Anxiety Disorders Among Students

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Anxiety is a natural human reaction involving both the mind and the body. It acts as an alarm system activated whenever a person perceives danger or threat.

When an individual’s body reacts to a threat, they can have an increased pulse rate, sweaty palms, tense muscles, and trembling hands or legs.

Anxiety disorder is a mental health condition. Most people with anxiety disorders tend to respond to particular issues and situations with fear and dread.

Experiencing mild anxiety from time to time is normal for all human beings. However, excessive stress, fear, and worry can transform into a disorder when it tampers with your routine activities.

Research shows that the prevalence of anxiety is different across different ages and gender. Thus, it is imperative to consider anxiety disorders among different age groups.

This article focuses on anxiety disorder among students, especially teens, to see its prevalence and causes. We focus on real-life issues that we can observe among teens.

What is an anxiety disorder?

An anxiety disorder entails feeling nervous, worried, fearful, and apprehension. In some cases, anxiety can be justified. For example, anxiety can be justified when one has lost a loved one or fear of an examination since situational occurrences cause them.

The symptoms can be sudden, while they can build gradually in some cases. In most cases, persons with anxiety disorders cannot justify the cause of their emotions, sensations, and worries.

This disorder interferes with the affected person’s ability to perform routine activities and sleep.

Why do teenagers experience anxiety disorders at higher rates?

Most teenagers suffer from an anxiety disorder because they are at a higher risk of being irritated by the emotional challenges they encounter.

Teenagers experience stress and conflicts; however, most do not know how to handle them. Students also do not share their challenges because they believe no one will understand how they feel.

Additionally, most teenagers are worried about their future because of the fear of the unknown. For example, some wonder if they will get their dream jobs.

Anxiety raises concerns at extreme levels when the affected person act irrationally. It makes it challenging for them to pay attention to their studies in most cases.

Approximately 14 percent of teenagers suffer from anxiety disorders. Most teens suffering from anxiety become rebellious towards their parents and teachers.

Under what circumstances can anxiety be positive?

Anxiety disorder can positively impact when used to respond to a tense situation. For example, students can have mild anxiety during exam preparation, pushing them to have sleepless nights to excel in their exams.

If you are a parent or a teen reading this article, I know you have experienced this at one point with your teenagers. Students can also attest to this.

Adverse impacts of anxiety disorders among students

Extreme anxiety poses harmful effects on the affected individuals. The primary challenge experienced by students with an anxiety disorder is a lack of focus and concentration in their studies because their attention is diverted to stressful events.

In some scenarios, anxiety disorders among teenagers can affect their relationships with friends, peers, and teachers. As a result, they adopt avoidance as the best strategy.

However, this can have adverse impacts on their academic performance.

Anxiety disorder symptoms include panic, distress, and fear. Persons with anxiety disorders struggle with their studies because they do not have the courage in what they are doing.

Some students do not trust their work; thus, they have a stereotyped belief that they cannot record an excellent performance. Therefore, some feel disappointed and frustrated. This is because they have a negative perception of things; hence, they consider themselves failures.

These challenges justify why students with anxiety disorders face severe academic challenges.

Secondly, students with anxiety disorders exhibit diverted attention because they focus on interfering and irrelevant thoughts. As a result, they leave little attention to cognitive activities, such as learning.

You will all agree that school activities, such as lectures, assignments, and exams require sustained maximum concentration and focus.

On the contrary, anxiety disorders disrupt our concentration in these educational tasks. Therefore, this disorder negatively impacts performance in studies.

How can we avoid these anxiety-related challenges among students?

The first responsibility is with parents, guardians, and caregivers. Family is the basic social unit responsible for socializing their members to be responsible and moral.

Therefore, parents should be tolerant of their teenagers by giving a listening ear and acknowledging their feelings. These measures will encourage teens to have a candid discussion with their parents to find a solution to their anxiety disorders.

Thus, if the family unit acts responsibly by playing its socialization role effectively, extreme anxiety among students will be an issue of the past.

Secondly, school counselors should play an active role in mitigating students’ anxiety disorders by using the symptoms as an early warning. Teachers should collaborate with school counselors to assist students before their anxiety reach extreme levels.

Mental health professionals and therapists can also treat anxiety disorders. In most cases, therapists use individual symptoms to diagnose a specific condition and develop a treatment plan.

Therapists often use Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The approach makes it easy for students with an anxiety disorder to learn new ways to think and act in situations that can cause anxiety.

This cognitive-behavioral therapy helps persons with anxiety disorder manage stress. Therapists offer support and guidance. They also teach new coping strategies, such as relaxation techniques and breathing exercises.

In some cases, medication can be prescribed as part of anxiety treatment.

My parting shot

Remember that anxiety disorders do not go away unless they are treated. Thus, it is crucial for teens with the disorder to share their feelings and challenges with those who can give them a listening ear.

Society has self-sustaining structures to curb anxiety-related challenges. For example, if you cannot trust your parents with anxiety symptoms you face, you can seek help from school counselors, trusted relatives, or religious leaders.

There is only one way to happiness: to cease worrying about things beyond the power of our will. Also, note that anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows but only empties today of its strength.