Are We Too Stressed?

It’s no surprise that many high school students are stressed but are they too stressed? Nowadays, high school students have so many different things on their plate from sports, to clubs, to school work, to jobs, their extracurricular activities, and their home life. Plus adding in that some students are looking into colleges and taking the extra steps to help them reach their advanced school goals. 

According to the Pew Research Center, 61% of teens say that they feel pressured to get good grades in school, 21% of teens feel pressured to do extracurricular activities, and another 21% of teens feel pressured to be good at sports. Clinical psychologist in Maryland and public education coordinator for the American Psychological Association, Mary Alvord, says that “A little stress is a good thing, it can motivate students to be organized. But too much stress can backfire.” According to an NPR poll conducted with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, almost 40% of parents say that high schooler is experiencing mass amounts of stress due to school and their academic grades. 

“Chronic stress can cause a sense of panic and paralysis,” Alvord says. “The child feels stuck, which only adds to the feeling of stress.” Dealing with too much stress can cause physical illness due to the fact that the body doesn’t get enough rest to help restore itself. That illness can make it more difficult for the student to get their work done because they don’t have the energy or physical will power to accomplish their school work. “Just basic time management, that will help reduce the stress,” said Alvord. [Read more about this source here ] By better planning of school work and not taking as highly advanced classes can reduce stress by great amounts. Taking care of yourself both physically and mentally is one of the best things a student can do to help increase their chances of having a easy and successful high school career.