Severe anxiety can contribute to depression

Traveling to the Southcenter mall, a Wenatchee High School senior expected to return home with some new clothes, yet she returned with a new sense of anxiety.

Shopping for clothes can be frustrating when you can’t find the right piece or you feel like nothing looks good on you. For this anonymous student, these factors took her stress level over the top.

“I started thinking about all of the clothes I haven’t even looked at yet and feeling like if I made a decision, I would be missing out on an outfit that better fits my personality,” anonymous said. “I felt so much pressure to make a decision, and it caused my body to overreact with panic and basically shut down.”

She rushed to the bathroom and cried in the locked stall. With the help of her mom and sister, she finally calmed down enough to return to the mall.

Anxiety before a test or a job interview is completely normal, however, when it disturbs someone to the point where they cannot complete everyday tasks, like shopping, it is an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders have become a major threat to people of all ages, and have surfaced at WHS.

“It’s something that you can’t get rid of, but you can control it,” the anonymous student said. She has had severe social anxiety since middle school, and takes medicine daily to control it.

There are many different types of anxiety disorders, ranging from general anxiety, social, separation, post traumatic stress, obsessive compulsive disorder, and panic disorders,  Susan Marney, a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner at Confluence Health, said.

WHS Counselor Mary Howie said she has seen an increase in severe anxiety cases at WHS.

“Increased requirements for graduation, harder classes, they have to pass all these tests, you have the typical teenage issues going on and the hormones raging, and then you’ve got social media and all the problems that come with that. I think there are more families that are falling apart than we had maybe 20 years ago. When you look at where teenagers are today, it’s a really, really stressful time,” Howie said. “And we have some people that have severe anxiety. And all of a sudden something will set off a panic attack, and they will feel they [might] have a heart attack. And we are just seeing more students with cases of severe anxiety.”

These disorders interfere with the average life of a person by causing unnecessary worry. Unlike depression, where victims feel hopeless and down, those suffering with anxiety never feel at ease.

“There is low-grade depression… life is just hard. It’s hard to concentrate. It’s hard to get up. You are tired. And then there is severe depression, it can be set off by a particular event or something dramatic where you can’t function at all. And that usually is where the eating and sleeping habits change, [you] cannot concentrate, you are really struggling each day to get up and function,” Howie said. “With anxiety, it is not so much about being down and having trouble to concentrate, it’s an offset of something. It gets hard to breathe, you are shaking, they get into a meltdown mode.”

Symptoms like panic attacks, fatigue, irritability, trembling, nausea, and headaches can all be diagnosed by a doctor and lead to treatment.

“I help people figure out ways to make changes that will help them to take the anxious things out of their life,” Marney said. “It’s only a problem when it gets in the way of normal functioning.”

Marney said the two main treatments are cognitive therapy and medication. Cognitive therapy is a psychotherapy where a professional exposes the patient to the root of their anxiety, and helps the patient find ways to overcome it. The therapist tries to change the negative thoughts of the patient into positive thoughts in order to lessen stress.

Medication can also be prescribed by a professional to ease the overwhelming fears these disorders can cause. Howie said medication changes the chemical balance in one’s brain.

“[Medication] kind of lets my guard down,” anonymous said. “I don’t worry about the small things.”

At WHS, sources of anxiety are numerous, such as schoolwork, social media, extracurricular activities, testing, issues at home, and even the size of the school.

“I had one student that just transferred to WestSide. [WHS] was just too big,” Howie said. “He was just shaky, couldn’t concentrate, just a complete meltdown.”

Yet, these can be overcome.

“It’s not something to be ashamed of,” anonymous said. “It can be helped if you’re willing to help yourself.”

Click here to view part one: Depression, suicide on the rise, survey says.
Click here to view part two: Inside the WHS counseling office on depression, suicide.
Click here to view part three: Student learns to overcome depression.
Check back tomorrow for parts five and six of our reporting.