Teenage Stress
TEENAGE STRESS
Laura sits in her room surrounded by a stack of notes, cramming for a test that she entirely forgot about, while James stares blankly at a college application. He also has the knowledge that he must be at work in 20 minutes, and that his car hardly has any gas left in it. Both of these teenagers suffer from a common dilemma, stress. Stress is a reaction to external and internal pressure. It is a normal function that helps people in their daily lives ("Stress: Who"). Without some level of stress, individuals wouldn't have the motivation to meet deadlines or complete projects ("Stress: Who"). However normal stress can become a burden over a long period of time and this leads to chronic stress. Chronic stress is what people are referring to when they say that they are "stressed out" ("Spotlight"). Stress can become even more overwhelming if chronic stress goes into overload; this is what is known as distress (Romero, B1). Since stress is a reaction, there must be a trigger to cause that reaction. The items that cause the stress reaction are called stressors, and they can fall into three different categories: catastrophes, major life changes, and daily hassles ("Stress (psychology)"). A catastrophe can be described as a sudden calamity that pushes people to their outmost coping abilities. Some examples of catastrophes are:
Ø Earthquakes, Fire, Flood, etc,
Ø War/Torture,
Ø Car accidents,
Ø Violent physical attacks,
Ø Sexual assault ("Stress (psychology)").
Catastrophes often affect the victim's mind long after the incident is over ("Stress (psychology)").
- The following form of stressor is major life changes. A few examples of this, is: ü Death, ü Divorce of a parent, ü Imprisonment, ü Disability/Illness ("Stress (psychology)").
The final class of stressor is the daily hassles. These may not appear very stressful but if experienced repeatedly over a long period of time may have very severe effects. Adults face such hassles, as: their
Laura sits in her room surrounded by a stack of notes, cramming for a test that she entirely forgot about, while James stares blankly at a college application. He also has the knowledge that he must be at work in 20 minutes, and that his car hardly has any gas left in it. Both of these teenagers suffer from a common dilemma, stress. Stress is a reaction to external and internal pressure. It is a normal function that helps people in their daily lives ("Stress: Who"). Without some level of stress, individuals wouldn't have the motivation to meet deadlines or complete projects ("Stress: Who"). However normal stress can become a burden over a long period of time and this leads to chronic stress. Chronic stress is what people are referring to when they say that they are "stressed out" ("Spotlight"). Stress can become even more overwhelming if chronic stress goes into overload; this is what is known as distress (Romero, B1). Since stress is a reaction, there must be a trigger to cause that reaction. The items that cause the stress reaction are called stressors, and they can fall into three different categories: catastrophes, major life changes, and daily hassles ("Stress (psychology)"). A catastrophe can be described as a sudden calamity that pushes people to their outmost coping abilities. Some examples of catastrophes are:
Ø Earthquakes, Fire, Flood, etc,
Ø War/Torture,
Ø Car accidents,
Ø Violent physical attacks,
Ø Sexual assault ("Stress (psychology)").
Catastrophes often affect the victim's mind long after the incident is over ("Stress (psychology)").
- The following form of stressor is major life changes. A few examples of this, is: ü Death, ü Divorce of a parent, ü Imprisonment, ü Disability/Illness ("Stress (psychology)").
The final class of stressor is the daily hassles. These may not appear very stressful but if experienced repeatedly over a long period of time may have very severe effects. Adults face such hassles, as: their
Bibliography: "Stress (psychology)." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. 1999.