Page 8 - Teens and Mental Health

The most common types of mental illnesses experienced by teens
include anxiety disorders, which cause excessive feelings of fear,
uneasiness, worry, and stress, and depressive disorders, which cause
persistent feelings of sadness and low mood.

Anxiety Disorders

Stress and fear serve an important biological function as key
components in the body’s defense mechanism against possible
threats in the environment. Feelings of stress and fear trigger what

scientists call the “fight or flight response.” This is a chain of physical
and mental responses that help us avoid danger and respond
appropriately to potential threats. “This primitive, hard-wired emotional
response prepares us for the strenuous motor efforts required for
fighting or running,” says Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John
Ratey. “A fearful stimulus primes the body with adrenaline and
prompts the fastest physical reaction possible.” 12

From an evolutionary point of view, this mechanism is essential
to ensuring human survival. Stress also plays an important function
in everyday life. For example,
stress can motivate people to
“A fearful stimulus work harder and study longer.
primes the body with It keeps one on one’s toes,
adrenaline and prompts giving the extra push needed to
the fastest physical exert more effort and perform at
reaction possible.” 12 optimum levels.

—Dr. John Ratey, Harvard
Medical School psychiatrist In people with anxiety
disorders, however, feelings
of stress and fear are so
excessive they cause distress and dysfunction. The emotional
responses that normally protect people from harm instead become

harmful themselves.

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