Every year students go back to school, and every new school year means another year to deal with stress and anxiety. This year, there are more ways to help combat anxiety, and make school feel like a positive place.
In addition to anxiety, many students may not know the difference between anxious and anxiety. Many [students] may think they’re both the same thing. With anxiousness it’s a temporary feeling. It goes away quickly, and it only happens the moment you feel anxious. Meanwhile anxiety is a disorder that stays for as long as six weeks to a few years. If the anxiety is persistent, get medical professionals involved.
Learning how to cope with anxiety comes with understanding how anxiety works.
“Anxiety is a threat response. Anxiety is your body responding to a threat that’s not there. And your body starts acting like you’re in danger, and there’s not really a danger there,” counselor Mark Vitelli said.
Anxiety is an umbrella. There are many types of anxiety disorders. Some of the most common diagnoses with teens are generalized and social anxiety. Some of the following are other diagnoses under the umbrella are; separation anxiety, panic attacks, agoraphobia and selective mutism.
There are many ways that people cope with anxious feelings.
“So for me, it’s very much some music. So anytime I feel myself getting anxious about something, I’ve got a few playlists that I’ll listen to, and I just let somebody lower my shoulders a little bit,” School Psychologist Elizabeth Halmon said.
A few other ways to cope with anxiety would be by exercising. Exercising helps release endorphins, which are chemicals in the brain that help boost the mood. This helps make the body feel euphoric.
Students may have a hard time balancing their school and home life, unaware of how to balance work. This can make a lot of students panic internally, some [students] may feel their fight or flight response activate.
When their flight response is activated they may feel the need to get away from their work. When their fight response is activated it can cause triggering events, such as anxiety attacks. Some students may even stop doing their school work because it is overwhelming, and causes them to have anxiety attacks.
However, there are several ways to manage school work, so it doesn’t become overwhelming.
“Some ways to help manage anxiety when it comes to school work is to break down the task instead of looking at the whole assignment, do them as early as possible, and make a list of what you need to do” senior Ricky Nguyen said.
There are also some great techniques you can use to calm your body down.
Breathing exercises can help slow your heart rate down. Another exercise you can do is by distracting yourself, one of the ways you can distract yourself is by reading, coloring or listening to music.
If listening to music helps you, you can always listen to music on your computer. Just make sure your teacher allows you to listen to music in class.
“[Students] can use the rubber band method which is where they have a hair tie and they pull it and let it go,” sophomore Isabella Izaguirre said.
This exercise may help students stay in the present moment and focus on their surroundings rather than anxious thoughts.
In addition to coping methods, some students may calm down alone. Feeling alone may be best for some students, allowing them time to think and reflect on their feelings.
By using these methods, students can learn how to cope with their anxiety, whether it’s at home or at school.
If students need emotional support, they can always talk to their counselor. If students feel like the counselor isn’t the best option they can always go to the school psychologist, Elizabeth Halmon.
If students don’t want to talk through the school, they can always use Hazel. Hazel is partnered with FCPS, Hazel has licensed medical therapists that do virtual appointments.
