What No One Tells You About Teens and Anxiety. 14
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The anxiety epidemic:
In 2020 the UK charity Mental Health Foundation surveyed more than 2,000 children and found 50 per cent of teenagers aged 13-19 were experiencing anxiety they found hard to control.
Suggested books:
· The Anxiety Workbook for Teens: Activities to Help You Deal with Anxiety and Worry
· Breaking free from Childhood Anxiety and OCD, Eli Lebowitz.
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/
Key points taken from UNWINDING ANXIETY: by Judson Brewer
Mindfulness is a key tool:
'If you feel anxious it’s an uncomfortable feeling so you start worrying about it. Worrying is seductive because it makes you feel like you’re doing something to get to a solution. All it does is to distract you from the negative emotion. It temporarily numbs the difficult feelings and feels more rewarding to your brain than the original emotion.'
'If your brain learns that worrying provides temporary relief, then whenever you’re anxious your brain will trigger worry. It becomes a compulsive habit over which you have no control, but the worrying makes you feel more anxious.'
· The first step to understanding your own anxiety is simply mapping your own habit loops/ What kind of situations trigger anxiety or other difficult feelings?
· Which behaviours has your brain learned to respond as a way to soothe or distract you?
· What is the result of those behaviours?'
When you get into an anxiety loop use:
RAIN:
- Recognise difficult feelings.
- Accept them and allow them to be there.
- Investigate the sensations in your body and emotions bubbling up.
- Note what’s going on, and simply observe yourself out of curiosity.
Resources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/health/mental-health-crisis-teens.html
OtoZen — a new driving safety app
Are you worried about your teenager getting distracted behind the wheel?
The OtoZen app helps in real time — not just after something’s gone wrong. It has voice alerts, drive scores, and even safe driving challenges you can set together, it’s the kind of tech that actually helps your teen build better habits.
OtoZen — a new driving safety app
OtoZen helps build better habits in real time with voice alerts, drive scores, and safey challenges.
This episode is sponsored by OtoZen: The brilliant new driving safety app
https://www.otozen.com
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I don't have medical training so please seek the advice of a specialist if you're not coping.
My email is teenagersuntangled@gmail.com
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You can reach Susie at www.amindful-life.co.uk