Helping Your Teen Cope With Anxiety

Parenting a teenager can be a frustrating experience. You try to understand what they are going through, but at this confusing stage of development, many teens don’t know themselves or what is happening in their brains. It is common for teens to feel anxious from time to time and supportive parenting can ease the tensions of growing into adulthood.

Ways to Support Teens With Anxiety

You can’t experience it for them, but there are things you can do to help make anxiety easier for your teenager. Teach your kids these tips for handling their anxiety:

• Care for yourself. Learning to be independent means taking responsibility for your physical and mental well-being. Be sure to get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Good physical health and good mental health goes hand in hand
• Learn to relax. It sounds easy, but it takes practice. Observe your own behavior and notice which activities make you feel calm, quiet your mind and slow your heart rate. Find activities like yoga, which focuses on breathing, or running, which can be meditative with repeated rhythmic movements.
• Get outside. Connecting with nature resets your natural rhythms and calms your mind. Make a habit of getting outside no matter what the season. Go for a walk around the block, hike in the woods or play in the snow.
• Practice gratitude. When you notice the good things around you, you are not focusing on worry and stress. Take some time each day to think about what you are grateful for. Become conscious of the everyday small blessings in your life.
• Bond with people. Social activity is important for good mental health. As humans, we need some deep connections with other people. Bonds are formed by spending time with the people who are most important to you, participating in group activities or just chatting and enjoying your time together.

One good way to teach your teenagers these tips is to follow them yourself. By modeling this healthy behavior, you can show your child how to handle anxiety rather than just telling them. Teenagers are not always the best at accepting direction, but they have a human nature to pattern after their parents. Your child is more likely to do what you do, than do what you say at this age.

Visit Hillside – One of the Top Anxiety Treatment Centers in GA

An anxiety disorder can be serious and require professional intervention to resolve. Hillside is the leading anxiety treatment center in Georgia for children and teens.

Hillside uses a number of proven treatment modalities to help children overcome anxiety by changing destructive thought patterns and learning to process emotions. We strive to teach children how to face future challenges with a positive outlook.

For children and their parents whose lives are affected by anxiety, Hillside provides care, comfort, and treatment. We work to rebuild families that are splintered by destructive behavior patterns and help children and teens cope with anxiety issues. To learn more about helping your teenager with anxiety, contact Hillside today.