Adolescence is the most crucial stage in the life of an individual. Anxiety in adolescents can lead to multiple physical symptoms, scholastic backwardness and problems in personality development. Hence it is important that anxiety disorders in adolescents
are identified and managed at the earliest so that we can lead the adolescents to a healthy adulthood.

Normal and Pathological Anxiety

Normal anxiety is a diffuse unpleasant vague sense of apprehension often accompanied by autonomic symptoms. It enables a person to take measures to deal with a threat. Pathological anxiety is an inappropriate response to a given stimulus and it will hinder developmentally appropriate adaptive behavior.

Anxiety Disorders

The common anxiety disorders seen in adolescents are panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, specific phobia and social phobia.
In panic disorder, the individual experiences recurrent unexpected panic attacks characterized by discrete periods of intense fear associated with palpitation, sweating, trembling, chest discomfort, abdominal distress or dizziness and fear of impending death. Usually there will be a precipitating stress. Panic disorder may or may not be associated with agoraphobia.
In generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), there is free floating anxiety about a number of events or activities. The adolescents with GAD can have restlessness, difficulty in concentration, muscle tension, irritability, autonomic overactivity, recurrent somatic symptoms or sleep disturbance.
Obsessive compulsive disorder is characterized by recurrent obsessions and compulsions causing marked distress and significantly interfering with the normal routine activities, academic functioning and social relationships.
Adolescents with specific phobia will have marked and persistent fear cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation. Exposure to the phobic stimulus invariably provokes immediate anxiety response. In social phobia there is marked and persistent fear of one or more social situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The exposure to the feared situation provokes anxiety and the feared social situations are usually avoided.

Treatment of anxiety disorders

Anxiety disorders, if diagnosed early, can be managed effectively by psychological therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy, relaxation therapy, desensitization ( for phobias), insight oriented psychotherapy, family therapy etc. In severe cases, pharmacotherapy may be indicated.

Conclusion

Anxiety Disorders will cause deterioration in the academic performance of adolescents. If untreated, it can lead to substance abuse, depression, deliberate self harm or even hypertension and heart disease in future. Early diagnosis and management of Anxiety Disorders is essential for guiding the adolescents towards excellence in life.

Introduction

Intelligence is the capacity to engage in valid, abstract reasoning in relation to an area of information. In the realm of emotions, intelligence involves understanding the general nature of emotions, the meanings of individual emotions and the capacity to uncover similarities and differences among emotions. How human beings develop emotionally is of core importance in building good interpersonal relationships. Scientific studies have suggested that emotional intelligence helps a person to become successful in life. Hence developing high emotional intelligence is essential for an adolescent to excel in future life.

What is emotional intelligence?

According to Daniel Goleman, “emotional intelligence is a master aptitude, a capacity that profoundly affects all other abilities, either facilitating or interfering with them”. The term emotional intelligence encompasses the following five characteristics and abilities:

1. Self awareness
2. Self management
3. Self motivation
4. Empathy
5. Social skills

These competencies are measured in determining the emotional quotient (EQ) of and individual.

Why adolescents need high emotional intelligence?

Adolescents who are academically brilliant may sometimes be socially and interpersonally inept. Despite possessing a high IQ, success may not automatically follow. But by increasing the emotional quotients, the adolescents can become more productive and successful at what they do and they can also help others to become more productive and successful too. High emotional intelligence will definitely help an adolescent to reduce stress by decreasing conflict, improving relationships and understanding.

Emotional intelligence and success in academic performance

Research suggests that emotional health is fundamental to effective learning. The most critical element for a student’s success in school is an understanding of how to learn. Some key ingredients for this understanding are – confidence, self control, capacity to communicate and ability to co-operate. These traits are all aspects of emotional intelligence. An intelligent adolescent who is self aware and intrinsically motivated will definitely have very high academic performance. Adolescents with high emotional intelligence will also have good relationship with teachers and parents which also help them to perform well in their examinations. Students with good EQ will not have conflicts with peer group and are not likely to use drugs or alcohol.

Conclusion

Emotional intelligence enables the adolescent to develop very good interpersonal relationships and to have better social support. It is a highly desirable and personally valuable attribute to possess. Through life skills training and scientific guidance, we can improve the emotional intelligence of adolescents and thus we can lead them towards a very successful future life.