Anxiety
ANXIETY: Is it always the enemy?
Vasiliki Dimitrakopoulou, Artemis Tsistsika
Adolescence is a transitional stage, during which, while you learn new things and try to discover your personality, your daily obligations are increased (educational, social) and the others (parents, teachers, friends) often expect too many things from you. Thus, you may sometimes feel stressed during your everyday life.
Anxiety isn’t always a negative thing. It usually proceeds every time you have an “obligation” and helps you adapt to various circumstances.
When in medium levels, anxiety is an absolutely normal emotion that helps us be better in what we do. Overanxiety causes many difficulties in life.
“The fears of being infected by a virus made me wash my hands all the time” Natasha, 13 years old.
“ I felt so stressed all the time, worrying that a person might criticize me, I was very worried about my appearance, how others looked at me, and at some point I started to avoid going to social events where there were too many people and stopped making new friends, girls or boys”, Vicky, age 14.
Normal anxiety or pathological anxiety?
Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between normal and pathological anxiety.
To be able to identify pathological anxiety, examine how uncomfortable and upset it makes you feel and also if it makes you change your everyday routine because of it.
There are 4 basic points that distinguish pathological anxiety from normal levels of anxiety:
• How stressed you feel
• How often this happens
• If you start avoiding doing the things you used to do
• If you are out of control, overreacting
Usually, your parents and friends think that someone who is anxious, “goes through hard times” or “he/she will get over it”. This, however, is not true. You may need some professional help to change the way you think and see the bright side of things.
“ It took me sometime, but I finally decided to seek help when I started having troubles sleeping, avoiding my everyday activities and when I reached a point I started isolating and losing my friends. I was constantly searching for someone to approve my every move, felt sadness and sorrow, had often abdominal pain and headaches”, Natalia, 15 years old.
Try loving and accepting yourself for who you are, your strengths and weaknesses. When you feel good about yourself, you don’t need to worry about your performance or how others see you.
Also try replacing your worries with a few positive self-declarations that you can repeat to yourself each time you don’t feel so well, such as:
-“I can do everything I set my mind to”
– “I am unique”
– “Everything will be fine”
– “There is a solution to every problem”
– ”All my efforts will pay off”
Vassiliki DimitrakopoulouPsychologist, Scientific Associate of the Greek Society of Adolescent Medicine
Artemis Tsitsika
Ass. Professor of Pediatrics - Adolescent Medicine
Scientific Coordinator of the Program "PROLEPSIS» ran by the Greek Society of Adolescent Medicine
