Teens experience stress and anxiety on a regular basis. They might get anxious while taking a final exam, while trying out for the school play or before giving a speech in front of their English class. It's normal to feel anxiety, but it's important to know how to cope with it in healthy ways. If teens feel overwhelming anxiety and don't know how to deal with it, they can develop anxiety disorders.
Get Moving
It's important for teenagers to get exercise on a regular basis; however, you won't see many adolescents running on a treadmill at 6 a.m. to get their daily dose of exercise. It's easier to work exercise into your routine if you can find something that you enjoy. Join the soccer team, ride your bike with a friend to the mall or take gymnastics lessons. If you're held accountable for exercising by playing a sport or doing it with a friend, you're more likely to follow through with it regularly. This is one of the most effective things you can do to reduce anxiety without therapy or medication, because exercising helps you concentrate throughout the day while increasing your energy level.
Combat Anxious Thoughts
Reduce and combat anxious thoughts on a regular basis. Teens can reduce their symptoms of anxiety if they learn how their thoughts affect their emotions, which affect their behaviors. For instance, a teen who suffers from social anxiety may think that no one will like her, which makes her feel anxious when she has to meet new people, start a new class or return to school in the fall. If she combats that thinking by focusing on times when peers accepted her, she'll be less anxious and more successful at making friends.
Learn Relaxation Techniques
A teen who struggles with anxiety needs to learn how to reduce anxiety in the moment. He needs to figure out a way to lower symptoms of anxiety right before his math test or book report in order to be successful. A simple relaxation technique that any teen can implement when anxious is deep breathing. The teenager should focus on his breathing for at least 10 breaths while taking deep breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth.
Another relaxation technique that adolescents can use is called visualization. Teens should practice this technique when they're not feeling anxious to learn how to use it. To implement this technique, the teen should close his eyes and focus on a place where he feels safe and happy and focus on all the senses in that safe place. For instance, a teen might feel safe and happy in his bedroom, so he could think about the yellow walls, the way the comforter feels on a cold winter day and the smells of the vanilla incense burning on the dresser. This should help alleviate anxiety for the time being.
