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Section TitleEmotions & Life
  • Depression
    • Self-esteem
    • Social Anxiety
    • Teen Depression
    • Teen Anxiety
    Main content

    Teens and Anxiety

    Everyone feels anxious from time to time. Mild to moderate anxiety can help you focus your attention, energy and motivation. Physical symptoms of anxiety include:

    • Trembling, twitching, or shaking
    • Feeling of fullness in the throat or chest
    • Breathlessness
    • Lightheadedness
    • Sweating or cold, clammy hands
    • Muscle tension, aches, or soreness
    • Fatigue
    • Sleep problems
    You may have felt this way before a final exam or a sports competition. Once the exam was over, the symptoms went away. However, if your anxiety is chronic -- it stays with you most of the time-- that may be a sign of a bigger problem.

    • Types of Anxiety

    Types of Anxiety

    • General anxiety: feeling stressed and worrying about many everyday events and activities, that may be small and not important
    • Social Anxiety: an extreme fear of being judged or embarrassed in public. Symptoms might be butterflies in your stomach, sweaty palms, heart may pound, sweating, and even difficulty breathing.
    • Panic Attacks: sudden feeling of extreme anxiety or intense fear without a clear cause. Symptoms include rapid breathing, racing heart, dizziness, and/or tightness in your chest.
    • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): is a disorder characterized by repeated unwanted thoughts and repeated tasks that help get rid of the thoughts.
    • Post-traumatic stress disorder: symptoms that usually occur after something awful happens in your life including lack of lseep, nightmares, repeating thoughts and images, feeling anxious, losing interest in things, and having trouble concentrating.
    • Phobias: extreme and irrational fears that interfere with daily life.

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