Anxiety or stress

Anxiety is a physical feeling of fear or panic that we have in response to something that threatens the safety of ourselves or people we care about.

It is normal and natural for you to feel a degree of anxiety or stress, for example, over exams. For most people, once the situation has passed, they feel better and calm down. If the situation has passed, but the feelings of fear or panic remain or get stronger and start to affect daily living, then that is when anxiety can become a problem.


Video: Living With Anxiety | YoungMinds

Young people share their stories and experiences of living with anxiety.

More information about anxiety and stress

Some of the symptoms you may have include:

  • Feeling frightened, nervous or panicky all the time

  • Difficulty sleeping

  • Poor appetite

  • Lack of concentration

  • Feeling tired and irritable

  • Palpitations (when the heart feels like it is racing)

  • A dry mouth

  • Trembling or shaking

  • Feeling faint

  • Stomach aches, cramps or diarrhoea.

  • Your heart rate increases: pumping blood into your muscles so they are prepared for action. This is called a 'fight or flight response' – your body prepares to face danger (fight), run away (flight) or freeze.

  • Your mind becomes alert: helping you focus but can also mean that you over-analyse things.

  • Your breathing gets faster: allowing your bloodstream to carry oxygen to your arms, legs and lungs.

  • You start to sweat more: controlling your body temperature.

  • You can feel dizzy: meaning you can feel light-headed. Your blood is carrying more oxygen to your arms, legs and lungs, so there is less oxygen being sent to the brain.

  • Your muscles tense up: creating power but it can also cause shaking, which is normal.

  • Your liver releases sugar: providing quick energy but it can also make you feel fidgety.

  • Less important things slow down: making it harder for your body to digest food or produce saliva. This is what causes you to have a dry mouth, have a feeling like butterflies in your stomach or feel sick when you’re nervous.

 

However, some anxiety problems last longer than a few days and start to affect your everyday life. If this is the case, contact your Primary Mental Health Worker or visit your doctor.

  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - worries that something bad will happen unless we do things in a certain way (such as rituals, cleaning or thinking certain thoughts in a certain order).

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – when memories about something bad that has happened to us in the past intrude on our day to day life and leave us feeling scared.

  • Selective mutism – the inability to speak in certain social situations, such as with classmates at school or to relatives you do not see very often.

  • Separation anxiety – worries about being away from main caregivers.

Support resources

CAMHS Resources - This site was created for young people, carers and professionals to pool together lots of helpful resources from across the internet that are available to help support mental health and well-being.

onyourmindglos - Helpful guides about emotional health.

Get Self Help - This website provides CBT self-help and therapy resources, including worksheets and information sheets and self-help mp3s.

Dragonfly - Free booklet about how to deal with anxiety, which can be given to students and/or parents/carers.

HeadSpace is a personal guide to health and happiness. Designed to help you focus, breathe, stay calm, perform at your best, and get a better night’s rest through the life-changing skills of relaxation, meditation and mindfulness

Calm is an app for meditation and sleep. Designed to help lower stress, lessen anxiety, and assist in a more restful sleep with guided meditations, Sleep Stories, breathing programs, masterclasses and relaxing music

7 cups is a free anonymous emotional support and counselling from trained active listeners.

SAM – Self-help for Anxiety Management is an app that offers a range of self-help methods for people who are serious about learning to manage their anxiety

MindShift uses strategies based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help you learn to relax and be mindful, develop more effective ways of thinking, and use active steps to take charge of your anxiety. Apple store download | Google Play store download

Insight Timer is guided meditations and talks led by the world's top meditation and mindfulness experts, neuroscientists, psychologists and teachers from Stanford, Harvard, the University of Oxford and more

Clear Fear is developed by a clinician co-collaboratively with young people, Clear Fear uses a Cognitive Behavioural framework to help you change anxious thoughts and emotions, alter anxious behaviours and calm fear responses

Stress Heads (The Mix) is an app to help deal with stress by getting advice and dealing with all kinds of life stress, from exam pressure to money problems

Smiling Mind is a unique tool developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life.

  • All Birds Have Anxiety by Kathy Hoopmann

  • Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks by Barry McDonagh

  • Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel By Changing the Way You Think by Dennis Greenberger and Christine A Padesky

  • No worries by Katie Abey

  • Outsmarting Worry (An Older Kid's Guide to Managing Anxiety) by Dawn Huebner

  • Starving the Anxiety Gremlin by Kate Collins-Donnelly

  • The Anxiety and Stress Solution Deck: 55 CBT & Mindfulness Tips & Tools by Judith Belmont

  • The Big Book of Blob Trees by Pip Wilson

  • The Huge Bag of Worries by Virginia Ironside and Frank Rodgers

  • What to Do When… You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety by Dawn Huebner

  • What to Do When… Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming OCD by Dawn Huebner


Visit the Young Minds website

Young Minds are a UK charity fighting for children and young people's mental health.

The Young Minds website has lots of really useful information about young people's mental health. Watch videos of real life stories, read blog posts from young people, learn more about mental health and find resources and support.

Explore the Young Minds anxiety webpage (opens in new window) to find out more about anxiety and how you can start to manage it. 

Young Minds logo

Further information

Much of the content on this website has been put together using resources sourced from a range of different charities and organisations.

Click on the logos below to go to each organisations website to explore more about mental health. 

Kooth logo Youth Access logo
Togetherall logo Mind logo
Childline logo Papyrus logo
The Mix logo Samaritans logo

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