Coping with anxiety and stress
Anxiety and stress are very common for children and young people and can show up in different ways – worry, anger, withdrawal, physical symptoms (like headaches or stomach aches), or changes in sleep and behaviour. Talking about how they’re feeling can really help.
It can be useful for children and young people to understand a bit more about anxiety.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is our response to stressful events, it’s a bit like your body hitting the alarm button to indicate something’s wrong. It’s a natural response, but sometimes it goes off too much, too often or for too long. You might not even know why you feel anxious, or you might project your anxiety onto something else. This is when anxiety can affect our lives and how we think, feel and act.
Why do we feel anxious?
As we evolved, our brains developed an alarm system that triggers what is known as the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ response – which is the response when your body prepares for a dangerous situation. Even though we don’t face the same sort of dangers as we did in the past, we can still experience the fight or flight response when we feel anxious.
There are many different reasons that we might feel anxious, for young people it might be school, friendships, relationships, social media, sexuality, bereavement or many other reasons.
What might help?
Get to know your anxiety – notice when it happens and how it makes you feel – learn your warning signs and feel more in control.
Try to challenge unhelpful self-talk – for example, if you’re thinking “I can’t do this” trying saying to yourself “I’m trying my best.”
Try doing something to help you relax – Everyone is different and it’s important to figure out the things that might help you relax.
Take care of yourself – Self-care is so important – think about the things that you do that make you feel better, maybe you can create your own self-care package.
Talk to someone – speaking to someone that you trust can help you make sense of things in your head, and it can help you find new ways to cope.
Helpful leaflets
Websites
NSPCC – 🔗Support a child with depression or anxiety
BBC – 🔗Anxiety and school avoidance
NHS – 🔗Anxiety in children
Barnardo’s – 🔗Anxiety in children and young people