Stress Essay, Research Paper

According to a high school psychology textbook, stress is “a particular pattern of disturbing psychological reactions that occur when an environment event threatens important motives and taxes one’s ability to cope.” In plain English, stress is the “wear and tear” our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment. However, not all stress is bad. Some stress is good. In fact, everyone needs stress in his or her lives, because without it, life would be dull and unexciting. Stress adds flavor, challenge and opportunity to life. Stress can pump you up, give you energy, or supply that zest for living. Stress is an unavoidable part of life.

The challenges caused by stress help to develop new skills and behavior patterns. The problems occur; however, when stress becomes excessive. It can become destructive and can turn into distress. Too much stress on your mind and body can make you feel miserable, worried, sad and ill. Contrary to popular belief, stress is not the pressure from the outside, such as divorce, death, burned supper, vacation that didn’t seem like one, and isolation. Those are simply the stressors, causes to the stress, but your response to those situations constitutes the actual stress.

Teenagers face a specific kind of stress. It could be problems at home, with parents, with siblings, an alcoholic parent, divorce, or it could be problems at school, pressure from your teachers, pressure from your friends, or pressure from your parents to do well. Teenagers may also suffer from the high competition for jobs out in the “real world.”

There is a sense of the feeling there are no jobs out there that are right for the individual teenager. Financial pressures will start to build up around this time. Part time work is scarce and parents don’t have as much money as they did when the teenager was younger. Educational choices are another stress that teenagers come in contact with. The teenager will ask themselves “What do I do after high school?” and “How do I pay for college?” These are both good questions, and unfortunately not an easy question to answer. Then there are the stresses of living at home, which is a place where teenagers need to be, but yet feeling old enough to be on your own.

Teenage stress is not so different from those of adults. The reason stress among teenagers is more of an issue than that of adults is for the very reason that teenagers do not really have a “role” to play. They are no longer children, and not yet adults. Hormones, puberty, school responsibilities, and home responsibilities all “attack” the teenager at one time. Therefore, it is up to teenagers to deal with this stress in a very manageable way. There is hope for teenagers after all. First thing to remember is communication.

Communication is one of the most important vehicles to use to get out of the “stress” mode for teenagers. Keeping the lines of communication open with parents will greatly benefit the teenager get away from their stress; however, if their parents are the problem, then teenagers should talk to somebody that they trust. The second thing for teenagers to remember to stop stress is the use of their peer support.

There are many peer support groups for teenagers through – out the US. Some of the places teens can find this support is from the Internet, their community, or even at their school. No, teenage stress is not anything to think casually about, but hopefully through this paper, teenage stress was broken down into pieces able to be understood by everyone experiencing it. Stress is a part of all our lives. It’s likely to happen when they’re experiencing changes, either happy, or upsetting. The main cause of teenage stress is the act of being two people. Teenagers are one way with their parent and another with their peers. The stress comes from the tiredness of trying to separate the two after a while.