Help, my teen has social anxiety

In secondary school, Ms Sara Cher was active and outspoken, but by Secondary 3, she began experiencing social anxiety and panic attacks, often retreating from class to the toilets. Now a 23-year-old SUSS undergraduate, she is channelling those struggles into Brainstorm, a Gateway Arts play on teenage pressures and anxieties. Fellow cast member Matthias Teh, 26, also draws on his own experiences of social anxiety in his late teens and early 20s. Their stories reflect a recent study led by Assoc Prof Setoh Pei Pei from NTU SSS, which found that girls experience a sharp spike in social anxiety between 8½ and 13, with higher levels than boys by age 13. Prof Setoh warns that if left unchecked, social anxiety can affect mental health, relationships, and performance later in life.

- Similar reports in The New Paper

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