Health: Anxiety an ongoing issue for children
Nicholas Palastro was 11 or 12 when his first panic attack hit. He was sitting in church when it happened.
He couldn’t understand or articulate what had occurred and although the episode was brief, it was scary, said Palastro, now 21. He lives in Greenwich and is a student at Norwalk Community College. For a few more years, he lived free of the attacks.
Fast forward to about four years later and Palastro was unable to leave his room. He had developed agoraphobia, a term experts use to describe the extreme fear of crowded or enclosed public spaces, where there’s no easy escape route if a panic attack occurs.
“I was just scared of always being nauseous and throwing up in public spaces,” Palastro said. “My bed had become my ultimate safe zone.”
For two months, his mother would bring daily meals to his room. His world became smaller and he stopped caring about personal hygiene and other forms of self-care.
“It wasn’t my choice,” he said. “When you’re in the middle of a panic attack, you don’t think you’re dying, you know for a fact you are.”
Anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million people, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Each year, severe mental illness costs the U.S. about $193 billion in lost earnings, according to the Journal of Psychiatry, and although anxiety disorders are highly treatable, only 36.9 percent of anxious people receive treatment.
“It’s not just down to strength of character, it’s a biologically based disorder that’s influenced by bullying, isolation, social learning or what you see from other people,” said Daniel Villiers, co-founder of the Anxiety Institute in Greenwich.
“If you compare an OCD brain with a non-OCD brain, you’ll see biological differences,” he said of obsessivecompulsive disorder, an anxiety related disorder.
Villiers and other staff at the Anxiety Institute treat people with anxiety and related disorders. All staff members have experienced some form of mental illness in their lifetimes, he said.
Symptoms are serious and can include increased heart rate and temperature, agitation, high blood pressure and sweaty palms, “basically the symptoms related to the fight or flight response,” Villiers said.
His organization sees a massive spike in calls from students between Labor Day and midterms, with the biggest surge between the first two weeks of school.
Anxiety rates have increased by more than 700 percent in the last 40 years, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, and Villiers says the disease has also evolved with- in the student population.
Students are increasingly fearing and avoiding classroom settings. Fear of overwhelming workloads, academic failure, standardized testing, college applications, and social rejection are among the triggers, he says. Cell phones also don’t help, as teens are increasingly competing for a perfect image online.
According to Mental Health America, Connecticut residents have one of the lowest rates of mental illness in the U.S. But in Connecticut alone, more than 250,000 people aged 13 to 25 are impacted by anxiety, according to the Anxiety Institute. More than 65,000 live in Fairfield County. Villiers and his staff say Bridgeport and Stamford have the highest rates of teen anxiety, respectively, and in Norwalk, more than 6,000 young people have experienced it.
The Anxiety Institute is hosting free screenings for a documentary that sparks conversation about mental health. The film “Angst” comprises stories about teens who are living with anxiety disorder, OCD, and trauma. Experts including Villiers will offer tips on coping and the different treatment options that are available to students after the film. The next Norwalk screening is at 7 p.m. on Oct. 17 at Bowtie Cinemas on Westport Avenue. It is free of charge.
Sitting in a classroom was uncomfortable for Palastro and his fear of school caused him to miss about 80 to 90 days of school each year of middle school.
Teachers didn’t understand his illness and would taunt him in front of classmates when he would show up to class. Students accused him of pretending to have an illness, saying he never looked sick when he returned.
He dropped out of six courses and multiple academic programs. For the first time in three years, he’s back at school, this time at Norwalk Community College, one of the programs he had previously dropped out of.
He started receiving services at the Anxiety Institute in Feb. and although he still feels anxious in class daily, he’s found ways to manage it.
He spent four and a half months in Villiers’ intensive day program, which focuses on exposure therapy, or putting students in anxiety provoking situations. Some students are forced to engage with strangers in public places and others must grocery shop on their own.
“I have like 20 new friends now that are back in school or back on track,” Palastro said.
At first, he was skeptical of the programs 95 percent success rate because he imaged 10 or 20 other people with an illness as severe as his.
Mindfulness meditation and therapy animals have helped him heal. He saw about 20 different doctors before he found the Anxiety Institute and believes if he could heal, others can too.
A 16-year-old girl who spoke on condition of anonymity said the most important part of healing is simply talking about mental illness, not only to break the stigma but to allow others the ability to help.
“If you feel that your child’s world is getting smaller and smaller or they’re not living up to their potential because the anxiety is limiting them, that’s when you need to seek treatment,” said Linda Geiger, co-founder of the Anxiety Institute.
“There’s hope and there’s help, but to know there’s hope and help, you need to first raise awareness about anxiety and its prevalence in the U.S.”