Adolescent stress can have many causes. The teenage years are a difficult and stressful time for anyone. Hormonal changes, the pressures of growing up and making life choices, having to learn to deal with adult relationships and emotions: all of these can cause anxiety and feelings of being unable to cope.
The following are just some of the things which can be difficult or stressful for adolescents to cope with:
– their parents separating or divorcing
– moving
– beginning studies at a new school
– death in the family
– conflicts with their teachers, their parents or their classmates
– beginning or ending their first romantic relationships
– having sex for the first time
– an illness in the family
– financial troubles within the family
– living in a dangerous neighborhood
– the physical and emotional changes caused by puberty
– pressure to succeed at school (from teachers, coaches, parents or oneself)
– low self esteem
Many of those would also cause stress in adults. However, adolescents often suffer even more because they have less control over their lives. They cannot choose where to live or who to live with, for example.
All adolescents experience stress, which they may display in the form of:
– becoming irritable or having mood swings
– anxiety and worry
– withdrawal from other people
– drug or alcohol use
– physical illness
There are methods which adolescents can use to control stress. So0me give teens near-immediate relief from stress but others are a long term strategy to achieve stable hormonal levels and emotional balance.
– watching or reading something humorous
– listen to relaxing music
– talking with close friends and playing with pets
– get regular exercise
– eat healthily, including a variety of vegetables in your diet
– avoid stimulants (coffee, tea, cola, chocolate, sugar, tobacco, alcohol, drugs) especially when feeling stressed out
– learn deep breathing and other relaxation techniques
– practicing meditation or yoga
– learn to be assertive (to say how you feel or ask for what you want in a way that is not threatening to others)
– breaking down overwhelming problems or tasks into manageable pieces which can be completed one by one
– stop negative thinking in its tracks and replace it with positive affirmations
– don’t dwell on the possibility of negative outcomes
If you’re experiencing a lot of stress and you are finding your quality of life or even your physical health negatively affected, you may benefit from stress management training. This training will teach you some of the techniques listed above and help you learn to reduce stress almost as soon as it arises.
Keep in mind that a certain degree of stress is only natural and we all experience it at times. What matters is how you deal with stress ? adolescent stress does not have to overshadow everything else in your life.