Stress. This is a word that every teenager on the planet is familiar with, but what we don't know is what stress can do to us. Everyone suffers from forms of stress -- adults, teens, and even sometimes young children, but it seems that stress affects teenagers the most.
There has been a huge rise in the number of suicides among teenagers in the past decade as described in a medical journal: “The rising rate has been explained as a reaction to the stress inherent in adolescence compounded by increasing stress in the environment. Adolescence is a time when ordinary levels of stress are heightened by physical, psychological, emotional, and social changes.”
In plain English, this means that because we are changing physically, mentally, and emotionally, our stress levels are through the roof. And we cannot expect to overcome our stress, if we are not educated on it.
There are a lot of things that cause stress for teenagers, and many of them start at home. For example, family conflicts. These cause emotional turmoil on teenagers, causing them to not focus on their schoolwork, but on their home life. If there are family conflicts going on in your house, some ways you can help your stress level are:
1) TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS: Most teens don't talk about their feelings, and if you keep your feelings bottled up inside of you, you're going to explode. Think about it like a can of soda: If you keep the lid closed but you keep shaking it and you go to open it, it is going to explode all over you. If you keep your feelings that are upsetting you bottled inside your mind, you're going to explode eventually. You can talk to a friend, family member, or even a school guidance counselor about what is going on at home. Don't feel embarrassed or upset by talking to some one, because the chances are that they will have great advice for you.
2) TAKE ACTION: If your parents are always fighting, your family is having problems getting along, or whatever the problem is, you can always take action. If you call a family “meeting” to talk about what is bothering you, the chances are you can get your problem solved. If you have problems confronting your parents or the family member who is causing all this stress on you, then go to a close friend. Ask them for their help to gather every one, and help prepare you to talk with your family. They will be able to help give you the confidence you need to confront your family.
3) ESCAPE: You can escape your problems at home by doing something you love to do. For example; listening to your mp3 player, or maybe drawing. There are many ways to escape reality for a little while, but it is not smart to ignore your problems. If you ignore your problems, they will come back to haunt you in the future.
School is another major cause of stress on teens. There is so much pressure to turn in all of your assignments, make good grades, and not to mention making sure you get into a good college. Nearly one-third of all high school students fail to graduate from high school. Some things that you can do to make sure that you aren't part of those statistics are:
1) BE REALISTIC: Be realistic when it comes to how much time you spend on your schoolwork. Make sure you're spending a reasonable amount of time every evening to finish any projects, homework or reading you have. You don't want to spend too much time on your homework because eventually you won't want to spend any time on it.
2) TAKE CONTROL: Take control of your schedule. Make sure you don't overload yourself with too many classes, clubs, and sports. There is a way for you to keep yourself involved, but not overly busy. If you are constantly forgetting things because you can't keep up with your schedule, then you need to take a step back and look at your schedule. Look at your classload, if you have extra courses you are taking that you don't need and you are okay with giving up, you should look into removing them or completing them at another time. Also, you should look at your participation in clubs and sports. If you are in more than two clubs or sports, then you should look at your priorities, and chose activities that are the most important to you.
3) RELAX: Relaxing is very important to keeping your mind healthy. You need to take “me time” every day, whether it is just for 20 minutes or an hour. You need to spend time relaxing your mind, letting yourself do something you enjoy will help you relax.
4) NO PRESSURE: It's important that you don't put pressure on yourself. If you add any pressure on top of the pressure you already have it will make your school experience hard, long, and not enjoyable.
One of the most stressful parts of teenage life is peer pressure. Every year teens make bad decisions based upon peer pressure. There are, "750,000 teen pregnancies annually. Eight in 10 of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens." Also, 8.6 million teens were reported for drinking alcohol in the past year. Another 2.1 million teens abused prescription drugs in the year of 2006; this rate has gone up since then.
Most of the wrong choices made by teens every year are a result of stress over peer pressure. Here are some ways to help prevent yourself from being one of those teens:
1) SAY NO: You've heard this saying probably a billion times now, but all you have to do is “Just Say No!.” If you turn them down, whether “they” are drugs, alcohol, or having sex, you won't be any less of a person. Actually, there are many people who look well upon someone strong enough to say no. Don't think of yourself as weak or pathetic or any of the other names teens may call you. Be proud of who you are and stay true to yourself.
2) ACCEPT YOURSELF: If you accept yourself and your appearance, then people will more likely accept you, too. Of course, there will always be the group of people who don't like you, but you have to look at it as their loss, not your's. If you can truly say you are happy with who you are, then there shouldn't be anything or anyone who can change the way you feel.
3) NO NEGATIVE SELF TALK: Replace your negative thoughts about yourself with positive thoughts. If you think in a positive mind-frame then you are more likely to see a better outcome of any problems you come across.
Stress is a lot to handle; especially when you aren’t prepared. The outcome of being unprepared when you get hit with a lot of stress is having a lot of problems.
There are many ways for you to cope with stress, but the healthiest ways are to follow the simple advice stated above. Please remember to keep positive and don't hold any feelings in. You can be the best "you" when you are stress free.
Sources for above quotes and statistics:
www.teenpregnancy.org and the Office of the National Drug Control Policy.