What’s on My Mind – A Teen’s Guide to Thinking, Feeling, and Figuring Things Out: Stress & Anxiety

Feeling stressed or anxious as a teen is completely normal – but it does not have to take over their life. The Stress and Anxiety chapter in What’s on My Mind: A Teen’s Guide to Thinking, Feeling, and Figuring Things Out offers teens practical tools to understand and manage these overwhelming emotions.

This chapter is designed to help teens recognize the signs of stress and anxiety, explore coping strategies, and practice exercises that make a real difference. Through engaging activities, journaling prompts, and easy-to-use coping strategies, teens can learn to:

• Understand what situations or thoughts cause stress or anxiety
• Try simple strategies like breathing exercises and mindfulness
• Strengthen mental and emotional health through guided prompts
• Use guided activities to explore thoughts, feelings, and coping patterns in a safe, private space

Unlike other mental health books, What’s on My Mind lets them go at their own pace. Teens can skip around, repeat activities, or focus on the strategies that work best for them. Each page provides new ways to cope, so your teen will always have tools at their fingertips when stress or anxiety strikes.

If the feelings get too intense, this chapter also encourages reaching out to a trusted adult, school counselor, or healthcare professional. This chapter gives teens the guidance and exercises to take charge of their mental health and start feeling better, step by step.

This chapter from the mental health workbook, ‘What’s on My Mind’, is made possible thanks to a generous donation from First International Bank & Trust. 

To learn more about this workbook and explore other chapters, visit What’s on My Mind: A Teen’s Guide to Thinking, Feeling, and Figuring Things Out.