Statistics and facts of teenage anxiety
Anxiety, such a simple word that holds dispersed definitions and emotions. Did you know that anxiety is the most popular mental illness in the United States, affecting more than 31% of teens by the age of eighteen? The six main types of anxiety are social anxiety, specific phobia, social phobia, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. There is no one answer as to why teenagers experience these types of anxiety, but a few common causes include the pressure of living up to high expectations, social media, overthinking, and re-living a situation that caused great fear. The six diagnostics can lead to many physical symptoms including nausea headaches, chest pain, rapid heartbeat, and tremors, but they can also introduce additional mental health issues such as depression and suicidal thoughts. Anxiety is a treatable illness, yet 80% of sufferers who are eighteen and younger do not get treated. Why is that? Why wouldn’t you fix a problem that can be solved?
“A never-ending cycle of fear.”
Teenagers have come to acknowledge the word “anxiety” in a wide range of ways, whether that is by completely pushing it aside or condoning that it exists. However, to prove that anxiety influences all teenager’s lives differently, I asked four teens, whose lives are disturbed by anxiety, to respond to the exact same statement: “Describe how anxiety affects you.”
Responses:
“I’d describe the feeling as a rollercoaster that only goes straight up. Like on Goliath at Six Flags when you start going up, only that feeling forever.”
“A never-ending cycle of fear.”
“When your emotions are all over the place and you’re freaking out at almost everything. Super stressed out.”
“Going through a dark cave, not knowing who or what is in there and what is going to happen next.”
Anxiety causes these four teens disparate emotions and mindsets; however, there was a common correlation amongst all the responses that allowed me to compile a rough definition of anxiety. Anxiety: a mixture of fear and stress that has the ability to overcome all emotions.
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