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Hi friends!
Do you have worries in your head
that are difficult to control?
Do you feel nervous or anxious before
or during certain activities? Anxiety
is an emotion that all kids and teens experience.
Today you will learn how to manage
anxiety by following 2 simple steps:
1) Understand Your Triggers,
Causes, And Symptoms Of Anxiety
2) Use Coping Skills To Reduce
And Better Manage Anxiety
Anxiety is your brain and body’s way of letting
you know you are threatened or in danger.
This is a normal, automatic, and good response
intended to help you survive dangerous situations.
The problem with anxiety is that although
it is intended to protect you, it often
comes up during moments when you are not truly
threatened or in danger. It can sometimes cause
you to avoid normal situations or activities
that make you nervous, worried, or fearful.
The first step to managing your anxiety is
to become more aware of how anxiety impacts
you by understanding triggers, causes, and
symptoms of anxiety. You can do this by:
1) Learning about the things that trigger your
anxiety. A trigger is something that causes
you to feel worried, nervous, or anxious. There
are many things that can trigger your anxiety.
Examples of triggers might include: being
in a large crowd of people, taking a test,
giving a speech or presentation, being
away from your parents, or being teased
or bullied. It can be helpful to sit down
with yourself, a parent, or a counselor to
make a list of all the things that trigger your
anxiety. Once you know your anxiety triggers,
you can then start making plans to turn
to coping skills when a trigger arises.
2) Understanding the underlying causes
of your anxiety. Underlying causes of
anxiety are things such as personality
type, brain chemistry, social pressures,
school pressures, genetics, or life stresses.
Personality types that contribute to
anxiety might include being a perfectionist,
being overly negative, or
being critical of yourself.
Sometimes chemicals in our
brain misfire, causing anxiety.
Social pressures include negative peers, feeling
like you don’t fit in, or being judged by others.
School pressures include grades, parent
or teacher expectations, not enough time,
or trouble understanding or
keeping up with schoolwork.
A family history of anxiety often plays
a role in how severe our anxiety is.
Life stresses that can cause anxiety might
include stressful situations at
home, school, or with friends.
Other things that might cause anxiety include
health issues, medication, or drugs and alcohol.
Understanding the causes of your anxiety can help
you develop skills and positive habits to better
manage it. For example, if school pressure is
the cause, then you might want to work with
a parent or teacher to come up with a study or
organizational plan to help reduce your anxiety.
But if the cause is related to genetics or brain
chemistry, then you might want to talk to a
counselor or doctor about how you can best manage
your symptoms. It can be helpful to sit down with
yourself, a parent, or a counselor to make a
list of all the possible causes of your anxiety.
3) Noticing signs and symptoms you
experience when you are feeling anxious.
There are many signs and symptoms
that kids feel when they have anxiety.
Common symptoms of anxiety might include:
Feeling worried or nervous, stomachaches or
butterflies in your stomach, your hands or legs
shaking, trembling voice, tense muscles, racing
heartbeat, trouble concentrating, trouble falling
asleep, or feeling irritable or easily annoyed.
For more information on common signs and
symptoms of anxiety check out the links in
the description below. Take some time to sit down
with yourself, a parent, or a counselor to make a
list of all the symptoms you experience when you
are anxious or worried. Our anxiety symptoms can
be helpful signals to let us know that it is time
to use a coping skill to calm our brain and body.
The next big step to managing anxiety
is to use helpful coping skills to
reduce and better manage your
anxiety. Using coping skills is
one of the top strategies that kids
and teens can do to manage anxiety.
Let’s start by breaking down anxiety
coping skills into 4 main categories:
1) Relaxation Skills – These are things
you can do to relax your brain and body.
Examples of relaxation skills for anxiety include:
taking 3 deep breaths, tensing and relaxing
your muscles, meditating, taking a nap,
massaging your neck or shoulders, thinking of
a peaceful place, or using a relaxation app.
(“Number 2”)
2) Distraction Skills – These
are things you can do to get your mind off of
your anxiety. The key to distractions skills
is to not just escape the anxious situation, but
instead to take some time to get your mind off of
your anxiety, and then return feeling calm
and under control. Examples of distraction
skills for anxiety include: counting from
one to one hundred, listening to music,
reading or listening to an audio book, watching
a movie, doing a puzzle, or engaging in a hobby.
3) Movement Skills – These are things you can
do to move your body to physically release your
anxious emotion. Examples of movement skills
include: Exercising, cleaning or organizing
your room, going for a walk, riding your
bike, stretching, yoga, or martial arts.
4) Thinking Skills – Anxiety often makes us think
negative thoughts. These negative thoughts make us
feel like (“One”): 1) The worst possible situation
will happen to us, and (“Two”): 2) you won't be
able to handle that situation. But the reality is
that the worst-case scenario almost never happens,
and if difficult situations do happen, we can
handle them. To counter your anxious thoughts,
you can use thinking skills such as coaching
yourself through the anxious situation,
telling yourself encouraging statements,
visualizing a peaceful place, focusing on
things you are grateful for, or challenging
and talking back to your anxious thoughts.
For those of you who would like
to go deeper into coping skills,
we can break down anxiety coping
skills into 4 additional categories:
1) Grounding Skills. These are a type of
Relaxation Skill that help to “ground” you
in the present moment, so you don’t
stress about the past or the future.
One of the most common grounding skills is called
the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique. For this skill
you sit down calmly, and notice your 5 senses.
Start by taking a deep breath to relax your
brain and body. Then, focus on the present moment
and notice 5 things you can see, 4 things you can
touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can
smell, and 1 thing you can taste. If there is
nothing for you to smell or taste, you can simply
imagine smelling or tasting something you enjoy.
2) Creative Outlets. Creative outlets
are a type of Distraction Skill. They
involve engaging in a positive, enjoyable
activity using your creativity. Examples of
creative outlets include writing, reading,
drawing, coloring, painting, building,
or anything artistic, creative, and productive
that can help get your mind off of your anxiety.
3) Good health habits. Health habits are a
very important shield to help defend against
anxiety. If you have poor health habits
then your brain and body are less able to
manage anxiety when it comes up. Good health
habits include eating well, sleeping well,
movement or exercise, stress management
skills, and reducing caffeine or energy drinks.
4) Self-Care. Self-care is anything that helps
you take care of your mind, body, and emotions.
Self-care includes resting or
taking a nap, taking a break,
getting out in nature, good hygiene, getting a
drink of water, or taking a warm bath or shower.
There are literally hundreds of coping skills kids
can use to better manage their anxiety. What’s
important is to identify the coping skills that
work best for you, and then turn to those coping
skills whenever you feel worried or anxious.
Coping skills may not completely eliminate
your anxiety, but they are great tools to help
reduce your anxiety to a more manageable level.
If you are having trouble
managing anxiety on your own,
consider talking to a parent, teacher or
counselor to get some additional support.
If you found this video helpful
don’t forget to like, share,
and subscribe! For more social emotional and
mental health resources for kids and teens,
including visually appealing worksheets,
handouts, posters, and infographics please
visit www.mentalhealthcenterkids.com.
Thanks for watching!
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