Blog

Anxiety in our Daughters

Anxiety among teens and young adults is rising…studies have shown that it has
skyrocketed in females. One study found that the number of girls who often felt
nervous, worries, or fearful increased by 55% over a five-year-period. What factors
are behind this rise in stress and anxiety in our girls and what can we do about it?
Diagnosing and treating anxiety requires expertise. However, parents and loved ones
are usually the first to spot the signs of anxiety in our children. You are your
daughter’s first line of defense. Young girls often cannot identify or minimize their
feelings. How caregivers react to stress and anxiety goes a long way in dictating what
happens next with their children. Realizing when anxiety and/or stress levels are
abnormal, unhealthy, or unmanageable for the child is the first step.

Girls are now expected to cope with the pressure of living up to the “perfect” images
they see on TV, social media, and in magazines. The need to live up to and compare
themselves with the images they see every day can become overwhelming. Imagine
for a moment…every day you live with the stress that anything you do or say can be
recorded or caught on camera and then sent through social media or texting for
everyone you know to see…just the fear of someone catching you in a bad picture and
sending it out is enough to cause severe anxiety in our females.

I have clients as young as seven-years-old worried about what peers think of them and
are worried about being bullied. As girls mature, they become even more aware of
how they appear to others. This sensitivity to emotional stimuli can make them more
vulnerable to anxiety disorders. Research shows that by mid-adolescence, girls are
twice as likely to develop mood disorders compared to boys. Teens who have a history
of anxiety from childhood may have created their life and routines built around their
anxieties; this is why it is important to diagnose and treat anxiety early on as it is
more challenging to treat anxiety the longer a person has lived with it.

Signs of Anxiety:

Social changes: suddenly avoiding social activities (not hanging out with
friends, not participating in after school activities they used to enjoy, etc.) Sudden decrease in grades: anxiety can make it difficult to pay attention and
to focus on schoolwork. Recurring fears and worries about routine parts of everyday life
Substance use: may have a calming effect. Irritability
Extreme self-consciousness. Sensitivity to criticism
Avoidance of difficult or new situations. Chronic complaints about stomachaches or headaches. Restlessness or feeling on edge.
Easily tired. Muscle tension. Sleep disturbance (difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleeping too much)
Typically, younger girls complain of more physical symptoms while older girls will
have more internal symptoms. Anxiety can also cause depression, eating disorders,
self-harm, or suicidal ideation.

How to Help

Avoidance is the strategy that I most often see teens use to cope with anxiety.
However, this usually makes anxiety worse. When a child avoids something that she is
anxious about, her anxiety drops. This leads her to believe that avoidance is a reliable
coping strategy when in fact, the avoidance prevents her from learning how to
positively cope with an anxious situation. Facing and conquering the anxious situation
is the key to overcoming anxiety.
The most common treatment for anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy
which teaches a person to challenge negative thoughts and learn to think outside of
their usual patterns. A combination of parenting skills, cognitive behavioral therapy,
and mind/body work, either before trying medication or in combination with it, can
be the help that changes the life of your teen.
If you or someone you live is experiencing any of these symptoms, please contact our
office at 501-575-0510. Our therapist, Lauren McKnight Woody, provides affordable,
high quality behavioral health services designed to meet individual, family,
organizational, and community needs.
We will give your daughter strategies for managing the strains that come with being
female in this culture so that they are not trying to navigate this world alone.