Understanding Your Anxiety

Understanding

12 June

Written By Alyssa Nikolakopoulos - Guest author

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health experiences in Australian teens. If you're reading this, chances are you already know what anxiety feels like; racing heart, churning stomach, a brain that won't stay quiet, and a body that won't relax. This is a guide to making sense of it, understanding what's going on, and learning what actually helps.

Almost one in three Australians aged 16-24 experience an anxiety disorder each year.
Anxiety isn't weakness. It's a survival system that's working a bit too hard.
Anxiety is highly treatable. With the right tools and support, it gets much easier.

Feeling anxious at times is expected. However, when anxiety shows up often, feels intense, or starts affecting school, relationships, sleep, or daily life, it can be helpful to understand what is going on in your body and brain.

How Anxiety Works: Your Brain’s Alarm System

Your brain has an inbuilt threat detection system designed to keep you safe. It scans for threats and activates your body’s stress response - the fight, flight, or freeze response. This floods your body with adrenaline, speeds up your heart, sharpens your senses, and gets you ready to run faster, jump higher, and stay alive.

In the past, this system was useful for real physical dangers, like escaping a jaguar or other wild animal. These days, it’s often triggered by everyday situations like an assignment due on Monday, being left on read, exams, or meeting new people. Your brain’s alarm system is doing its job, but it can sometimes overestimate danger, which is why anxiety can feel intense and confusing. The sensations are real, even if the threat isn’t.

What Anxiety Can Feel Like

In your body

Heart racing or pounding
Tense shoulders, jaw, or stomach
Nausea, diarrhoea, or sudden need to use the toilet
Trouble sleeping, exhaustion that doesn’t lift

In your mind

Worst-case-scenario thinking; “what if?” loops
Brain fog, trouble concentrating
Overthinking conversations, decisions, or texts
Catastrophising - small things feel huge

In your behaviour

Avoiding things - assignments, social situations, school
Perfectionism or overpreparing
Reassurance-seeking from friends or parents
Withdrawing from people or activities you used to enjoy

Remember: Anxiety is not a weakness. It’s your brain trying to keep you safe. You are not broken or strange.

The Avoidance Trap

Anxiety often follows a cycle:

You notice a situation that feels challenging or uncertain
Your brain predicts possible threat or failure
Your body activates the stress response
You feel anxious and uncomfortable
You avoid or escape the situation
The anxiety decreases temporarily, but your brain learns the situation is dangerous.

Over time, avoidance can make anxiety stronger, because your brain doesn’t get the chance to learn that you can cope.

If, instead, you gradually face the situation in small, manageable steps - whether that's going to the party, sending the email, or watching the lecture - your brain can begin to learn that the situation is safe and that you are capable of handling it. Over time, anxiety often becomes less intense and easier to manage.

Tools to Help Break the Cycle

You don’t need to get rid of anxiety completely to move forward. The goal is to help your brain learn that you can handle situations safely.

Calm your body:

Slow breathing: inhale 4 seconds, exhale 6–8 seconds
Ground yourself: name 5 things you can see, 4 you can hear, 3 you can touch, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste
Move your body: walk, run, stretch, dance, or use simple rhythmic movements like tapping each finger to your thumb. These actions can help bring your attention back to the present moment.

Calm your mind:

Notice worries without getting caught up in them. Imagine them passing by like ships on the water - you can acknowledge them without needing to jump aboard.
Eat, sleep and drink enough water
Reduce caffeine, including energy drinks and coffee
Limit the doom scroll. Your phone is not helping at 1am.

Positive self-talk:

‘This is anxiety. It's not the truth.’
‘I've felt this before. It passed.’
‘I can do hard things, one small step at a time.’
‘My nervous system is doing too much. I'm safe.’
‘I can feel anxious and still do this.’

Anxiety and Uncertainty

Anxiety often wants certainty. It wants to know exactly what will happen, whether things will go well, and whether everything will be okay. Unfortunately, life rarely gives us complete certainty. Part of managing anxiety is learning that we can cope with uncertainty, even when we don't have all the answers.

When to Reach Out for Support

If anxiety is interfering with school, friendships, sleep, or how you feel about yourself for more than a few weeks, that's worth talking to someone about. A parent, a school counsellor, a GP, or a psychologist are all reasonable first steps. You don't have to figure this out alone, and you don't have to wait until it has become too much to handle. Anxiety is highly treatable, and support is available.