Stress Its Impact on Teens

i’m sure

many of you have heard your parents say

you have it

so easy well in my day we had to do this

or that and while certain aspects of

what they say

may be true there has also been a lot of

changes in today’s society

that have caused many problems with

these problems

and former problems faced by every

previous generation

there’s bound to be loads of stress

well stress is a pretty broad term

because there’s so many different

variables that could cause it a

straightforward way of putting it is the

body

reacting to challenge or demand

once again this definition is

oversimplified because of the many ways

stress can be caught

caused but i still like it because it

shows that

stress doesn’t just affect the mentality

it can affect someone physically in many

ways

which i’ll touch upon later throughout

this i’ll be talking about the causes of

stress

how stress affects teenagers differently

and what society can do as a whole to

help

so what are the causes of stress well

you can take into consideration

home environment school technology

relationships overthinking and this

applies to

all agents ages while an adult is

worried about their child

an adolescent could be wondering how can

i get out of a household

while an adult is wondering how to get

out of a financial situation

an adolescent could be wondering if they

have enough money for a certain item

the two situations may seem vastly

different

but they can actually have the same

mental drain

the reason being from the ages from 13

to 25

there’s so many different changes in the

body and in the mind

one of these includes the amygdala which

is the part of the brain that

deals with emotions during these years

it becomes

hyperactive and gives false alarms to

even the smallest of

inconveniences this is why certain

people are stressed and have different

emotions when

they don’t even know why personally i’m

not a very busy person

i practice my instrument i try to do

good in school

and i try to have time for myself which

i’m sure many other people do

so when i have time for myself i try not

to think about anything else maybe any

problems

any work i have however even if i don’t

have any of these things

i’m still thinking if i haven’t done

something or if i’ve done something

wrong so when i take into consideration

what other people have to put up with

with their home environment school maybe

after school activities

it must be so overwhelming we’re always

so focused on our future and our

problems that we rarely ever have time

for ourselves

something else to consider is we’re just

going into the phases

of adulthood an adult has had their

entire life to experience

problems when we may have not seen the

worst parts of life

so once we face a problem we think

it’s the worst it’s gonna get we can’t

get out of the situation when that

simply

isn’t true adults need to realize that

even though our situations may seem

small

our developing mind tells us that

they’re much greater

that’s the cause for some of our

overwhelming stress

distress can affect people in many

different ways

this includes physical first let me get

into the science of how stress can

affect a person physically

when a person is stressed their muscles

begin to tense up

and as the american psychological

association states

when muscles are tensed up for a

prolonged period of time it can cause

many stray

stress related disorders this includes

low energy headaches body aches

skin issues insomnia according to webmd

this low energy can cause people not to

get out of bed

we don’t have energy to do the things

that we need to do

or even the things that we enjoy doing

it turns into a cycle being stressed

not having energy not doing work and now

being stressed about the work that you

aren’t doing

the cycle possibly never ends and over

time this can affect

the mental health

depression behavioral changes and

anxiety

are all mental effects of stress

according to the mental health

foundation this can lead to 24 days

or around three and a half weeks of work

loss for every person affected

each year when the stress of work

causes a lack of work isn’t there a

problem

especially at a younger age with your

priorities surrounding

problems deadlines tests the amount of

work we put

into stuff with no return except some

people having anxiety

or some even depression doesn’t seem

worth it once again you have to take

into consideration

that depression due to stress in teens

is

very high this depression could lead to

the

thoughts or even the act of suicide

according to pmc over 50 percent

of suicidal attempts in teenagers are

impulsive meaning from the initial

thought

to the acts maybe there wasn’t a plan

there was only a couple of

minutes to even hours

if the amount of stress in adolescence

remains the same

or increases the amount of lives

affected could be

drastic that’s why there needs to be

change

we know that schools won’t lower the

amount of work given out

and we know that adults won’t lower the

expectations for our future

changes won’t happen in both of these

for a very long time

so in the meantime what do we do one

solution

which sounds cheesy and overused is

talking to someone it doesn’t have to be

an adult like a teacher

your parents or a counselor glacier

stated

studies have shown that talking to

someone about your problems

can be profoundly healing reducing

stress

improving our immune system and reducing

physical and emotional distress

i can actually say this is true because

when i was in middle school i was

very overwhelmed and anxious because i

don’t like new things or change

over time i developed a condition called

stress-induced bell’s palsy

i wasn’t really talking to anyone about

my problems but

once i did it really helped this leads

me to my next point

ensuring we are there for others

we don’t have to give people advice we

don’t need to fix their problems

we just need to listen because sometimes

that’s all that’s needed lastly

we have to fix the problem ourselves we

see the decisions that are being made

aren’t always

positively impacting us so once we’re

adults we’ll be able to reflect off of

our past and remember what

we wanted since no one is going to help

us

we have to help ourselves thank you