Stress is the uncomfortable feeling you get when you’re worried, scared, angry, frustrated, or overwhelmed. It is caused by emotions, but it affects your mood and body. Many adults think that kids don’t have stress because they don’t have to work and support a family. They are wrong!
What Causes Stress?
Stress comes from many different places.
From your parents. “Hurry up, finish this, do your homework, go out for the team, practice your music, do your best, stay out of trouble, make more friends, don’t ever try drugs.
”From your friends. “Be cool, try this, show us you aren’t a loser, don’t hang out with those dorks.”
Even from yourself. “I need to lose weight, wear the right clothes, get better grades, score more goals, show my parents I’m not a baby.”
And from:
- Watching parents argue
- Figuring out how to be independent
- Feeling pressure to get good grades
- Being pressured to do something, like smoking
- Not being good enough at sports
- Worrying about how your body’s changing
- Worrying about neighborhood or world problems
- Feeling guilty
First, here are 2 short definitions.
1. Hormone. A chemical made by one part of the body to send a message to the rest of the body. 2. Nervous system. The brain, spinal cord, and all of the nerves. The nerves send messages between your brain and the rest of your body.
The body is a finely tuned machine that can change quickly to do what we need it to do, like react to stress. The body actually has 2 different sets of nerves. One works while we’re relaxed, and the other works when there’s an emergency. These 2 systems cannot work together at the same time. It’s important to know this because we can shut off the emergency system by turning on the relaxed system. That helps us feel better!
A Teen’s Personalized Guide to Managing Stress
American Academy of Pediatrics
http://www.aap.org/topics.html
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