These are some of the common expressions of anxiety in teenagers:
- You kid begins to cry easily or very touchy feely.
- Your anxious teenager can often get emotional outbreaks.
- An anxious teenager can be very restless.
- Your teen can have trouble falling asleep.
- An anxious teenager can be having trouble concentrating.
- A generally happy child starts to feel more irritated, pulls away or is difficult to contact.
- They can also suddenly become afraid of something, or have difficulty doing something that they have previously managed. For example, it can be sleeping away or staying in a foreign environment.
What we have listed above are few of the things that an anxious teenager can do. And when you spot this symptom being repeated often it should be a sign of concern to you.
Note: Do not conclude that your teenager is having teenage anxiety issues if you see them display any of these just once or very rarely.
To know in detail about most of these problems and how to deal with them you can browse through the articles we have written. You can use the link that is given here. Parenting challenges while raising teenagers
The symptoms can be experienced differently
Symptoms of anxiety can be experienced differently for different children, and manifest in different ways depending on the child’s age.
It can also feel different at different times. We have listed below to give you more clarity on the topic some of the way’s anxiety can be experienced…
For example,
- It feels like butterflies in the stomach.
- It hurts the stomach, or you feel unwell.
- The heart beats hard and / or fast.
- It feels like pressure over the chest.
- It is difficult to breathe.
- The muscles are tense, the body shakes or vibrates.
- It swings and spins in your head.
- It feels like there is a lump in your throat or stomach.
- They can suddenly become pissed or loose in the stomach and must go to the toilet frequently.
These types of symptoms are manifested because the brain’s nervous system releases stress hormones. These stress hormones affect several organs in the body.
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Anxiety syndrome in children and teens
From my research I find that anxiety syndrome is a collective name for several different diagnoses.
The difficulty the child may have depends on the type of anxiety disorder it is about. These diagnoses include anxiety disorders:
- Specific phobias
- Panic Disorder
- Agoraphobia – squares
- Separation anxiety
- Generalized anxiety disorder, GAD
- Social anxiety, previously called social phobia
- Selective mutism – involuntary silence
Sometimes the child may have problems that correspond to more than one syndrome.
The problems can go away over time, but treatment is often needed.