Studies have shown that college and high school students today have the equivalent amount, if not more, anxiety than psychiatric patients in the 1950’s.  Medically speaking, anxiety usually stems from excessive amounts of stress. The correct medical diagnosis for anxiety is stress after the stressor is gone. Anxiety disorders in the United States are the most common of all mental illnesses, and affect over forty million United States citizens.

Stress is the identity of a student today; between countless essays and the SAT, students have a lot to worry about. The added pressures of today’s economy, and the competitiveness of being accepted into colleges all increase student anxiety.  Anxiety can be appropriate in some cases, however it quite easily can become a danger to a young person’s health. Excessive stress and anxiety has been proven to cause or be associated with heart attacks, asthma, ulcers, and coronary heart disease. Through studies on young students, psychologist Jean M. Twenge, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University writes, “Cases of depression will continue to increase in the coming decades, as anxiety tends to predispose people to depression,” and further adds that problems of substance of abuse will continue to rise in result to the rising cases of anxiety in young people.

Two meta-analytic studies in Washington show that anxiety is growing from a lack of social behavior and a growing dangerous environment, such as the increase in national crime, disease, and increased media. In our modern world, social media has become a tremendous part of an average adult’s life, and even more so in the lives of young adults. In a survey taken in 2012 it is shown that 98% of young people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four already use social networking daily. Social media has led to a lack of human contact, and has led to cyber-bullying, among other stressors. Anxiety can also be linked to chemical imbalances in the brain and genetics, as can many other mental disorders. Through these studies scientists can speculate that we will only continue to become more anxious, and damage our health will follow.

It’s important for students today to be able to appropriately manage their stress, and anxiety. Great ways to battle anxiety include relaxation exercises. Yoga, deep breathing, and meditation are all proven to help with the stress that leads to anxiety. Deep breathing alone has been proven to help to relax a major nerve that runs from the diaphragm to the brain. Other fantastic ways to battle anxiety include staying healthy, connecting with others, and thinking positively. Staying physically healthy can also help with keeping healthy a mentality. Furthermore, positive thinking has been shown to help beat illnesses, and simply by thinking positively you release stress and allow yourself to relax. As anxiety is extremely common today and continues to grow, it is important that young adults learn the tools to combat it.