# Teen Anxiety Issues



## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

Hello everyone. My teenage daughter (age 14, freshman) has Generalized Anxiety Disorder (and ADHD-inattentive type). She is on no medication for anxiety and currently taking Vivance for ADHD, soon to switch to Concerta. She's been trying ADHD meds for 2 months now.

She was in counseling for a while for the anxiety last spring, but no longer and doesn't want to do it anymore. She has a 504 plan at school, mainly for the anxiety, and accommodations are made for her with regard to oral presentations (she does them one-on-one). 

I sent the following email to one of my BFFs from college who is a teen counselor in another state, at a Christian school. My daughter also goes to a small Christian school. If anyone here has any advice (particularly if you are a teacher or have a child with anxiety), please let me know what you might do in this situation.

_Hey there.

I had to pick (daughter) up from school this morning because she had an anxiety attack in class and could not pull herself together. One of her teachers is very loud and yells a lot. Not in a mean way, he's just boisterous and does it to get the students' attention. It scares (daughter) every time (she's very jumpy/easily scared). He did that with about 15 minutes left in class and she jumped and bumped her hand or something on her desk and then proceeded to downward spiral from there. She said she was able to cover her face with her hair and she didn't think anyone noticed what was happening, and after that class she put her things in her next classroom then went to the bathroom and could not stop crying or pull herself together so she went to the office and called me to get her. She was trying the deep breathing she learned from a counselor (she's no longer going and doesn't want to), but it was not helping. She's on day 3 of her period so some of this could be because of that, and she also said she couldn't remember the last time she cried so some of it might have just been a lot of pent up emotions. She said she doesn't think it would have gotten so bad if she'd exited the classroom immediately and not sat there for 15 minutes.

If a student in your school had this happen to them, what would you advise? I said maybe we can get something added to her plan that says she's allowed to just leave the classroom quietly with an agreed upon hand gesture or code word to the teachers. She didn't like that idea so much because she said it would appear rude to the other students. I said, "well, the teacher could tell the class that you weren't feeling well and it was ok after you left..." and she didn't say much. She was still upset and crying at that point. Have you ever had a situation similar to this and if so, how did the school/teachers deal with it?

I'm taking her over to (her dad's) soon because she wants some horse therapy. 

_


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## SlowlyGoingCrazy (Jun 2, 2011)

This is difficult for both of you . I have GAD, my DD is showing signs of it as well but she is young yet. My DS has ADD (his is also inattentive). He is on Concerta and it works amazing for him with no side effects so I hope your daughter has as much luck as we have with it. 

Has she thought about meds for anxiety?

I think in that situation it would cause me anxiety to draw attention to myself during an attack so having to have the teacher announce that I was not feeling well after leaving might end up being counterproductive. 

Sometimes when I am in a situation that I just need to get out of before I panic I'll play a 'check my phone and Oh I need to return this call, excuse me' escape plan or 'oh wow, look at the time. I have to be somewhere'. It's not even words, I just play out the actions so it looks like this is what I am doing because I don't want to look like I'm abnormally escaping... I want to look like I'm being normal about it. 

but that doesn't work in a classroom so if she did have a code word or phrase maybe something like "Mr. Smith, I need to be excused for my appointment now" or something like that would feel better for her? That might feel more normal and not rude or weird to the class.


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## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

SlowlyGoingCrazy said:


> This is difficult for both of you . I have GAD, my DD is showing signs of it as well but she is young yet. My DS has ADD (his is also inattentive). He is on Concerta and it works amazing for him with no side effects so I hope your daughter has as much luck as we have with it.
> 
> Has she thought about meds for anxiety?
> 
> ...


That would work if she was able to speak, but she wasn't. I was just googling and one article recommended a "pass" the student could hold up. She would have to get over her fear of calling attention to herself, though.

We have discussed anxiety meds but haven't taken the leap yet. Well, we sortof did with trying Wellbutrin first for the ADD, but she went off that without telling anyone because she said it wasn't working.


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## SlowlyGoingCrazy (Jun 2, 2011)

Meds have been my lifesaver because I can feel them coming on and calm myself before they happen. Without meds it's like being hit by a car out of nowhere.


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## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

SlowlyGoingCrazy said:


> Meds have been my lifesaver because I can feel them coming on and calm myself before they happen. Without meds it's like being hit by a car out of nowhere.


We may have to consider this. I'm on Zoloft and have taken Xanax in times of extreme anxiety in my life, so I am her biggest advocate because I get it. I really want her to be open to counseling again. She actually texted me a link tonight about anxiety and cognitive behavior therapy.

For now I set up a meeting at school for Monday morning to talk about it. I feel blessed that my kids are in a school that makes reasonable accomodations with little fight. For example, my son has some serious sensory issues with the "sound" of pencils on paper so he's allowed to use erasable pens by some teachers. When he ended up in tears in art class because of how bothered he was from charcoal (he got upset and goosebumps even if I mentioned it!), I talked to his art teacher and she offered to let him use headphones/ipod on charcoal or pencil days. 

She was better today after spending time with her horses. I don't have the kids tonight, but I made this for her from a photograph she took (her passion) and sent it to her telling her how proud I am of her and her many talents.


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## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

Just an update.....I met with the Exceptional Ed. Director this morning about all of this, and her Science teacher (the class it happened in) joined us for about 20 seconds in the beginning just to say how sorry he was, he had no clue about her anxiety disorder or that this even happened and he said he would do WHATEVER he had to do make her feel better in his class. (She has a D right now . ). We came up with a plan for her to have a pass to show the teacher if he needs to excuse herself due to anxiety, and she'll be seated near the door at all times. She'll make her exit and go to the "resource room" which is where the Exceptional Ed. director is. (I'm not calling her a counselor because she isn't, but she has her Master's and definitively has that counselor "persona.") She also is divorced and dealt with parental alienation I found out today....bonus. After I left the school she met with my daughter and explained the plan and my daughter is cool with it.

We talked about getting her back into counseling and this woman said "anxiety diminishes brain function" which is something I'm going to remind my daughter of (because of her struggle with ADHD) to try to get her to be willing to get back into counseling. I really feel if she has a place to "unload" all the worries, etc. in her head she will be better able to cope with life/scary moments in general.


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