Anxiety; teenagers and adults alike are struggling with it, now more than ever, but the toll our current lifestyle has taken on us has negatively impacted students all over the world. The stress of online platforms, exams, and assignments coupled with social isolation make for skyrocketing rates of anxiety.
As functioning members of society, education is our foundation, the building blocks to develop social skills and the ability to lead a healthy and fulfilling life, but if the stress and pressure of our schooling systems manage to build, handling the workload may just be near impossible.
The outbreak of COVID-19 tipped the scale and around the world, students are noticing and experiencing a decline in their mental health; a survey conducted by Strada in the fall of 2020, collected data from students in several schools concerning their biggest challenge, 44% reported stress, anxiety, and depression, while 21% struggled with keeping up academically, other similar concerns involved affording tuition and a suitable environment for participation of online classes.
For a considerable number of people, doing well academically generally takes place over most aspects of life, and while stress is helpful and a completely normal human reaction, not understanding how to deal with it can cause larger and more significant problems. When anxiety impairs your ability to function and live as you normally would, it can become dangerous and lead to mental disorders involving self-esteem issues, depression, and eating disorders. Unfortunately, in today's world, learning how to catalog and cope with stress is becoming a necessary skill.
Finding a way to confide in and talk to someone about your mental health is likely to be a daunting task and many prefer to shrug off their problems in lieu of accepting or asking for help. Societal norms tend to regard the topic of anxiety and depression as taboo, though in recent years we have made ground in accepting the importance of our emotional well-being, we still have a wealth of obstacles to overcome.
The importance of mental health and the process of maintaining it should be a topic of education in school systems and students and teachers alike should have an understanding of all concerning subtopics. Unfortunately, so many are left to tumble down the dark rabbit hole of depression and anxiety without a semblance of guidance or information.
Many schools, in light of these troubling statistics, have chosen to adopt support systems to aid in offering options for students who need them, but in order to battle our demons, we need to understand them.
Anxiety is your brain's response to a stress trigger and can be a form of motivation or a healthy reaction to a distressing situation, but when it starts interfering with otherwise menial tasks and influencing behavior, it can be a sign that your anxiety is developing into a disorder.
Anxiety can be described with a series of symptoms including but not limited to: shortness of breath, interrupted or altered sleeping schedules, uncontrollable reactions to triggers, such as involuntary shaking or full body shivers, problems with concentration, and an increased heartbeat.
Anxiety can make a physical appearance and cause health problems, often cardiac-related.
It's important to remember that anxiety is different for everyone, if and/or when experiencing an anxiety or panic attack, - though similar, they are not the same - one person may react physically, displaying extreme or slight signs of distress while another may perfectly conceal the internal turmoil and seem to function regularly.
Anxiety sometimes manifests without apparent cause, this could be due to a triggering event or even a delayed reaction to one.
The root of anxiety differs between people, it could vary between something as simple as noticing an error in an essay or it could be due to a change in environment, in any case, it is equally significant in both cases.
Working towards reducing symptoms and avoiding triggers can be surprisingly simple, most individuals suffering from general anxiety don’t require medical intervention and the remedy could be as simple as a few changes in lifestyle.
Avoiding caffeine and excessive amounts of sugar has been reported to decrease levels of anxiety; sugar and caffeine work by spiking your energy levels and then rapidly dropping them, also known as a sugar crash or caffeine withdrawal.
These could be enough to result in a spike in anxiety.
Finding a way to cope with your mental barriers is a personal journey for everyone, one of trial and error, euphoria, and grief, but I hope this can help kickstart your journey. Remember that while anxiety and other mental health issues are prevalent and exist within your mind, they are very much real, and validating the importance of looking after your emotional wellbeing is the first step to crossing that threshold.
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