One teen scenario: A number of causes for anxiety
There are a million things that could stir anxiety within your teenager. In high school, your teenager is particularly conscious of his appearance and attitude, and how others perceive him. A party at a friend’s house can create a number of causes for anxiety in a teenager. It can leave a teenage girl with stomach cramps just thinking of how she will act when she comes face to face with her crush. It can make a teenage guy’s hands sweat with just a mention of how much alcohol he should be able to take in by one of his buds. For another girl it can leave her stomach in a knot with thoughts of how her boyfriend may end up pressuring her to have sex that night. It can even make a guy tremble with the thought of the kind of drugs that the other guys may end up offering him at the party. This is just one teen scenario, but in it exist a number of ways that anxiety can attack your teenager.
New Challenges in High School
When you think of it, there is a whole lot that could affect your teen in a myriad of ways. The new challenges that your adolescent may face in school performance can cause enough stress to trigger an anxiety attack within your teen. High school is a much more demanding learning environment than middle school.
It will take adjustment on your teen’s part as well as a resiliency to keep going at it when the going gets tough. Simply working on his homework in front of the television when he gets home may no longer bring back the results desired. He will have to put in real effort and focus on the subject matter. Examinations and the manner in which teachers may hold their classes can easily be a major cause of anxiety for a teenager. Peer pressure is but another factor that can cause much stress for your teen.
Saying no to one’s peer when it seems that everyone is saying yes can be extremely hard on your teen. He may feel that he’s out on a limb where either answer can cause him a significant amount of distress. For example, if he says no to drugs, then he knows that his peers may laugh at him and make him the butt of jokes. This is complete social annihilation for a teenager wanting only to fit in. But then if he says yes, he may be scared of the consequences that his body may face. In order to fight anxiety, it is essential for your teen to realize that his peers do not have a hold on him. He is the artist holding the brush that will paint the work of art which is his life, and it is by his own strokes that he will thrive. |
