Teenagers are typically at their utmost in vulnerability to anxiety and depression.  This stems mostly from the inability to communicate effectively with their parents, having difficulty getting along.  It also comes from a point in a teenager's life that they are trying to fit in with their peers and are in a time of self discovery.  A lot of these feelings come from the onset of puberty and the hormonal and body changes that the teen is undergoing.  A teenager's behavior can transition into an emotional chaos and anxiety can soon rear its ugly head.  Depending on their personality, anxiety can either come out in full force and be rather severe, impacting their daily functioning as well as their physical, mental and emotional capacity. 

Anxiety can be a difficult feeling to identify and diagnose.  It may just seem like a case of the troubled teenage woes.  Feelings of anxiety are hard enough to pinpoint in adults but teenagers may have a hard time realizing what is going on with themselves and have an even harder time communicating what they are feeling.  A teen may just think that they have a typical headache, stomachache or muscle tension, when in fact these are just mild symptoms of anxiety too.  When a teenager starts having a more intense sensation of anxiety, there are a few symptoms that they should be aware of or a parent should be on the look out for.  Anxiety can produce a wide range of physical symptoms: shaking, sweating, hot flashes, heart racing, lightheadedness, chest pains, headaches, and numbness in their limbs, depending on how full force the anxiety has hit the teenager. 

Another indication that a teenager is experiencing anxiety issues are that they may seem to have a change in behavior where they have the tendency to worry more.  Once this worrying starts, the irrational cycle of negative thoughts and feelings along with fear can find their place in a teen's mind and almost take over their thoughts and develop into a pattern.  The teen begins to focus on these and they may not even realize what the reasoning is behind their feelings.  Once recognized as symptoms of anxiety, they may soon realize that those are the sensations they are having. 

While a teenager is having an internal battle of fear, anxiety, worry, pressure and stress all while undergoing puberty and changes in life, there are ways to combat the worry that is starting to encompass them.  Teenagers may try to avoid the subject and the concept of anxiety in teenagers has long been ignored in conversation.  Parents may often try to avoid a conflict with their child as it seems teens and their parents are rarely on the same page when it comes to issues of growing up.  However, it is important to recognize the suffering that the teenager is experience due to anxiety before it hinders their lives and increase in severity. 

Unfortunately, anxiety in teenagers is becoming more and more prevalent due to the stresses of society and transitioning between being a child and becoming a young adult.  It is important that parents try to get their teenagers help as soon as the teen starts to have symptoms of anxiety.  While a teenager may be resistant to treatment, it will be the best thing that a parent can do for their child to take a way the agony of anxiety before it starts to form a relationship with depression.