Being a teenage in modern America is a stressful business. Each day, teens are compelled to grapple with peer pressure, pressure from their families, societal pressure, financial pressure, and the pressures afforded by the U.S. educational system. They must regularly contemplate what they are “going to do with their lives” and whether they are measuring up to both reasonable and unreasonable expectations. They oftentimes place a tremendous amount of pressure on themselves to achieve their goals. And, they must wrestle with issues of identity and self-esteem while the outside world continuously trumpets that nothing they do will ever measure up to unreasonable and unattainable ideals. It is little wonder that so many teens experience significant anxiety symptoms.
If Your Teen Is Struggling With Anxiety
If your teen is struggling with either clinically confirmed anxiety or anxiety symptoms, they could potentially benefit from attending anxiety therapy sessions. Anxiety therapy functions in many of the ways that traditional generalized therapy does. However, anxiety therapists have specialized knowledge concerning anxiety, anxiety symptoms, and anxiety management. This focused approach to therapy allows a teen’s anxiety to be addressed in a more targeted manner than it otherwise might be. The primary benefit of this approach is that your teen’s anxiety won’t be treated as “just another” challenge tacked onto a laundry list of other things that they’re dealing with. It will be one of the primary focuses of the therapy itself.
Getting Their Buy-In
As an experienced anxiety therapist – including those who practice at Lotus Wellness Center – can confirm, teens who are struggling with anxiety are not always eager to attend therapy. On the contrary, some resist the idea of seeking help for a variety of reasons—perhaps chief among them that the very idea of attending therapy can be, in and of itself, anxiety-inducing.
As a result, you’ll want to go out of your way to gain as much “buy-in” from your teen as you can before bringing them to therapy. Ask them about whether they’d prefer to see a male therapist or a female therapist. Ask them if there are certain appointment days or times that they’d prefer or prefer to avoid. Essentially, you’ll want to give them as many choices/options when approaching this process as possible. That way, even if you’re insisting that they attend therapy (instead of leaving the decision up to them), they’ll at least know that you respect the challenges they’re facing enough to secure as much of their buy-in as possible.