain economic strength in a world that is increasingly dependent on technology? Isn't Japan's technological success due to the slavish study habits of its school children? Isn't there a strong, proven connection between increased homework and good grades? Wouldn't America and Britain be better off sacrificing a little family time for the greater national good? These are important questions which are not impossible to explore, since the effect of homework on academic achievement has, in fact, been surveyed from a global perspective fairly recently. In May of 2005, two education researchers from Pennsylvania State University--David P. Baker and Gerald K. LeTendre--coauthored a book titled National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling. Analyzing data collected from schools across more than 41 nations, the researchers came to a conclusion that might surprise many parents and educators: more homework does not necessarily translate to higher academic achievement. Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark were noted to have the highest academically scoring students while typically giving little or no homework. On the other hand, Baker noted that countries with very low scores in academic achievement: Thailand, Greece and Iran, typically were being assigned heavy homework loads. "The United States is among the most homework-intensive countries in the world for seventh- and eighth-grade math classes," commented LeTendre. "U.S. math teachers on average assigned more than two hours of mathematics homework per week in 1994-95. Contrary to our expectations, one of the lowest levels was recorded in Japan--about one hour a week. These figures challenge previous stereotypes about the lackadaisical American teenager and his diligent peer in Japan." LeTendre and Baker point out that it is these stereotypes, hyped by American media, that are actually responsible for prompting many U.S. schools to increase homework assignments during the 1980s. "At the same time," say the researchers, "ironically, Japanese educators were attempting to reduce the amount of homework given to their students and allow them more leisure from the rigors of schooling. Neither the American nor the Japanese educational reform of the 1980s seems to have affected general achievement levels in either country." If homework is not a reliable predictor of academic success, then--what is? Perhaps it's not surprising that the most important factors for promoting academic success are also important in addressing other causes of childhood anxiety. And the most outstanding of these factors is the quality of the relationships within the family itself. Fragmented families are more likely to experience scarcities of time, money and other resources that are important to academic success. In addition, children in fragmented families feel the effects of higher stress levels. While they can be strongly affected by the relationship dysfunction between parents even before a relationship dissolves, children are also strongly affected by the subsequent loss of a parent from the household, as well as the loss of the family unit as they have known it. In her 2005 study of the effects of divorce on mental health, the University of Alberta's Lisa Strohschein found that children of divorced parents exhibited high levels of anxiety throughout every stage of the divorce. Further she says, "the loss of a parent from the household is accompanied by an additional increase in child anxiety/depression that operates independently of pre-existing differences between children of divorce and children in intact households." As might be expected, she found similar levels of child anxiety when the divorce occurred in a dysfunctional family. Considering the epidemics of family dysfunction and divorce in Western nations, perhaps it's no wonder teachers and researchers are identifying increased anxiety, behavioral problems and poor academic performance among children in the classroom. Raising testing standards and increasing homework doesn't seem to be fixing the problem. Could it be that the most important work to be done in the home has to do with learning how to relate appropriately within the family? It's difficult to imagine an improvement in the function of society as a whole without an improvement in human relationships on the most fundamental level first.

About the Author

Gina Stepp is a writer and editor with a strong interest in education and the science that underpins family and relationship studies. She began working toward a Journalism major and Psychology minor at the University of Central Florida before moving to California where she completed her BA in Theology in 1985. To contact Gina Stepp, please email at ginastepp@earthlink.net.