Academic Demands

School can be a pretty demanding place. Not only do teens have to worry about getting good grades, and doing well on tests and exams, many suffer from homework overload.

College Aspirations

Now days, high school freshmen are already starting to worry about choosing the right career, being able to get into a good college, and being able to afford to go to college at all. By the time they are juniors or seniors, the pressures on a teenager to make the right decisions to ensure their future success is high.

Job Pressures

On top of a heavy school load, many teenagers also have to deal with a part time, or even full time, job. So much of their time is spent either working or doing school work that they have very little free time during which they can just relax and have fun.

Family Issues

A teenager’s daily life is stressful enough, even when things are good at home. But, when a teenager has to deal with family problems (like abuse, parents who are constantly arguing, parents who are getting divorced, parents suffering from substance abuse, or a sick parent or sibling) the other pressures in their lives can be even harder to deal with.

Self Image

Many teenagers feel a great deal of stress over trying to fit a certain image. They feel like they have to look a certain way, wear the right clothes, have the right hairstyle, or drive the right car. And they believe that, if they don’t fit that image, they will be the objects of scorn and ridicule.

Peer Pressure

When you’re a teenager, it can be difficult not to go along with the rest of the crowd. For example, a teenager might have no desire to smoke but, fearing their friends who smoke might think they are immature or uncool if they refuse, might give in when they are offered a cigarette.

In romantic relationships, teenagers might feel the pressure to do things they aren’t ready for in order to keep from losing their boyfriend or girlfriend.

What are the Effects of Teenage Stress?

As with adults, stress can cause teenagers many physical, mental, and emotional problems.

Physically, teens who feel stressed out might suffer from headaches, fatigue, muscle aches, weight gain, stomach aches, and skin problems like acne.

Teens under stress can also experience emotional problems like depression, anxiety, and low self esteem. Finally, teens under stress can also experience behavioral problems, like drug or alcohol abuse, eating disorders, aggressiveness, and social withdrawal.

Teenagers are under pressure every day. But learning to deal with teenage stress will make them healthier, happier, and better able to handle the challenges and demands of daily life.

Our school system is a big contributor to teen stress. There’s the everyday stress of how friends and classmates perceive us. It doesn’t matter to the average teen that everyone who they think is judging them is almost certainly going through the same struggle themselves. At this age, it can often be a case of “everyone else is against me”, which can be one of the major causes of teen stress in itself.

Then you can add in the pressure of seemingly constant exams and tests. Parents contribute to the stress here by expecting their teen offspring to always perform well in class so that they can get to college and eventually get a high paying job. SATS scores are always being compared and, of course, there is the extra pressure incurred if the scores aren’t high enough to get through the next level of education. Is it any wonder that our modern education system is high up there amongst the causes of teen stress?

So what can be done to help relieve the causes of teen stress? First and foremost is helping your teenager to realize that it’s not just them. If we’re not careful, our teenage years can be quite isolated. Modern teens can easily retreat to their rooms and surround themselves with loud music, computer games and other distractions. You need to help your teen to relax once in a while. Exercise can help and playing a regular sport is an advantage. But for the athletically challenged, there are other ways. These can involve simple mind exercises that relieve the tension that has built up and manifested as teen stress.

Don’t ignore external signs of stress either. The treatment of acne can help reduce teen stress. Acne is a normal teen phenomenon but translates into a big cause of teen stress for many in the age group. After all, who wants to be branded as spotty by their school friends?

Whichever way you choose to deal with the causes of teen stress, make sure that your teen has someone they can talk to when the pressure builds up. Often just listening while they talk out a problem will be enough to help them de-stress.

The first place to look for relief from teen stress is at school. There is a certain class of people who desperately want to help teens get through their problems and find solutions, but they usually sit in their offices waiting in vain for someone to talk to them. These people are guidance counselors and they are there to help you. However, it is very rare for someone to avail themselves of this prime opportunity for assistance, so actually sitting down with somebody is a treat for them and they will do all they can to help. True, most people think that guidance counselors are really just lost souls who can’t seem to get out of school, but that is not the case. Guidance counselors decided on their career because they want to help others. Which means that they want to help you.

As well, you can get help for teen stress through your teachers. True, most of the help you get will probably be for your work in the classroom but, strange as it may seem, teachers are actually human beings. They want to connect with their students so that, when you go to see them, they will be happy to help you. If you go to them in order to get help with your schoolwork, they will happily give you assistance. They can help you through any issues or difficulties that you may be having and you will can learn more from them after class than you will during class. Such one-on-one sessions can help them narrow down issues in a way that they cannot while they are lecturing to a room full of students.

Additionally, once you sit down with your teachers, you may actually discover that you enjoy talking to them. After all, to repeat a point, they are people. And because they spend so much time in the company of teenagers, they understand teen stress. However, they also understand it from a philosophical perspective that can breathe some fresh air into the problems that you are confronting. Though you may not always enjoy the answers they can provide, they will be worth thinking about and, in the fullness of time, you will probably discover that they provided a very good insight into your problems.

Another excellent source for teen stress is with your parents. This is because of a simple fact that you may not want to accept. This is the simple fact that parents tend to have children who are very similar to them. No, it’s really not pleasant to think about, since that means that you may turn out to be like your parents. But, let us put that aside for now.

Your parents were once your age (strange as that may seem) and teens often have to go through very similar problems. Thus, your parents have felt teen stress and they know what it is like. Sure, they may not want to admit that it was anything special, but they will, hopefully, remember that it was not easy at the time. So if you really need to get some sort of advice or help, sit down and talk to your parents. Not only will you get some sort of help, but you will also make their day. After all, how many parents get the chance to really connect with their teenage children?

Teen stress is one of the hardest things to get through, but you can rest assured that it has been done. Billions of people in the world have all had to go through the travails of the teenage years and they have through to the other side. So prepare yourself, get help when you need it, and look for help when you can. By relying on people who have “been there, done that” you can see your way clear to the other side. Then, you can safely look back on your teen stress and say stupid things like, “the teenage years are the best years of your life!”