Common Causes of Anxiety in Teens and Young Adults

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What causes anxiety in teens?

There is no single key driver of teen anxiety. The complex interplay of several primary causes of anxiety in teens can take a significant toll on a young person’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Understanding this complexity can help parents empathize with their teens’ struggles. While anxiety is a normal response to some events and situations in life, it’s not healthy to feel anxious all the time. As an adult, you might wonder what stressors teens have to be anxious about. After all, they don’t need to worry about putting food on the table, paying the mortgage, or raising their own children. But that doesn’t mean they’re not struggling all the same.

Humans don’t have fully developed brains until their early twenties or even later. And yet, teens are expected to take on heavy responsibilities before they have the necessary skills to navigate them. This can lead to anxiety in young adults and teens, as well as other serious mental health conditions.

Learn more about anxiety triggers for teens to get a better understanding of what your teen may be going through – and how you can help.

1. High Expectations

Expectations, whether self-inflicted or coming from others, are among the top things that cause teens stress and anxiety. Most teens want to do well and might expect to attend prestigious universities. Many participate in after-school sports and part-time jobs. They also volunteer, participate in community events, have chores at home, and want to maintain active social lives. These expectations increase anxiety levels and leave very little time for decompressing. They can also interfere with sleep, which is necessary for managing stress and anxious thoughts.

2. Hormones

Hormone production ebbs and flows during adolescence. Sometimes, your teen might feel anxious, upset, depressed, and angry for no reason at all, and hormonal fluctuations likely cause this. Teenage boys are dealing with testosterone surges, and teenage girls are dealing with hormonal shifts due to menstruation. These hormones, when combined with a lack of experience in dealing with these feelings and general immaturity, are a key driver of teen anxiety and emotional distress.

3. Brain Development

Young people don’t have fully developed brains until they are in their early- to mid-twenties or even later. As such, your son or daughter has probably had many moments where they didn’t know what they were doing or felt a lack of confidence in their abilities. Frustration mixed with a lack of ability when it comes to “adulting” triggers anxiety in young adults and teens, and it can be hard to address without proper support.

4. Parental Disapproval

Adolescents are navigating a challenging phase where they seek their parents’ approval while also yearning to push against parental authority. This dynamic can be frustrating for both teens and parents. When teens encounter disapproval from their parents, it’s natural for them to feel stressed and anxious, even as they persist in behaviors that their parents naturally disapprove of. This cycle is one of the major causes of anxiety in teens despite being a natural stage in development.

5. Peer Pressure

Kids today are under much pressure from their peers, both in person and online. Peer pressure can be positive or negative, but both types raise anxiety levels. For example, being pressured to shoplift or commit some other crime is stressful and an example of negative peer pressure. Positive pressure, for example, is when your teen’s peers are getting excellent grades, applying to good universities, and excelling in extracurriculars, all of which puts a lot of pressure on your own teen to conform and keep up.

Other anxiety triggers for teens that peers exacerbate are those related to a lack of social skills, confidence, or comfort. Your teen might dread going to school and talking to people or may struggle with feeling that they’re being judged in social situations. Social anxiety can result from bullying or can just appear seemingly out of nowhere and is different from general shyness.

6. Drinking and Drug Use

Many teens experiment with alcohol and, in some cases, drugs, despite knowing they shouldn’t be doing this and that their parents will disapprove. Peer pressure might also be involved. All of these factors can be causes of anxiety in teens before, during, and after substance experimentation. And some teens will go on to become addicted to these substances, which raises anxiety levels even higher.

Notably, some anxious teens already will turn to substances as a form of self-medication. It rarely works. Instead, anxiety levels go up, which leads to more self-medication, which becomes a dangerous cycle that’s hard to break free from.

7. Depression

Some teens have depression, which can present at the same time as teenage anxiety. Symptoms of depression can overlap with the symptoms of anxiety, so it can be difficult for parents to know which mental health concern is responsible for which symptoms. The symptoms of depression to be aware of include:

Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or despair that last longer than two weeks
Social isolation, not wanting to leave the house or even the bed
Physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, muscle aches, and fatigue
Irritability
Insomnia or sleeping too much
Eating too much or too little
Trouble concentrating and making decisions
In severe cases, suicidal ideation

MANAGING ANXIETY IN YOUNG ADULTS AND TEENS

If your teen has anxiety, some lifestyle changes might help. If they don’t help, or if the anxiety is affecting your child’s daily life, it’s time to see a mental health specialist. Start with your pediatrician or family doctor, who can run some tests; sometimes, vitamin deficiencies or hormonal imbalances can cause symptoms that mimic anxiety. If nothing physical is found, then your teen will be referred to a mental health provider. In the meantime, here’s what to try:

Encourage your teen to get daily exercise. Evidence shows that exercise can reduce the symptoms of anxiety. Physical activity releases endorphins, which are chemicals in the brain that act as natural painkillers and improve mood. If your teen isn’t involved in a sport, try inviting them to walk or run with you before or after dinner, or suggest a game of soccer in the backyard. If you have a dog, ask your teen to take responsibility for walking them each day.
Encourage your teen to eat a healthy diet. Too much sugar, a high-fat diet, and other poor eating habits can exacerbate anxiety. Have your teen focus on eating more vegetables, whole grains, fruits, dairy products, and lean sources of protein, and lead by example so your child doesn’t feel singled out or deprived.
Help your teen evaluate his or her schedule. It could be that they’re overextended. You might have to ask your child to drop one or two activities if they’re too stressed out by their obligations. Time management techniques can help, too.
Teach your adolescent about relaxation techniques. Visualization, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises can all help your teen take charge of their anxiety.

Anxiety causes in teens can vary, but getting support from loving caregivers will make all the difference in how your child copes. When you work with your teen to get them through this transition period from childhood to adulthood, you help minimize teenage anxiety and set the stage for a lifetime of good mental health.

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Lucy Nguyen, LMFT( Clinical Reviewer )

Lucy Nguyen is the Executive Director at Paradigm Treatment, overseeing all clinical treatment programs across the organization’s southwestern region. Her extensive experience includes working with young adults in private practice, serving as a therapist for children and teens with emotional and behavioral needs, and acting as a behavior interventionist for teens with developmental disorders. Lucy integrates cognitive-behavioral approaches with mindfulness and compassion in her work, and she is also EMDR-trained. She holds a Master of Science in Counseling from California State University, Fullerton, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Social Behavior from the University of California, Irvine.