Ep 49. Is Your High Achieving Teen Stressed and Anxious? Here's How to Help

What's in this episode

In today's episode I'm talking about something I see so often in my coaching work: high-achieving teens and young adults who aren't struggling with big mental health crises, but with the everyday juggle of holding themselves to an incredibly high bar. I love their drive and their goals, but so many of them are quietly overwhelmed, anxious, and stressed because they haven't yet learned how to manage everything on their plate. Here's what we cover: Why high-achieving teens can suffer significantly higher rates of anxiety, depression, and substance use than the national average, even when they look like they have it all together The difference between perfectionist strivings and perfectionist concerns, and why it's the fear underneath the standards, not the standards themselves, that does the damage Why failure isn't the opposite of success, it's the actual mechanism that gets your teen there Practical regulation tools for when your teen is spiraling, including naming the emotion and box breathing Tangible systems like breaking big projects into smaller tasks, spreading work out, and building an organized space to reduce unnecessary stress Why celebrating wins and shifting self-talk m