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Parenting teens, Teen mental health
Helping teens deal with anxiety
28
Nov
Nov
Anxiety in teenagers is fast becoming an epidemic and helping teens deal with anxiety has never been more important. It’s always been a very difficult age, and an incredibly vulnerable one too. Then the digital world happened and teens have to live online, open to everyone for judgement. And now there’s Covid…
We were inspired to write this blog post by talking to the truly wonderful Lisa from Rise and Bloom. Lisa is a natural lifestyle educator, specialising in wellness. Mum to two teens herself, she has worked with anxious teenagers and has seen some brilliant results. Lisa has very kindly put together some suggestions for us that might help teens who are struggling.
Sound healing
She suggests starting with sound healing. She has created 10 minute sessions which are an active way to consciously relax during the day. They are moments to pause, to take time in, rest the nervous system and to create a deeper connection to ourselves. Lisa says, “It’s a 10 minute window to actively step away from the bombardment of busy and chaos that so often dominates our lives right now.”
Here’s a link to Lisa’s beautiful 10 minute CLARITY & STILLNESS session, with birds and the pure sounds of crystal bowls. We’ve become totally obsessed with this; it’s just so incredibly calming and uplifting:
Natural oils
Lisa also recommends combining healing sounds with essential oils, as it creates a tangible effect of deep relaxation and rest. This not only helps the body but supports mental wellbeing. As Lisa says, “It shifts us out of rabbits in the headlights fight and flight mode and into rest, digest, calming balanced mode.”
One of Lisa’s son’s friends says:
“I’ve been using Lisa’s sound healing recently and I’ve found it has an amazing effect on my anxiety and overall mental wellbeing. The sounds have allowed me to create an emotional balance within myself, by relaxing me in moments of frustration and stress, and I am able to channel a state of active serenity and release the negative energy. The oils have also helped me sleep, which is something I struggled with, especially the oil ‘Serenity’ which I have loved using as I can now have a restful sleep and its aroma is beautifully grounding.”
Selfcare check in
This is an easy, chilled session that takes 10 minutes and is perfect for teens. It’s based around self massage, tapping and breathing. It’s perfect to help them take a few minutes to really focus on how they’re feeling.
Huge thanks to Lisa for this advice – we really hope it helps.
How to recognise anxiety
If you’re concerned that your teen’s anxiety might be more serious, the key difference between normal levels of stress/worry and anxiety is that it doesn’t go away when life is calm and they’re not in a stressful situation. The Young Minds website has an excellent section on how to recognise anxiety.
How to help
The good news is that there is masses of support out there and a huge amount of information on what can help. But that can be overwhelming too! If you’re regular readers, you’ll know that we work with Hector’s House teenage mental health charity and find their website particularly helpful. They have sections on diagnosis, resources and some excellent self-care tips that are very straightforward and especially suitable for teens.
If you’re looking for a personal insight from someone who has suffered themselves, the Teenage Kicks podcast has a very helpful episode on anxiety and depression. Victoria’s story of how she learned to cope with anxiety and panic attaches will be very reassuring to anyone going through the same struggles now.
If you have any tried and tested methods on helping teens deal with anxiety, or any resources to recommend, please do leave us a comment below.
Louise & Anna x
