Do you wonder why teen anxiety is on the rise? Teens are increasingly feeling out of control of their world and this has led to an epidemic of anxiety among our youth.
This is what I want these poor loves to know: You are not out of control of your world, not even a little bit. And this suffering that you are going through? It is temporary and highly treatable. You can get better and I can show you how. Watch this video for the four most important things to keep in mind to handle and dismantle your anxiety.
Yes, I talk about anxiety as a separate entity than you. You are not anxiety. Anxiety is this thing that influences you, tries to get you to obey it and tries to isolate you from everything good in your life. It does not have your best interest at heart. It is a menace and just creates pure suffering. You might feel like it controls you but that is a lie. Remember the three tenets that I speak about in my video: 1) Anxiety lies. 2)You have more power than you think you have, and 3) This feeling is temporary.
Here's what I want you to know in order to stop anxiety in its tracks.
1. Don't be scared
Anxiety perpetuates when the brain continues to release adrenaline when you are afraid of the feelings of it. This becomes a cycle. Cognitively you know you are not in physical danger, but it feels so horrible you are afraid that you’ll lose your mind. The more you are afraid, the more your brain releases adrenaline, the higher your anxiety gets, and then the more afraid you are. The best way to stop being afraid is to understand what is happening in the brain. When you know what is happening and how to stop it, you can stop it!
Not understanding anxiety makes it so much worse, because anxiety makes you feel like a freak of nature, even though you are quite normal and what you feel is very common.
You want to go deeper than what you learned about flight or fright in science class-because that hasn't helped. See here Biology of Fear to learn what the brain needs to stop this cycle!
2. Don't judge yourself
Anxiety doesn't mean there is something wrong with you. It can happen to anyone. Anxiety has nothing to do with strength, character or courage.
When you judge yourself harshly, you make it so much worse. Negative self-judgment sticks anxiety to you. It increase the energy and intensity of the anxiety physiologically, and it breaks you down emotionally. It also is the foundation for you not trusting yourself. Trust is the opposite of anxiety. Once you have trust that you can handle things, anxiety cannot touch you anymore. This can be built from practice.
3. Act
Do something. When you learn more about it biologically, you will see how the chemicals in your body shift when you do something. Action is the whole point of adrenaline, so use it up.
It helps more than physiologically, too. Doing things and having a sense of accomplishment, builds self-confidence. When you problem solve, you are stimulating the part of your brain that settles your anxiety. Activity also helps by giving you a sense of purpose.
4. Distract
This goes with taking action. Keep busy! Anxiety demands your attention. It needs your brain space to perpetuate. Use that brain space for something else. You have to consciously, repeatedly take that attention and put it towards something you'd rather think about.
Don't judge yourself or resent having to do this. Enjoy it! You get to do fun things!
This might be difficult at first, because anxiety grabs you, but try something easy like funny videos on YouTube and then do something a little more engaging. It'll get easier.
So there you have it. Start here. And keep going. I have more ways to help, when you want more. Get started with my biology of fear video.
And comment below.
What is the best thing you can do to distract yourself?