Page 9 - Teens and Mental Health

Anxiety disorders take on different forms. Some people feel
intense fear and anxiety in reaction to specific triggers. For example,
people with social anxiety disorder have a severe and persistent fear
of being judged or rejected by others in social situations. People with
phobias experience episodes of extreme fear in response to certain
objects or situations, such as spiders, heights, or being in crowded
places. Other people suffer from a generalized state of excessive,

persistent anxiety that isn’t focused on any single object, situation, or
event. This is known as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

People with GAD are almost constantly in a state of extreme
anxiety and fear that is disproportionate to any actual threat or risk. In
addition to crippling levels of anxiety, people suffering from GAD also
experience other psychological symptoms, such as fatigue, trouble
concentrating, and irritability. These psychological symptoms are

typically accompanied by bodily reactions such as headaches and
stomach aches or intestinal problems.

Many people with anxiety suffer from more than one distinct
anxiety disorder at the same time. For example, in her memoir On
the Edge: A Journey through Anxiety, journalist Andrea Petersen
describes how the symptoms of four different anxiety disorders
interfered with her daily life:

I was having panic attacks—sudden, intense periods of
blinding terror, rapid breathing, and chest pain—several times
of the day (diagnosis: panic disorder). The rest of the time, I
was worried, living with the nervous expectation of imminent
disaster (diagnosis: generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD).
I had developed a long list of particular fears, too: dentists,
flying, driving on highways, taking medication, touching dirt,

using a new tube of toothpaste, and licking envelopes. I did my
best to avoid them all (diagnosis: specific phobia). My world
was becoming smaller and smaller as more places became

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