by Halima Begum, Content Team academic

Anxiety normally begins during adolescence (National Library of Medicine, 2024), with more and more teenagers either being diagnosed with anxiety or experiencing anxiety-like symptoms. My first experience with anxiety was when I was 11 years old. I was starting secondary school – a daunting time for any child that age. What made it worse for me was the fact that I had to go to a school where no one from my primary school went and in a completely different area to where I was familiar with. Most school days consisted of me having some form of panic attack. As time went on, most likely due to becoming more familiar with my school, my anxiety declined. One thing I did notice, however, was the fact that I would feel a sense of numbness and depression during each back-to-school season. Still, much like the daily panic attacks, this melancholic feeling too did diminish.

Anxiety at School

School makes up a huge part of a person’s life.  It is all people know about the world until they are about 18 or so and then they can choose to continue or venture off into the world. During an individual’s time in school, a lot does change, and the shift from childhood to adulthood can be overwhelming. Two common types of anxiety among school children are exam anxiety or chronic anxiety (National Education Union, 2024); however, this doesn’t mean that a student can’t have both.

School may indirectly play a part in this increase in exam anxiety. The idea that not having good grades means that the student is “bad” or a “wrong’un” diverts the blame to the student even though in many instances it is not their fault. The emphasis on sets (the idea of putting students in certain classes based on their academic intelligence) can create invisible competition between students, with students trying to be better than others to prove they are that they are ‘smart’. Many schools don’t discourage this invisible competition but rather play into it. Some teachers may justify this by saying that this ‘motivates the students’ when in many cases it does more harm than good for the children.

Anxiety at Home

Anxiety is often not just caused by academic pressure but also by familial pressure. The need to please your parents and make sure that you are always getting the best grades can be detrimental for a growing teenager. This somewhat dangerous belief that a pass on an exam is not enough and near perfection is the new average puts so much pressure on a child to the point where they have no choice but to explode with anxiety. If this mentality is being pushed by parents, too, it can cause children to feel burnt out.

Anxiety in the home doesn’t always have to be linked to school pressures; other times, it can be other domestic issues. Sometimes, it can just come ‘out of the blue’ (or so you think). Recently, I was on the phone with a friend and felt a gut-punch feeling in my stomach, and then I started having a panic attack. I thought this came ‘out of the blue’, but once the panic attack passed, my friend pointed out to me that I did tell them that I had been overthinking for a good few days before. Sometimes, much like in my case, the mind gets so overwhelmed by whatever is going on in your head that the body undergoes a physical response. The length of these panic attacks can vary. This one was around half an hour long, whilst another lasted for four hours. The difference is the four-hour-long panic attack included my mother just watching me and then blaming me for this happening. I really appreciate the way my friend on the phone approached it, despite it being my first time having a panic attack in front of them. Rather than blaming me, they instead acknowledged it and spoke to me normally, which sounds simple but for me it was really effective.

Panic Attack V Anxiety Attack

Many people are unsure about the difference between a panic attack and an anxiety attack. A panic attack tends to come out of nowhere, normally lasting a few minutes, maybe even a few hours (Mayo Clinic, 2018). This seemed random, unlike an anxiety attack. An anxiety attack can occur for a long while, possibly spanning over a few days and it normally is because of external stressors that the individual has encountered (Medical News Today, 2023).

Now what makes me certain that my recent attack was a panic attack and not an anxiety attack? Although my description of it may suggest that it was in fact an anxiety attack, that gut-punch feeling was the thing that gave it away. When I say ‘gut-punch feeling’, in this case I mean a sudden sense of physical pressure on my abdomen that makes it uncomfortable to even breathe. This paired with the fact that my sight got blurry and eventually dark proves to me that this was not an anxiety attack.

Just because I had these symptoms does not mean that panic attacks look, feel and sound like that for everyone. Much like many physical and mental disorders, the label is the same, but the symptoms and feelings may be different for everyone. For me, my vision goes blurry and I struggle to breathe when I have a panic attack. When my anxiety is overpowering, sometimes I visibly tremble. It is noticeable when I speak – I wouldn’t be able to form a sentence as quickly as usual. I also get quite hot, but from the inside, which then spreads everywhere else.

Because anxiety is felt differently by everyone, the exercises to relieve its symptoms may vary too.  Perhaps the most well-known way to try and deal with it is by fixing your breathing. Breathing exercises to try and regulate this may help reduce the anxious feeling (NHS, 2023). Another way of relief could potentially be the 333 method (Healthline, 2025). This technique consists of the individual looking around their environment when they have a panic attack and trying to identify three objects, three sounds and three body parts. makes the individual focus on other things rather than letting the anxious feeling take over. Naturally, breathing would slowly start to regulate until it becomes normal again. Now those are just two options of relief.  The main takeaway from both of those techniques is the regulation of breathing, which is necessary for effective relief to occur. However, it’s important to recognise that just because these strategies work for some, it doesn’t necessarily mean they would work for you. Anxiety as a disorder is different for everyone, and everyone will have a method that works best for them.

For support with panic attacks or anxiety attacks, please contact the No Panic Helpline at 0300 772 9844 (10am-10pm). To hear a recording of the breathing exercise, call the Crisis Line at 01952 680835 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).”

Bibliography

Headline, The 333 Rule for Anxiety, Plus Other Coping Methods and When to Seek Treatment, 2025

<https://www.healthline.com/health/333-rule-anxiety>

Mayo Clinic, Panic Attacks and Panic Disorders, 2018

<https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/panic-attacks/symptoms-causes/syc-20376021#:~:text=A%20panic%20attack%20is%20a,heart%20attack%20or%20even%20dying.>

Medical News Today, How Do You Know If You’re Having a Panic Attack?, 2023

<https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321798>

National Education Union, State of Education : Mental Health of Young People, 2024

<https://neu.org.uk/latest/press-releases/state-education-mental-health-young-people#:~:text=Half%20or%20more%20told%20us,difficulties%20among%20pupils%20(74%25).>

National Library of Medicine, Rising Global Burden of Anxiety Disorders Among Adolescents and Young Adults: Trends, Risk Factors, and the Impact of Socioeconomic Disparities and COVID-19 from 1990 to 2021, 2024

<https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11651023/#:~:text=Anxiety%20disorders%20are%20among%20the%20most%20common%20mental%20health%20conditions,impairments%20(1%E2%80%934).>

NHS, Anxiety, Fear and Panic, 2023

<https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/feelings-and-symptoms/anxiety-fear-panic/>