Many
teenagers today are stressed out because of various factors. What do you think
is a major cause of stress to teenagers?
Before I
start on the causes, stress is caused by stressors which are events that occur
in your life. There are good and bad stressors. Identifying these good and bad
stressors can help us to prioritize our life and help us figure out stress techniques
before harm. What happens when we get stressed? Firstly, our neurotransmitters
start to fail as the stress overloads. The neurotransmitters that control our body
clock shut down. This causes you to experience sleeplessness and leads to insomnia
in most cases. Next is our energy level will drop and we end up not wanting to
get things done. Last but not least, the neurotransmitters in the pleasure part
of the brain will malfunction. This leads to sadness and depression. Your body
will end up shutting down and making it harder to combat stress.
The first
major cause of stress is family problems. Family problems range from petty
quarrels between siblings to huge scale divorce and extreme cases of abuse. From
a small scale, the bickering within siblings can be stressful. Your siblings
are the people you see at home and grew up with together. You tend to have
strong emotional connection with them and you feel distressed when they are
unhappy or sad or angry, it is even worse when that anger or unhappiness is
caused by the disagreement between siblings. This leads to minor stress from
family problems. On a larger scale, quarrels between parents and relative also
lead to stress. You feel incapable of doing anything as a teen to deal with
these adult matters. You get frustrated, sad and just plain angry at yourself
and this contributes to the stress teens feel all the time. The underlying
problems there lead to a divorce where could end cause the family to end up in
smithereens. Physical and mental abuse of a parent on a child also causes
stress on a teen which already faces self-esteem problems.
Next, there
is stress that comes from trying your best to keep your grades up. Everyone has
expectations and also pressure from others to achieve them. This is clear when
we talk about teens. Teens are expected to be diligent, hardworking and have
good grades. When it comes to the top students, they stress about getting those
As and those above average aim for the As and Bs. No one wants to get bad
results so they stress about getting better than they had before or at least
equal. This stress motivates us to study but at times it can be overwhelming.
Thirdly,
romantic relationships cause stress to teenagers. These days you see puppy love
in the air and lots of people are in relationships. The ones which are single
and overwhelmed with friends who are all lovey-dovey can be affected by peer pressure.
Everyone is in a relationship and I am
still single? This causes stress because everyone wants to belong in their
group of friends and not be the odd one out. The teenagers who just broke up from
a relationship experience stress too. In the process of breaking up or starting
one can be stressful for the teens involved. Most teens have not reached a
level of maturity or stable emotional developed brain to handle strong emotions
like romantic love or heart break. When these strong emotions come on, they
tend to feel distraught in a break up or confused with feelings of another
individual. The stress of thinking about it and contemplating all the possible
factors are apparent. Other than that, those relationships are not always smooth
sailing and teens experience rollercoaster-like emotions sometimes due to the
connected feelings between two individuals. They feel sad because the one they
care for is depressed about something. The long list of emotions goes on.
Fourthly, one’s
financial state also brings about the worry and stress. As a teen, you have
lots of expenses like school expenses, books, stationary, food and more. If the
teen is poor and faces financial despair, this could cause worry that leads to
stress. The worry of not being able to have money for the next meal they have
is nagging at the back of their heads. They worry more on how to earn money or
a part time job if they do have one instead of focusing on school work and
activities. Financial state plays a big part because this world of ours runs on
the pieces of printed paper we call money.
Stress in
our lives cannot go away forever. We have to learn how to combat it and deal
with it before it gets out of hand. So take up those yoga classes, go for a
run, play some games or have a laugh! Invest in a small teddy as a stress ball.
That is what I did but the teddy was a gift. Release the stress you have by doing
something you love. Sing a song and maybe watch a movie or just go and talk to
someone about your problems. The internet is also a great place to express your
feelings as an anonymous person. Get your life going and don’t let stress weight
you down too much. Cheer, till next post!
PS, if you
need it http://www.emotionalbaggagecheck.com
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