Panic attacks can be named as an ‘anxiety disorder’ that typically onsets during a teen’s early adulthood or in his late adolescence. Although this kind of anxiety disorder tends to begin between the ages of fifteen and thirty five, teens often develop this disorder during their childhood. The main symptom of the panic disorder is experiencing recurrent panic attacks. The attacks often occur quite unexpectedly and involve extreme nervousness, fear and apprehension. These attacks along with the teen anxiety are felt through a combination of other symptoms, namely the mental, physical and emotional. They may occur out of the blue while being accompanied by other symptoms like trembling, excessive sweating, chest pain, increased heart rate, fear of dying, nausea and abdominal pain.
Panic attacks may vary in terms of intensity, symptoms and duration, but they continue to affect a teenager for a longer time causing anxiety hours and heightened nervousness. Experiencing panic attacks can be quite a frightening experience for a teenager and they tend to develop avoidance behaviors. Teen anxiety coupled with panic disorders make the teenagers stay away from places, situations and events they think can trigger an attack within them. For example, he may start avoiding crowds or may become fearful of cars.
Tips to avoid teen anxiety
Many teenagers do not realize the fact that they are contributing to their own anxieties unintentionally. But it can be treated well just by avoiding some of the common teen anxiety mistakes. Some of the examples can be included as below:
1. Bad foods- Many tend to shift focus on this point, but it simply cannot be denied that food plays an important role in coping with the teen anxiety and panic disorder. Teenagers and adolescents with panic attack tendency should avoid foods like caffeine, fattening foods, refined sugar, fried foods, and alcohol as these seem to trigger anxiety in the body. Poor eating habits may not cause ‘anxiety disorder’ but it can worsen the symptoms and make the situation worse.
2. Moping- Person suffering from ‘anxiety issues’ should take action to cope up with the situation. Spending alone time at times may seem good once in a while but thoughts can be the enemy for the young people suffering from panic disorders and anxieties. They should try to stay as much active as they can and also being social is important.
3. Anxiety Creating Stimuli- Anxiety can be best described as a cumulative condition and the more anxiety a teen experience in his life, the more worse the symptoms become. Teenagers with panic and anxiety disorders should try to avoid any situation that can trigger anxiety within them like watching horror movies at night or avoiding the dark alleys at night.
Tools to cope with teen anxiety disorder
There may be hundreds of tools to help teenagers cope with their anxiety but the most important thing is the mental strength of the person that actually helps him/her to recover from the situation. Some of the common and easy tools to deal with teen anxiety are meditation, yoga, physical activities and positive thinking.