Anxiety

Written By: Marcus Randolph, MFT Intern at ACS, On-Campus Counseling Program

you know

how mental health therapists have that popular saying? “Anxiety is dwelling or thinking too much about the future, and depression is dwelling or thinking too much about the past.” For those of us in the field of mental health, we know it’s much more complicated than that. I remember reading in my neuroscience class something about how GABBA, a neurotransmitter, is involved in panic disorders and a different type of functioning in the amygdala is also involved in Generalized Anxiety Disorder. There’s a lot going on in the developing brain of our adolescent clients, which is why I resist the urge to tell them the typical grown-up clichés like “This will pass” or “It’s just high school.” I know it feels like so much more to them in the moment.

A couple of months ago at the OCCP program at Woodside I had what felt like a full day of walk-in clients who did not have an appointment. There were the regular walk-ins who I’m familiar with, along with the several regular clients who we call out of class, but as the day went on, there were a lot of fresh faces. I personally talked to three students that day who all said they were feeling anxiety. In the grand scheme of things, I came to find out that the students at Woodside were going through midterms and many of these students were stressed. Many of them put so much academic pressure on themselves and, compounded with a very strong academic environment, it felt overwhelming for them. I like to think they left my office feeling validated, heard, and like they had taken off some of the emotional burden that they had been carrying around with them – sometimes our clients just need to talk it out to feel better.

In this age where students can view everything that causes anxiety as “bad” I think it is sometimes helpful to remind our clients that anxiety can be quite useful. Anxiety can help one stay alert when they’ve prepared for an exam. Anxiety can give a person the extra alertness to nail that college interview. The right amount of anxiety can allow one to perform well on the stage for a school play or at sporting event. Anxiety can also give a person the right amount of courage to advocate for themselves if they need to change a failing grade and or muster the courage to ask for help. I think it really important to remind our students that not all anxiety is bad – it’s a normal human emotion that we learn to cope with through difficult times.