Effective Ways to Recognize and Overcome Separation Anxiety in Teenagers

A person with separation anxiety disorder has extreme and overwhelming anxiety as well as dread of losing a loved one or being separated from them. People typically suffer from separation anxiety at various points in their lives, including childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. But as life progresses, these phases come to an end. However, this dread turns into separation anxiety disorder when it gets so bad that it interferes with a person’s daily activities.

Symptoms of separation anxiety disorder
Their sensations of anxiety are quite powerful and acute.
For weeks, months, or even years, these emotions persist.
An individual’s ability to go about their regular life normally is affected by the extreme anxiousness.

Teenage separation anxiety has been found to present with early onset symptoms in certain situations, whereas late onset symptoms are present in other cases.

Adolescents suffering from separation anxiety
Stay close to the person they are linked to at all times.
Perhaps distracted with missing a loved one.
May be concerned about harm coming to a loved one.
May be concerned that something may happen that will keep them apart from their loved one.
May wish to stick by the loved one and show resistance to circumstances that would force them to be apart from them.

How can teenagers prevent separation anxiety?

First of all, teens’ separation anxiety should not be confused with panic attacks or social anxiety. It is crucial to understand that the adolescent’s anxiety is genuinely an overwhelming dread of losing a family member. Following a diagnosis, treatment options for separation anxiety include:

1. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

The main tenet of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the interconnectedness of thoughts, feelings, actions, and bodily experiences. Negative emotions and ideas can thereby ensnare a person in a vicious loop. CBT is therefore utilized to break through this vicious loop of severe separation anxiety and replace it with constructive thinking. Through the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the therapist assists the adolescent in identifying and addressing his deepest fear of being alone. While CBT is unable to treat the physical symptoms of separation anxiety, it can alter the adolescent’s thought patterns by examining and addressing tiny portions of the issue at a time throughout each session. When mental and behavioral patterns are altered, the physical symptoms will naturally begin to improve.

Research has shown that CBT is a highly effective treatment for teenage separation anxiety. Instead of requiring extra medical support, CBT gives the adolescent important and applicable life skills that they can carry into their daily lives long after their treatment is over.

2. Relaxation / Systematic Desensitization

One popular behavioral strategy for treating fear, anxiety disorders, and phobias is systematic desensitization. The method involves first having an adolescent participate in a relaxation exercise, and then progressively exposing him to a stimuli that causes him to experience that level of extreme anxiety. This approach is broken down into three phases.

3. Establish anxiety stimulus hierarchy

The fear of losing or being separated from a loved one is recognized as the stimulation for teenagers’ separation anxiety. This stage involves assessing the person’s level of fear by introducing the anxiety component. The therapist proceeds to the next stage after determining the cause of the anxiety and its degree.

4. Relaxation techniques

The therapist will first concentrate on identifying the intensity and trigger of the separation anxiety before focusing on various coping and relaxation techniques, such as deep muscle relaxation responses or meditation. The goal of these relaxation methods is to calm the adolescent down when severe separation anxiety strikes. The patient gains control over their fears with the help of these strategies. Teens can learn to reject anxiety-inducing stimuli and replace them with positive thoughts by practicing breathing exercises and anti-anxiety movements.

5. Coping with stimulus hierarchy

Teens are evaluated to see if they can manage their separation anxiety factor after they have learnt relaxing techniques. Initially, the patient is given a mild anxiety trigger. He is exposed to increasingly strong anxiety-related stimuli after he successfully manages his anxiety. A successful course of treatment will demonstrate that the patient can consistently use his relaxation skills to get over his severe anxiety.

6. Exposure

With his family’s support and encouragement, the adolescent is encouraged to confront and overcome his concerns.

Concluding

Teens can experience separation anxiety, albeit it’s not very common. Teens with anxiety separation disorder need to get treatment because, if left untreated, it could have long-term effects on their mental health and development as developing adults.