Teens and Anxiety

  There’s something I’ve been wanting to write about for a while, but it’s a hard topic and I just haven’t been able to do it. When I’ve thought about writing this, I feel overwhelmed and I can’t do it. It’s been easier to write about something or not write anything at all when I think about teens and anxiety.

That was a joke, in case you missed it. I don’t really want to make light of this issue, but I do think it’s something that is starting to get out of hand that needs to be addressed. Schools are seeing a tremendous uptick in the number of students who report feelings of anxiety and I’ve personally written countless 504 plans to address it in the past few years.

To the student, feelings of anxiety usually manifest as an immobilization to face the outside world. This leads to poor attendance in school, a weakening of relationships and social skills, and a snow-balling of more negative feelings and problems.

Teen anxiety has always been a thing, but I don’t think it used to be this bad. I think most of today’s parents can remember answering a phone and talking to a person when you didn’t know who would be on the other end. They can remember getting dressed and going out to a store or restaurant to buy stuff. They can remember socializing with friends in person, and certainly waking up every day and going to school. It doesn’t have to be like this anymore though. Young people text mostly. If they do receive a voice call, they certainly know who is calling. A variety of apps mean we can facelessly order the simplest necessities like food and even have them dropped on our doorstop without human interaction. We can spend all of Friday night hanging out online with our best friend even if they live in another state, and we can even do our school online. Then there was Covid when we were encouraged to stay away from others. That’s when the bottom really found out.

So, what we’ve created are far too many teens who don’t know how to interact. We all have days when the demons in our heads are fierce and we’d rather not face the world. Whether or not to suppress those didn’t use to be such a choice though, and when we don’t force ourselves to learn how to overcome those demons, we make it easier for them to win each progressive day.

It’s easier to use technology to avoid human interaction, we all do it, but parents would do well to stay diligent and require their children from an early age to order for themselves in restaurants, avoid the self-checkout, talk to their aunts and uncles on the phone, go to the weird kid’s birthday party, and take their AirPods out. Do the things that are certainly less convenient, but make us stare down the little demons before they become big ones.