"My head and me": The boom in anxiety attacks in anxious young people -
20 Minutes
The lump in the stomach, the muscles paralyzing, speech prevented.
This rise of anxiety, Axelle, 18, has felt it regularly since the beginning of her adolescence.
La Bretonne suffers from generalized anxiety.
With the arrival of the coronavirus, its seizures intensified.
“When Emmanuel Macron said that we were re-confined (on October 28), I burst into tears and I left in crisis.
To avoid the puff of anguish, the young woman needs to plan everything.
So when she realized that she couldn't know what was going to happen in the next few months, her anxiety came back all the more.
Like her, many young people have been victims of anxiety attacks since the arrival of Covid-19.
If these crises can be linked to a lot of pathologies (phobia, OCD, post-traumatic stress), those caused by anxiety have multiplied during this anxiety-provoking period.
According to an IFOP study published on November 12, the announcement of the re-containment (or curfew, depending on the geographical area) increased the number of people suffering from anxiety by 27%.
Fear of dying, social isolation, overexposure to continuous news channels, fear of infecting loved ones, the reasons for anxiety are as numerous as the types of various crises.
And for those affected, life is all the more complicated.
The feeling of being dying
At Romane, a 16-year-old high school student, the isolation linked to confinement has generated widespread anxiety.
Three days after returning to first class, she had an anxiety attack in the middle of English class.
“My hands were shaking.
I was crying.
I felt like I was dying.
I walked out of class and called my mom.
It traumatized me.
"
While anxiety attacks increased in some people who were already having them before the pandemic, they appeared in others.
They began with Camille, a 25-year-old nurse, at the start of the second confinement.
“My heart was beating so hard I thought it was going to stop beating.
I had stomach cramps which forced me to stay prostrate.
I was unable to stand.
In 25 years, she had only had two anxiety attacks in her life.
During the second confinement, she could do up to four a day.
A vicious circle of angst
Symptoms that Charlie, a 24-year-old student, also felt from the first confinement.
“My jaw was tightening so much that I couldn't feed myself.
My mouth rejected any food, as if I was going to choke.
One evening, in his bed, he is seized with a violent crisis.
His boyfriend wakes up and tries to calm him down.
“But in my body I felt myself leaving.
I almost felt unwell in my shower right after.
"
His anxiety mounting, the fear of going to the emergency room invades him because the young man has the impression that if he goes there, he will not come out.
The more the anxiety rises, the more these type of terrifying thoughts settle in his brain and the more the anxiety resurfaces, creating a vicious cycle.
The same applies to breathing difficulties, symptomatic of the anxiety attack but also of Covid-19, and therefore sources of stress.
Differentiate between pathological and non-pathological anxiety
Psychiatrist Nicolas Neveux would like to point out that anxiety, if it is adapted, is logical, even necessary.
“In any situation where the mind feels there may be danger, it will warn us by creating anxiety.
It's a red flag.
»A danger of death, anxiety about the future, fear for a loved one, an unforeseen situation, all these elements can lead to an increase in heart rate.
It is only in certain cases that it proves to be problematic.
“The pathological side of anxiety is not linked to the intensity of the crisis or its unpleasant side but to the character adapted to real signals.
For example, having an anxiety attack following an assault is rational.
But staying paralyzed, feeling your throat tighten and feeling tremors all over your body because you missed your bus is less so.
The need for a diagnosis
Axelle is part of this second category.
She suffers from generalized anxiety disorder due to post-traumatic stress disorder.
His anguish flushes are very complicated to manage because they can occur at any time.
“The crises became so unbearable that at one point, I didn't want to live anymore.
I told myself that if my life was punctuated by it, it was useless.
“From January to November 2020, the Breton made three hospital stays due to her depression linked to her anxiety.
For her part, Camille is taking anxiolytics for the first time in her life.
Each has had fewer seizures since.
For Nicolas Neveux, the most important thing is to consult a doctor in the event of recurring anxiety.
“Behind anxiety, you have to make a diagnosis, because it can be due to a lot of things.
"
Podcast
How to help a loved one affected by depression?
Podcast
Society
Coronavirus: Our anxiety would be increased tenfold by the increase in Covid-19 cases
20 seconds of context
This article and the accompanying video constitute the first issue of the new 20 Minutes program, titled “My Head and Me”, dedicated to youth mental health.
The goal: to understand certain pathologies thanks to the testimonies of young people concerned and to try to find solutions to get better.
Psychology
Youth
Health
Society
20 minutes video
Psychiatry