Help the Hills holds discussion on teen anxiety

Between school and extra-curricular activities, teenagers have a lot going on. Add social pressures, a never-ending push toward college readiness and often uncertainty at home, and you get the staggering statistics Dr. Al Saunders shared at a discussion on teen stress and anxiety Tuesday night.

Help the Hills facilitated the event at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church for parents to hear from a mental health professional about the different factors that lead to chronic stress and anxiety in teens, and what they can do to help.

Saunders began his presentation by defining exactly what he meant by "chronic stress" and "anxiety."

Anxiety, he said, is a prolonged feeling of worry, tension or fear that is strong enough to disrupt normal life. Chronic stress is intense, unpredictable, prolonged stress that stems from both external and internal stressors, and is unlike the "usual" stress that humans experience from time to time.

"Stress is normal; chronic stress is not normal; and anxiety is definitely not normal," Saunders said.

There are 6.3 million teens in the U.S. who have been diagnosed with anxiety, Saunders said, about 25 percent of the population.

"That's a wild number," he said, but added that it is likely lower than the truth, because only 20 percent of teens report symptoms that make anxiety and chronic stress diagnosable.

Symptoms of anxiety can range from the visible—panic attacks, compulsive behaviors and nervous habits—to the less visible, such as chronic indigestion, sleep problems, flashbacks and perfectionism.

Chronic stress has similar symptoms, Saunders said, but can also manifest in health issues, extreme pessimism, appetite changes and social withdrawal.

Saunders said he wanted to stress that while anxiety and stressed are rooted in perception by the individual, there are significant environmental and other external factors that come into play.

External sources of stress can be as significant as teens being concerned with the "big issues" in the world like terrorism, the economy and violence, to a heavy school load or stressful home lives and divorce.

Internal stressors harken back to perception, he said, and can manifest as feelings of being insufficient, ugly, unloved or not measuring up to a standard set by themselves—or their parents.

Saunders pointed out that because the human brain isn't fully developed until an individual reaches his or her mid-twenties, teens don't have the ability to deal with such stressors either.

And there are a lot of things that can heighten the stress factor for teens, Saunders said.

Not getting enough sleep, eating a poor diet and not exercising enough can exacerbate the stress levels of an already stressed out teenager, Saunders said.

For every hour less than nine a teen sleeps, he said, that teen has a 38 percent higher risk of developing symptoms of depression.

Screen time and social media was also a hot topic, and the amount of time teens spend on screens can influence stress levels significantly, Saunders said.

But probably the greatest contributor to teen stress, Saunders said, is the academic pressure, social pressure and athletic pressure students receive from friends and family.

By building up kids and holding them to the expectation of being a "prodigy" and focusing on talent or skill rather than hard work, Saunders said he thinks parents do their children a disservice.

Instead, Saunders said parents should focus on listening to their kids when they want to talk—putting down work or technology to have face to face interaction—and working together to find solutions for reducing screen time and increasing sleep and down time.

Because love and time, he said, are the key.

"My kids need to know that I love them more than they need to know they're a child prodigy," he said.

And that "love" can mean hard line stances on technology or setting boundaries, but Saunders said it's necessary, because there is no doubt that there is a link between high stress and anxiety and substance abuse.

"It's worth the fight," he said.

More information about Help the Hills, as well as resources for parents and teens fighting substance abuse can be found at helpthehills.org.