Managing Anxiety: Students Get Expert Advice

Brunswick welcomed Darby Fox P ’17 — child and adolescent family therapist; CBS, Fox News, and HLN contributor; author; and national educator — to the Upper School for a lecture and Q & A rooted in the feelings of anxiety affecting so many young people in the world today. 

 

Fox, a Middlebury College graduate with an MSW from Columbia University, spoke to a large audience of Brunswick students and faculty about defining and managing anxiety — and establishing a framework to strike a balance and effect positive change either individually or with the help of others. 

 

“The best solution is to break it down, make a plan, and go through it piece by piece — and write it down on a hard copy,” Fox explained. “Immediately, that relieves your brain of the pressure and the frazzle — and you won’t feel fried.

 

“Step back — even ask your parents to step back — and think about how you can handle your anxiety when you begin to feel overwhelmed. You all have the ability to get through and control your anxiety in a simple way.

 

“And yet you should understand that there are people here to help if you can’t.”