Anxiety or 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.

• Exam stress: exam stress can affect anyone. You might be worried about doing enough revision, getting the grades you need or feel pressure from your school or family. Take a look on Childline's website for some handy tips on how to cope with exam stress.

• Generalised anxiety: worrying about everything. Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) - NHS 

• Health anxiety: worrying about our own health now or in the future. You can check for symptoms for health anxiety on the NHS website here.

• Panic Disorder: worrying that something bad will happen to us imminently. Childline have some helpful tips on how to cope with a panic attack here.

• Phobias: worry about a specific thing (such as needles, blood or dogs). If you need help coping with a phobia, take a look on Mind's website. 

• Relationship stress: worrying about starting a relationship, asking someone out or worrying if your relationship is healthy. Read more about relationships on Childline's website. 

• Stress at home: worrying about living in care, stepfamilies, parents in prison, being adopted and more. You can find some information about coping with family relationships here. 

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 GP.

• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) - 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 - 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.

• 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.
• Dragonfly - Free booklet about how to deal with anxiety, which can be given to students and/or parents/carers.
• On Your Mind Glos - Helpful guides about emotional health.
• Get Self Help - CBT self-help and therapy resources, including worksheets and information sheets and self-help videos.

​​​​​​Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust has partnered with ORCHA to provide a library of safe and free apps to support young people's mental health. These apps have been designed to help users to manage things they might find difficult when experiencing low mood, anxiety or stress. They work by teaching skills and strategies to manage these feelings in the moment, and to reduce their impact in the future. 

Browse the ORCHA apps in the library here: Young People's Mental Health Apps - Lancs & South Cumbria

Other apps:

• 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. Suitable for ages 13+.
• 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. Suitable for ages 5+, with some content suitable for ages 3+.
• 7 cups is a free anonymous emotional support and counselling from trained active listeners. Suitable for ages 13+.
• 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. Suitable for ages 12+.
• 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. Suitable for ages 12+, with a designated programme for 5+.
• 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. Suitable for ages 11+.
• Smiling Mind is a unique tool developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life. Suitable for ages 3+.

• 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

Lancashire Libraries