We are all becoming trapped in an endless cycle of stress. Many see stress as something that is only experienced by adults yet teens of today are also suffering. I am not claiming to be an expert in this but am providing you with what I have learnt from discussions with people that I know. I asked some of my friends to answer three simple questions about the stress they encounter, what makes it worse and how it is improved.
The first question explored what caused the stress. The top three most popular answers were homework, living up to others expectations and friendships. The stress of homework is inevitable yet I think that the transition between year groups is a time of great adjustment and will therefore take some time.
Living up to others expectations was a response that an overwhelming amount of people said. Teens of today are seen as obsessed with their self image yet not many think that this applies to their work. Having extremely high standards that feel as though they are impossible to reach, can be a huge source of stress as people can feel as though they are a failure. Having this attitude can have a big impact on their actual learning as they may have negative feelings towards school. This will then increase the levels of stress. Ways to stop this happening is ensuring that you know what an achievable goal is and that you are more concerned with satisfying yourself rather than others.
Friendships can also be a great source of stress and especially for young adults. They are constantly worried about others perceptions of them and who they are surrounding themselves with. Solutions to this involve making sure that you are comfortable with your friends and not feeling as though you have to act a certain way around them. Additionally, you want to make sure that they are understanding of other things that you have to do to, allowing you to find the perfect balance. By ensuring that you have stable friendships takes away from the stress and also means that you can have fun.
So what made the stress worse? The top two factors were realising you have more to do than you thought and lack of motivation. Realising that you had more to do than you initially thought provides a sudden escalation in the levels of stress. A way to keep on top of all of your work is creating a timetable. You don’t have to feel inclined to follow it, it is a guideline so that you can do as much as possible and also preserve some time for leisure. Once again ensuring that your friends and family are supportive of you, can make a huge difference yet also making sure that your teacher is giving you constructive criticism to help you to develop.
Stress affects all parts of our lives, recognising what is causing the stress can help us think about solutions. By reducing the stress, calmly and rationally, leads to a much better life socially and educationally.
