What is anxiety?
A feeling many people may experience 💛
Quick summary 📝
1️⃣ Anxiety involves feelings of unease and worry, triggered by specific situations – though sometimes causes are unclear
2️⃣ When someone’s anxious, the body's "fight or flight" response to stress releases hormones, causing physical symptoms
3️⃣ Anxiety causes vary, and identifying these causes can help in overcoming it
4️⃣ Anxiety symptoms include sleep disturbances, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, physical discomfort, worry, and potential panic attacks
5️⃣ Seeking help and learning anxiety management techniques are important steps for those experiencing anxiety or supporting others with it
--------------------------------------------
Being a teenager isn’t easy - life has highs and lows, and everyone is learning about how best to manage them. This means emotions can go up and down too. Anxiety is a common and powerful feeling that people may experience when difficult situations arise 😣 Anxiety can be a scary feeling but hopefully this article will help you feel more confident in handling this feeling on a daily basis 💪
What is anxiety? 🔎
Anxiety originates with a feeling of unease and worry that some people can find hard to control 🧠Sometimes this is caused by a specific trigger, but sometimes this trigger can be difficult or impossible to identify.
Anxiety can last for a short time whilst the trigger is still there, or sometimes can become more long term if the triggers continue to be present, even if we can’t quite identify them.
Causes of anxiety ✍️
Different things cause different people to worry, including:
- Small or big changes in our lives, like moving school or house, or going to university 🏡
- Social occasions, like meeting new people, or forming new relationships 🤝
- Certain fears or worries, like speaking in a room full of people, or being close to animals, because of things that have happened in their past 🐱
- When sad things happen, like a relative passing away, or parents arguing at home 😠
Whatever the cause is, trying to identify it can be extremely useful in working to overcome the anxiety 💪
Symptoms of anxiety
Anxiety can manifest in different ways and to varied severity levels; therefore, knowing what the common symptoms of anxiety are can help. Symptoms include:
- Finding it hard to sleep / stay asleep 😴
- Being easily tired or exhausted 🥱
- Having difficulty concentrating 💭
- Being irritable 😒
- Having headaches, muscle aches, stomach aches, or unexplained pains 🧠
- Being unable to control feelings of worry 😔
- Having a panic attack - this is different for different people but can involve breathing quickly, the heart beating fast, or having pins and needles 💓
Now that you’ve read about what anxiety is - if you think this is something that you or those around you might have experienced, then try reading the luna article on how to manage anxiety and when to get help in the app now.
How we answered this question:
luna's team of experts comprises GPs, Dermatologists, Safeguarding Leads and Junior Doctors as well as Medical Students with specialised interests in paediatric care, mental health and gynaecology. Questions are answered and reviewed by this team.
For more content, download the luna app
