Newly-released figures show there has been a 40% increase in the number of 16 to 25-year-olds visiting the health charity Anxiety UK looking for help this year.
The charity has warned that the increasing number of people accessing their site highlights the need for support and advice for sufferers.
It comes as The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued new guidelines to improve the standard of care for people suffering from mental health issues.
Sophie Andrusiak, 21, told JMU Journalism: “I suffer from anxiety quite a lot. Over-thinking causes it, when I avoid a situation for a long time or a situation starts going wrong for me I start to suffer.”
Claire Bennett, from Liverpool mental health charity Mind, told JMU Journalism: “We work primarily with adults with mental health problems, so we haven’t seen an increase in young people contacting us, but we have seen an increase in calls to our Infoline regarding anxiety.”
Anxiety is a condition that has psychological and physical symptoms which can leave a person suffering, often by imagining aspects of their lives are worse than they are in reality.
Kara Probin, from Liverpool, was diagnosed with anxiety after she left school. The combination of a lack of routine and the need to make important decisions about her future brought on the condition.
She told JMU Journalism: “My body started to act peculiar and every morning I would open my eyes and have to run straight away to be sick. In extreme cases when I didn’t feel in control I would shake, cry, even feel suicidal and I could never sleep at night.”
Kara thinks there needs to be more help out there. The 19-year-old added: “I think giving people a better insight into anxiety and making them more aware would be a place to start. Also, opening centres where young people can go and talk to someone would be great.”