Teen Life Crisis: How Anxiety is Affecting Teens in 2023
Adolescence is rapidly changing for American teenagers. Teenagers are reporting greater symptoms of anxiety as well as depression. Troublesome teenage behaviors like binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy, and smoking have all decreased, but mental health disorders are on the rise. In 2019, the CDC reported that anxiety affects 9.4% or approximately 5.8 million children and teens ages 3-17. This has only increased in recent years post-pandemic. Anxiety disorders seem to be particularly affecting children and teens. This surge in reported anxiety disorders has led some to label this mental health crisis a teen life crisis. It is important to understand what might be causing anxiety for teens, what it looks like, and how to help teens navigate this crisis.
Symptoms of Anxiety: What Does it Look Like?
Anxiety disorders vary from teen to teen. Typically signs of anxiety look like excessive fears and worries, agitation, restlessness, and heightened awareness of dangers. Sometimes anxious feelings can lead to panic attacks which could include physical symptoms. Teens may describe feeling muscle tension, cramps, stomach aches, headaches, pain in the limbs and back, or fatigue. Teens may report feeling flushed, sweaty, hyperventilating, trembling, and being easily startled.
When teens experience anxiety symptoms, they may also show symptoms of depression. Anxiety and depression often occur together with 75% of children and teens with depression also describing symptoms of anxiety. Anxiety disorders can look like dependence on parents or friends to do things for them, withdrawal, and uneasiness. Teens may share that they worry about losing control or that they don't have "what it takes” Teens with anxiety will generally appear more agitated and on edge. They may even lash out at others who are close to them because they feel so overwhelmed.
What is Causing This Spike in Anxiety in Teenagers?
Different researchers have theorized what may be causing this rise in anxiety. It is challenging to accurately know because it is such a new phenomenon. However, there are five potential causes for the rise in anxiety.
Social media
Social media is commonplace in the lives of teens. Children and teens are owning and using iPhones and social media at younger and younger ages. This has presented a unique challenge for teens. One of the biggest developmental tasks for teens is to discover their identity and their individuality. Teenagers are uniquely sensitive to the perceived judgments of their peers. Self-esteem fluctuates up and down for teens depending on if their friends like, comment, or "snap" a teen back.
While there is no concrete evidence that anxiety is directly caused by social media, it does seem to be correlated. Anxiety rates have coincidentally skyrocketed around the emergence of the first iPhone in 2008. Teens feel pressure to know if they are doing it "well enough" and are experiencing increased comparison. Teens are constantly comparing themselves to their friends. Likes, comments, Snapchats, and text responses are all little indicators of how a teen is doing socially. Teens are keeping a subconscious tally of their performance which causes them to experience anxiety.
2. Increased Academic Pressure
Academics are at the forefront of the pressures that teens face. 59% of teens say that they plan to attend a four-year college after they finish high school. College-bound teens are more likely to report feeling pressure to get good grades. As college admissions continue to get more competitive, many teens feel they have to go above and beyond. Many teens feel like they have to outperform their peers when it comes to academics. This increases anxious feelings in teens. The anxiety of constantly studying and getting perfect or near-perfect grades is overwhelming.
3. Decreased Social Interactions
Teens are experiencing fewer social interactions than they used to have. Two factors have contributed to this. One factor includes the repercussions of the pandemic. When many teens experienced quarantine and social distancing, they missed important developmental social milestones. A major task of adolescence is developing healthy social interactions. Many teens are experiencing a social delay after experiencing so much isolation. This may possibly contribute to an increase in anxiety disorders, as well as depression.
A second possible reason for decreased social interaction has been the increase in technology use. When many teens gather, they tend to be together on their phones, rather than engaging in real life and real conversation. When adolescents only experience virtual connection, rather than a real physical connection, it can create a spike in mental health challenges in young people.
4. More News About Bad News
Another possible reason for increased anxiety is that they are receiving more news about bad news. Humans are more connected to the world than ever before. Teens are only exposed to snippets of headlines which are usually full of bad news. Adolescents experience stress when they are constantly told about the latest pandemic-related danger, the newest political challenge, or the latest controversial topic trending on Twitter.
Adolescents live in an anxious world which increases personal anxiety. Children and adolescents need a break from all the bad news that they are constantly being exposed to.
5. Teens Are More Dependent on Parents
Parents want to protect their teenagers. Many parents want their children to succeed in all areas of life. They want to make sure their kids have the perfect experience at school, are involved in all the right extracurricular activities, and have just the right friendships and experiences. While so many parents want to make sure their teenagers are successful, it can lead to a decrease in resilience among teenagers. This decreased resilience has contributed to an increase in anxiety disorders when faced with challenging situations.
Many parents would admit to having worry and fear about their kid's well-being and future. The anxiety that parents experience can sometimes contribute to the anxiety of their children. In the hustle to constantly make sure their kids succeed, many parents actually are spending less time with their kids. In fact, 65% of parents and 45% of teens say that they would want to spend more time with their kids. In The Price of Privilege, Madeline Levine says that the rise in anxiety disorders can be correlated to living an increasingly busy life. Teenagers want real physical relationships with their parents as much as they often seem to push their parents away.
How to Help Teens Navigate Anxiety
Teens who experience anxiety are looking for peace and calm in their lives. Anxiety in teens can be helped with a variety of methods. An adolescent can benefit from learning coping strategies to help with anxiety. Coping strategies can include meditation, breathing, and having a safe place to talk in person.
Therapy can also help teens who experience anxiety. Therapy can provide a safe place where teens can talk about the anxiety that they experience. Therapy can help an adolescent understand the root cause of the anxiety, why it is present in an adolescent's life, and how to create a path of healing from anxiety.
Ember Counseling Can Help Your Teen's Anxiety
At Ember Counseling Atlanta, we help teenagers in the Atlanta area develop ways to find peace and calm in their lives. Ember Counseling Atlanta helps teenagers and their families to find out how anxiety became a problem, learn strategies to lessen anxiety, and build resiliency factors in life.
If you are ready to help your teen find peace and calm, reach out today by booking a free consultation. Fill out a contact form, and our administrative assistant Courtney will reach out to help schedule a free 15-minute consultation with Ash. On the phone call, we will discuss what is going on in your teen's life, answer any questions about counseling, and talk about how to get started.
Begin Anxiety Therapy in Atlanta, GA
Having anxiety as a teen can be overwhelming. Your teen doesn’t have to face their anxiety alone. At my Atlanta, GA counseling practice, your teen can find additional support and coping skills he may need with teen counseling that focuses on anxiety in teens. Follow these simple steps to get started:
Contact us to set up a free consultation.
Begin teen counseling for anxiety with Ash Blanton, Teen Therapist in Atlanta, GA
See the positive changes in your teen’s anxiety symptoms.
Other Services Offered at Ember Counseling Atlanta
Anxiety therapy isn’t the only service I offer at my Atlanta, GA counseling practice. I provide in-person and online counseling services in Atlanta, GA for the whole family including teen counseling, depression therapy, and family counseling. I also provide an Intensive Three-Day Counseling Workshop for those who want to speed up the healing process. Check out Ember Counseling Atlanta’s blog and FAQs for more information!
