Summary: The Rise Of Anxiety

Words: 1912
Pages: 8

The Rise in Anxiety Over the Years

The amount of anxiety in teens has been steadily rising since the early 1930s and has drastically increased within the last 5 years. Anxiety is defined in pediatrics as “a nervous disorder characterized as a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behavior or panic attacks,” but I would describe it as being extremely nervous and in a state where it's hard to function. It affects how people feel, how people behave, and has very real physical symptoms. Anxiety, just like sadness or fear, is something everyone experiences. Teens over the years have become more anxious and stressed than ever before. Anxiety stops you from doing what you want. “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom,”
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It has been proven that anxiety has tremendously increased since the mid 1900’s, “Two new studies involving thousands of children and college students show that anxiety has drastically increased since the 1950’s,” said Jean Twenge, an author, consultant, and speaker. Her studies found that anxiety has increased so much that typical schoolchildren during the 1980’s reported more anxiety than juvenile psychiatric patients did during the 1950’s. Anxiety is on the rise and it’s not just recently which most people think, it has been so since the 1950’s and before. Many people are only recently learning about anxiety but anxiety has been a huge part of many peoples lives for decades. Since anxiety tends to predispose people to …show more content…
New research is shedding a light on the use of social media causing anxiety. A very recent article on September 12, 2015 claimed that “social media pressures may lead to anxiety and depression in teens.” The pressure to be online all the time disrupts sleep patterns. Night-time social media users seem to be the most vulnerable, researchers found. Teenagers who seem to have high emotional investment in social media seem to have lower self-esteem and had a higher chance of anxiety and depression (social media may lead to anxiety and depression in teens). If high school students would put down their phones and do something else for even a couple more hours a day, it could lead to a happier, healthier