Holding anxiety in our pockets

I can always feel them coming.

This panic attack was triggered by being trapped in a huge group of people at church. My heart rate quickened, tears sprang to my eyes and breathing got harder. My boyfriend squeezed my hand, and we quietly left through the back early – the sounds were too loud and it felt unsafe and there were too many people and I felt swallowed.

I had my first one when I was 13.

Thirteen sounds distressingly young. But I am not alone.

According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, about 70 percent of teenagers ages 13 to 17 see anxiety and depression as a major issue among their peers. Mental health tops the list as the biggest concern among teens, beating out bullying, drug addiction and teen pregnancy.

The report states that concerns surrounding mental health cut across multiple socio-economic, racial and gender lines.

Anxiety does not discriminate. In the past week alone, I can list six friends off the top of my head who have talked with me about their frequent panic attacks. Our culture is an anxious culture, inundated by a constant influx of information from the digital age. We are the guinea pigs of innovation, and I think that applies to our mental health as well.

It’s a sturdy talking point and now seems to be the centerpiece of conversations. So why are we still collapsed on the ground with tear-drenched carpets, unable to catch our breaths?

There is a negative connection between social media and mental health.

About 86 percent of my generation actively uses social media, whereas only 59 percent of baby boomers use social media. Baby boomers are also significantly less likely than millennials and Gen X to say that social media and the digital age are good for society, according to a study from the Pew Research Center.

Just look at all the people who have to go on social media cleanses. They resolve to stay off Instagram and Twitter for a couple weeks, delete the apps and focus on staying present. I’ve done it. We’ve all done it.

When you carry trauma, danger and horror around in your pocket at all times, it becomes part of you. This morning, I clicked my Twitter app only to be greeted by a high-def video of a man getting shot. We get breaking news alerts – neatly and strategically tailored to us – about death and destruction on a near daily basis.

How am I supposed to not have panic attacks? I’m constantly being told with every little ping from my phone that I’m threatened – that I should feel unsafe.

I feel swallowed.

And now with 70 percent of teenagers saying that they see mental health as a major threat to their communities, it’s clear we’re only perpetuating the issue that my friends and I know all too well.

Without an extension of resources, it’s difficult to help. We can be aware of the issue all we want, but until actual strides are made, we’re going to continue raising a new generation in an old way.

Put trained, mental health professionals in middle schools and high schools. Talk to your kids. Guide them in getting medications or going to therapy. Teach them that this is the world we live in, but we don’t have to personally bear the burden of every single trauma that shoots onto our home screens.

Until we start trying to attack anxiety back, it is going to continue to grow into the next generation. We can’t necessarily undo the past harms, but we can look forward to preventing it.

It’s all too loud. And I’m fighting right here with you.

Edited by Angelia Herrin