What Is Stress?
Stress is when you feel pressured or deal with an emergency or threatening experience. When a person deals with an unfavorable situation or threat the amygdala (neurons in the brain) sends signals to the hypothalamus (communication center of the brain), which then sends a signal to adrenal glands who release adrenaline in the blood. The adrenaline releases blood sugar, which sends energy to all body parts. When this process takes place our heart rate increases, our pupils dilate, skin gets flushed or becomes pale and the body starts to shake. This condition of the body remains for 20 to 60 minutes before the body returns to normal state.
In the defense the brain activates sympathetic nervous system which is also called ‘fight or flight’ response. The response of flight or fight occurs in all common causes of stress and helps the us deal with stress. This response results in action of fighting or facing the situation or hiding from it. Teenagers experience this response to stress like the adults, and it is normal until the response does not extend to long periods.
Our response to stress is the main subject of numerous psychological studies which is divided into the following three categories:
Acute Stress: It is the stress caused by short term events and do not last long unless traumatic, may have a lasting impact then.
Episodic Stress: Short-term, regular and daily life situations that cause stress such as getting late to school or other similar experience.
Chronic Stress: Long term stress that lasts longer and could caused by a constant illness or bad relationships.
Signs of Teen Stress
Knowing your teen is stressed out could be tricky, as with our daily hectic life parents barely focus on what kids are going through as they are busy meeting the ends and giving their kids a better future. But it is highly likely that like adults, teenagers face the same common causes of stress that adults do. Cause of stress in students are highly visible as they deal with the daily amount of school work, as well as peer pressure and school bullying. Changes that parents could notice when their teen is under stress are emotional, physical and behavioral changes. Stress can manifest in different ways, but these symptoms of teen behavior could help when it comes to signs of stress. Below are the most common causes of stress and signs of teen stress:
Physical changes: Stressed teens often get sick then usual, nausea, headaches, stomachaches, diarrhea and other body pain.
Emotional changes: You might notice they seem gloomy, anxious or restless, and depressed. Pay attention to their behavior with sibling and parents themselves.
Cognitive changes: A sign of stressed teen is carelessness, forgetfulness, loss of concentration or loss of interest.
Behavioral changes: Your teen might lose their appetite, or eat more than usual, notice their sleeping habits as well as their daily activates which they tend to avoid.
A recent study by American Psychological Association, a survey was conducted based on the common causes of stress and signs of stress. They surveyed the teens of American schools and focused what are the signs and effects of stress.
• Many teens reported lying awake at night and lack of sleep.
• 26 percent teens reported signs of over eating, skipping meals or eating unhealthy and junk food.
• 40 percent teens showed signs of being angry, irritated, fatigued and anxious all the time.
• Many teens reported to be in fights or rebellious acts at school or with classmates as a sign of stress.
• 83 percent teens reported their common causes of stress are school or getting into a college.
It is important to lookout for your teens and what is causing them stress as that could affect their health as well as lead to constant worry and long term state of stress.
Top 10 Common Causes of Stress in Teens
Knowing the signs won’t be enough to know what caused your teen stress. You need to know the common causes of stress to be fully aware of how to deal with your youngster. Dealing with teens could be hard specially when they are at the peak of their puberty. Crankiness could be a part of their behavior as teen tend to be annoyed more but avoiding their behavior for that reason could result in severe effects. It is better to keep an eye when notice an unusual activity or behavior.
Here are the common causes of stress in teens and teenage stress symptoms.
1. Social pressure
Teenagers tend to get influenced by their surroundings easily. Keeping up with their friends, peers, and trends that their friends or peers at school follow could be hard. Bullying is one of main reasons when we discuss social pressure, teens tend to indulge in unwanted activities to avoid bullying. Not being able to avoid bullying or similar peer pressure of pleasing the peers results in stress in teens and is counted among the most common causes of stress.
2. Physical Stress
Physical changes can be one of the common causes of stress in teens. Experience of an illness or physical changes that occur in teenage could cause confusion and stress. Being unaware and unsure of what their body is going through could be stressful and excessive stress could cause tiredness and worsen mental health.
3. Academic Stress
From school grades to test scores to applying to college, teenagers experience high level of Academic stress. Meeting academic demands, keeping up their class position, competing with students, pleasing their teachers and parents is a main reason of stressed teen. Managing the amount of school work or scoring an A in every test could prove to be affecting their health and life negatively and is considered among the common causes of stress in students.
4. Family Problems
Teens could be more sensitive when it comes to family. Problems that parents face, affects your teen too. Martial issues between parents, problems and dispute between siblings, bullying among sibling, authoritative parenting and illness could lead to some common causes of stress in teens. Teenagers may be young, but they have the same feelings as adults and getting hurt in result could cause stress in teens.
5. Financial Stress
We might not notice but the financial problems that a family faces are felt the same by your teen. The worry of getting into college, paying for college and taking a loan for the reason could lead to teen stress. The sense of security that money provides and the pressure that comes with the lack of money teenagers feel it too. To avoid such common causes of stress as financial, parents should avoid discussing money related problems with their kids.
6. Significant life Changes
We Grown-ups may not grab change as quick as teenagers do. Moving to another city, changing school, or addition of new people to the family for example step-sibling or step-parent. Such changes might see small to us but could be significant for teens. Such significant life changes could be overwhelming and coping with new situations can be confusing for teenagers.
7. Poor Time Management
Time management can be hard to deal for teenagers as completing the homework, preparing reports and assignments and trying to get time for their personal hobbies and activities could be hard. Such poor time management is among the common causes of stress in students.
8. Unhealthy Competition
Competition among the kids is good and can have many positive results as well. But competition that cause distress for the teen is considered unhealthy. Competition that leads to rivalry among the teenagers or which creating hard feeling among them is considered unhealthy. Parents and teachers constantly pressurize teens to perform better than their classmate. They urge them to perform them better then their rival specially in sports could cause stress in students. The stress from competition only deteriorate the health and performance of teen and play a vital role in the common causes of stress.
9. Traumatic Events
Losing a loved one can be painful for teens as well as adults. Enduring the pain could be harder specially for teens, the pain could lead to fear of losing. The death of a family member or close friend or relative could cause stress in teens. On top of physical abuse as a result of domestic violence and dating violence effects the same as other traumatic events. Managing kids who survive accidents, violence or other incidents can have a serious effect and may result in long term stress in teens. Such common causes of stress could be hard to handle but you should watch out for your teen in such occasions.
9. Romantic Relationships
Romantic relationships work the same for teens as they work for adults. Happy relationships could cause distress and lead to tension between the partners. Young boys and girls in secondary school frequently stress over not being in a relationship when their friends are in one. Growing desires and sexual emotions can cause distress can be one of teenage stress symptoms. It can be stressful for kids when kids their age are falling in love and stay in a relationship, but your kid might find it hard to be in one. You should watch-out for teens and help them through the phase.