Hi Bobbie. The symptoms you describe could certainly be part of anxiety. It’s important to remember that thoughts are just that – thoughts. It is not at all unusual with anxiety to have racey thoughts – sometimes scary ones. It can feel ‘out of control’, because during anxiety the ‘thinking brain’ gets a little overwhelmed by the feeling part of the brain. This can happen to all of us on some level – sometimes more, sometimes less. Your daughter has a strong, powerful, wonderful brain that is working a little hard to protect her. That’s what anxiety is. It can sometimes flood us with anxious thoughts to make sure we’ve thought of everything that could possibly go wrong – but they are just thoughts. Anxious thoughts are a sign of anxiety, not breakage. Counselling is an excellent idea. Therapy will support your daughter with information and strategies to calm her racey thoughts. It will also help you to feel more able to support her when she is having racey thoughts. This support will also help to make sure any anxiety your daughter might be experiencing stays at manageable levels.

My 12 year old has anxiety. She gets worried about thoughts. Shes not suicidal but has racing thoughts about it and it scares her. I think she is in a new way of worrying but she is so scared she will hurt herself or me. Of course she doesn’t want to.Again. She says it’s just thoughts and she would never do it. She doesn’t think she has control. Is this part of anxiety? I have it bad and was scared of weird thoughts but I would have never done it. I’m hoping shes the same. Yes we are searching for counseling bc of the new level of it.

Loli thank you very much for sharing your story.

Almost a year ago i started having anxiety. i thought it would never get better, mainly because i didn’t know how to relax.
But it did get better.
I still struggle, but i grew stronger.

If it gets really bad, i watch the clock, and calculate 30 minutes, anxiety attacks last about 20/30 minutes.
With that, i try my best to keep myself together and think that Everythingoes, even if those feelings are horrible, i just try to think that it shall pass.

Lately i feel more in peace and i’m happy for that. I feel more free! i really missed that, like that’s who i am supposed to be!

I hope everyone gets better.

And i will listen to the advices, thank you very much for sharing! as a 19 years old i Need them.

hi Michele, the same with my daughter. she is working with one psychologist, the first meeting was only a general meeting, the psychologist wants to know about everything around her, then she had assesment with a questionaire. only then they started with first session. i think you need to be paitent. i did force mine to walk everyday, even sometimes when she finish her study it is already dark, still i walk with her, it seems physical work helps a lot.

WOW! this helped me so much. i now know how to control my anxiety and i was always so worried about it harming me and now i know it’s just a feeling that will slowly go away and i can control. Thank you so much!

Hi Ebony-Jane,

I love that you have reached out for help on how to feel better. What you are describing makes a lot of sense in terms of the feelings of overwhelm, stress, and feeling as though you are going to burst into tears. Anxiety can come with all of these, as well as the physical symptoms. The most important thing is understand that this is not anything ‘going wrong’. Anxiety is a really normal human experience which we all feel in some way or another. Having said that, sometimes it can happen too much. It just means your brain is working a little too hard to protect you, as it says in the article.

Strong steady breathing is the best way to calm this. It will help to calm the neurochemical surge that is causing your feelings and physical symptoms. The thing is though, it’s important to practice strong steady breathing for a while so it can be an automatic response. During anxiety, the brain gets really busy, and if strong steady breathing hasn’t been set up as an automatic response (through practice), it will be more difficult for your brain to access it. Exercise and mindfulness will also help. If you can do 20 minutes of exercise each day – either going for a fast walk, yoga, or youtube exercise routines – this will help to restore the brain chemicals that can calm anxiety. The Smiling Mind app is a free app to use, and contains lots of mindfulness meditations. If you can do this for 10 minutes each day, it works to calm the amygdala – the ‘anxiety’ part of your brain. Finally, sleep is so important for anxiety. A lack of sleep will make anxiety more likely. Try to get at least 9 hours sleep a night whenever you can. If you aren’t able to during the week because of early starts, try sleeping on the weekend when you can. A warm shower before bed, mindfulness, strong steady breathing, no devices for at least 30 minutes before you want to go to sleep will all help to relax your brain into a beautiful, restorative sleep.

I understand it can be difficult to speak to your parents, especially if you aren’t sure where to start, but I would really encourage you to try. Start by letting them know you would like to speak with them about something, and would it be okay if you had a chat, maybe after school, or after dinner, or before bed when the house is settled. This will help to ‘break the ice’, either because they’ll say, ‘can we talk about it now?’ or, if they are busy, they will be the ones to come to you say, ‘Would you like to talk about it yet?’ It’s very likely your parents will understand because they’ve probably felt the way you are feeling at some time in their lives – most of us have. It takes so much courage to start a conversation like this, but you’ve already started it by coming here – you’re amazing, and you can do this. If you don’t feel comfortable speaking to your parents initially, is there another adult who might be able to help? Maybe a relative you feel close to, or a teacher you trust or a school counsellor. Teachers and school counsellors every day would see people who feel like you do, so they would really get it. If you want, they would be able to help you talk to your parents about what’s happening in a way that makes it make sense.

The good news is that anxiety is very manageable. It can feel awful sometimes, but there are ways to manage it so it doesn’t get in your way. Try the strategies in the article, and if you can speak with an adult you feel close to, they will also be able to help you.

I hope this helps. You are brave and brilliant, and anxiety doesn’t change that at all.

Hey Cres, not sure if you would read this but thank you for sharing your story. I’m so sorry that you are going through those challenging situations and you are so brave for still believing. It takes a lot of courage to face those things and feeling like everything is against you but you seem so motivated in getting better that I truly believe you will!!! Only 5 min of mindfulness has helped me with my anxiety and the chaos of this pandemic, so try that and knowing that I can’t control anyone’s feeling but my own is a huge step in understanding how to confront certain situations.