Alexis Sutherland

4/1/2016
2nd Block
The Secret Life of a Stressed Teenager
The term stress is perhaps one of the most commonly used not only
throughout an individuals lifetime, but is especially existent in the teenage years of
the individuals life. The origin of stress can emerge from family, relationships,
grades, and college, possibly leading to more serious health problems in later years.
Numerous researches have been performed studying the varying levels of stress
experienced by differing individuals, resulting in a great number of methods of
stress control and relief that can be incorporated into almost any situation. Our
surrounding environment will challenge us throughout the entirety of our existence,
seeking to undermine our beliefs, ideals, and values, which makes it easy to
become stressed and unable to perform what is expected.
Many schools and parents encourage students to perform their best when it
comes to preparing for life after high school. Typically this means students are
encouraged to take advanced classes, gain college credit, and participate in as
many extracurricular activities as possible. Through this encouragement, amounting
to sometimes excessive pressure, students can experience extreme amounts of
stress, causing loss of sleep, allowing little social interaction, relaxation, and even
become ill with migraines and stomach aches. One example of these problems in
written in the article, School Stress Takes a Toll on Health, Teens and Parents Say.
Modern students are pushed to the extreme in preparation for college, being
criticized for taking a manageable schedule, in which the student can still exercise
their social life. Modern students can and usually do spend hours on their homework
every night, sometimes getting only a few hours of sleep. This causes the students
to have less energy the next day, which means less time focusing in class, a higher
chance of physical illnesses and of stress, et centra. Yet another instance of how the
building of stress is toxic to your body is He Stress, She Stress. Numerous studies
show the causes and effects of stress represented by the different sexes, and about
the punishments on the body when an individual remains stressed over an
elongated period of time. While females are less able to adapt to chronic stress, and
hence have a higher percentage of stress-related disorders, both sexes can
experience severe handicaps if contained in a stressful environment without
reprieve.
While stress can be viewed as the desire to perform well in the activities one
is involved in, it is mainly viewed for its numerous negative aspects instead of the
important positives. One example of this is represented by the article, Stress.
Recent studies show that a certain amount of stress is beneficial to an individual,
assisting them perform better, have a sharper focus, be more alert, et centra.
However, any form of stress can be exaggerated into becoming a negative impact
on both the body and mind, possibly implanting a permanent problem that will
persist throughout a persons life. This balance seems extremely easy to tip, with
strong regards to the mindset of the individual, which can determine the amount of
stress they allow themselves to be influenced by. Stress can be easily handled, by
getting enough sleep, relaxing, exercising, refusing overscheduling, et centra, by
those who wish to do so, but can become overwhelming by those who are
unprepared. Another prominent example of how stress can be handled is, Yoga for

Alexis Sutherland
4/1/2016
2nd Block
prison inmates is no longer a stretch. Prisons and correctional facilities across the
country are adopting several ways to help inmates handle stress, one of the most
successful being yoga. The exercise available not only reduces mass amounts of
stress in the body, but also in the mind, which decreases violence within the prison
and between inmates. While stress can help keep a body alert for danger, it needs
to be released completely on occasion in order for the body not to suffer long term
consequences.
The focus of many teenagers is about the life they will lead when they
graduate high school and move on to the next chapter in their life. For most, the
next step is college, student loans, and more stress. Many students, such as in
College Admissions Anxiety: Teens Share Their Stories, worry continuous about the
colleges they will be admitted to. Not only having to deal with the choice of where
to attend, but also the major they intend to go into, the students loans most must
accept in order to afford college, and test scores. Many colleges look at important
test scores, such as the ACT, in order to determine the students who will be
admitted, not only their GPA, which is accumulated through years of hard work.
Studies show that this is where the mass majority of stress comes from in recent
high school graduates. The stress most students experience is extremely negative,
possibly even beginning their earlier years of high school, and can have long lasting
effects such as depression, anxiety disorders, and other severe illnesses and
disorders. The stress in these teenagers is typically introduced simply by the idea of
making important decision, and increases dramatically when actually facing these
decisions, but few individuals do not stress when faced with these life-altering
decisions.
Good stress is just as important to possess as bad stress, each playing an
important factor in an individuals life. However, it is extremely easy to over
exaggerate each of them, giving stress a negative opportunity to leaving a lasting
impact on both the body and mind, possibly giving a person anxiety disorders or
illnesses. Mindset is perhaps the most important element when confronting stress,
which can either give the individual full control over their stress or immerse them in
it completely. Stress is a part of ordinary, modern life, and everyone needs to be
able to yield it successfully in order to provide more opportunities for themselves.
Everyone is touched by a minimum of stress, but those who become great people
learn to use it as a weapon instead of cowering its pressure.