Research Blog #8: Case

Case: Why Are More American Teenagers Than Ever Suffering From Severe Anxiety?

Parents, therapists and schools are struggling to figure out whether helping anxious teenagers means protecting them or pushing them to face their fears.

Jake is a junior high school student who is a prime example of stress amongst students. He engaged in conferences, sports, and took advanced placement classes; and on top of all this he never really failed even though it was one of his biggest fears. One day Jake was overwhelmed and was consumed by his fears that he trapped himself in his room and never verbalized his thoughts. His parents recommended him a therapist who prescribed Jake pills, which made him act out in a bad way. There was evidence of him trying to commit suicide as a result of the imbalance of emotion; directly correlated to not taking the medication being prescribed. Since the doctor medicalized Jake's stress I can use this as a prime example of stress being taken to another level when it shouldn't be.