663: How to support a teen through anxiety
This week on the Anxiety Slayer Podcast, we’re responding to a listener question about helping a teen navigate through anxiety.
“How can I navigate and love my son in his late teens through high anxiety? It's difficult for me as I am highly anxious watching him and feeling all the mental and physical symptoms that anxiety can give you.
I feel many anxious parents want to help and not project their anxieties onto their child. It's knowing when to listen and when to teach but without lecturing. It's keeping our own emotions intact and trying to create a healthy distance without overpowering and overprotecting them.”
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Points covered in this episode:
This can be a challenging experience because we’re highly tuned in to our children’s anxiety. We can be right there with them. We can also feel triggered and very aware of another anxious person in the home.
It can also be an invitation to look more deeply at getting support for our own anxiety and having tools and techniques to share.
A parent who understands anxiety can be a gift. Often we worry about passing anxiety in to our children, but we’re more likely to be empathetic when we understand anxiety and that’s a huge comfort to another who’s suffering.
A parent who hasn’t experienced anxiety might be impatient or think it’s something that should be endured, or fixed, that can leave a child feeling like there’s something wrong with them, or that they have nowhere to go for support.
What helps
The daily things:
Walking
Breathing
QiGong / soft martial arts
Watching out for caffeine
Nutrition
Bach Flower Remedies
Bach Flowers are a collection of 38 remedies discovered in the 1920s and 30s by Dr Edward Bach, a well-known physician.
You can find out more here https://www.bachcentre.com/en/remedies/the-38-remedies/
Rescue Remedy in the home is helpful for general anxiety. It’s a combination of remedies that supports, stress, anxiety, and nervousness. It’s also helpful if someone has experienced a shock, or trauma.
Red Chestnut supports us when we feel worried about our loved ones.
Mimulus is the remedy for anxiety when we know what we’re worried about. For example: school, tests, social situations. If we can say what we’re anxious about Mimulus is the remedy.
Aspen is the remedy when we can’t name a specific worry but we might have a sense that something bad is going to happen. Aspen also supports night time fears.
Techniques that help
The Quick Anxiety Stopper
The Quick Anxiety Stopper is a sequence of three acupressure points that you can tap to reduce high anxiety states. It’s very effective for calming anxiety attacks where your breathing and heart are racing. It’s a very effective tool for both parents and teens for calming anxiety.
Resources: our Freedom from Anxiety Attacks course has detailed teachings on the Quick Anxiety Stopper and guided Tapping Sessions for morning and evening support. You can find details here.
Tapping
Ananga: When my daughter was going through an anxious time I used Tapping to get myself and my stuff out of the way. To be as calm and clear as I could so I could hear what she needed without my own static.
We get messages every week from people who are learning to help their anxiety with Tapping. There are so many ways it can help in this situation.
You can tap for your own anxiety in general, you can tap for gaining clarity about when to listen and when to step in. An easy way to get started is to follow along with one of our Guided Tapping Sessions.
Thanks for listening to Anxiety Slayer. If you love our podcast, consider becoming a Patron and get over 200 guided relaxations, Tapping sessions and Ayurvedic teachings for anxiety relief at patreon.com/anxietyslayer