Anxiety in Teens
If you have spent much time talking with teenagers recently, you likely have picked up on how many of them are dealing with anxiety. I’m not sure that it was ever easy to be a teen, but it certainly is not easy now. While technology and social media can be good, they can also fuel that anxiety that teenagers (and adults) experience. Add to that the pandemic and disrupted routines for a couple of years during their development and it is a recipe for anxiety. In his book, The Anxious Teen , Brock Morgan discussed some alarming statistics from the 2020 movie The Social Dilemma (which I highly recommend and is available on Netflix). There were a large number of increases in self-harm and suicide rates in 2010 which correlates to the year when smartphone ownership increased dramatically among teens. “So why would looking at a screen cause so much suffering in the lives of teenagers today?” Morgan suggests five reasons: “ Comparison: Teenagers who have issues wi...