Stress is what you feel when you react to pressure from others or from yourself. Pressure can come from anywhere, including school, work, activities, friends, and family members. You can also feel stress from the pressure of wanting to get good grades or wanting to feel like you belong. Stress comes in many forms and everyone feels stress.
Body Response
Your body has a built-in response to handle stress. When something stressful happens, you may experience sweaty palms, dry mouth, or knots in your stomach. This is totally normal and means that your body is working exactly as it should. Other signs of stress include emotional signs such as feeling sad or worried, behavioral (your actions) signs such as not feeling up to doing things, and mental (your mind) signs such as not being able to concentrate or focus.
Stress Signs
- feeling down, edgy, guilty or tired
- having headaches or stomachaches
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having trouble sleeping
- laughing or crying for no reason
- blaming others for bad things that happen to you
- wanting to be alone all the time (withdrawal).
- not being able to see the positive side of a situation
- not enjoying activities that you used to enjoy
- feeling resentful of people or things you have to do
- feeling like you have too many things you have to do
Some of these signs can also be signs of a more serious condition called depression.
Stress Causes
- school work or job
- not feeling good about yourself
- changes in your body or weight
- body shape or size
- problems with friends, boyfriends, or others at school or work
- living in a dangerous neighborhood
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peer pressure from friends to dress or act a certain way, or smoke, drink, or use drugs
- not fitting in or being part of a group
- moving or friends moving away
- separation or divorce of parents
- a family member who is ill
- death of a loved one
- changing schools
- taking on too many activities at once
- not getting along with your parents or having problems at home
- feeling lonely
There may be other things that cause stress for you that are not on this list. Also, it can be very tough when more than one stressful event happens at the same time or stress is ongoing.
Is stress always a bad thing?
No! A little bit of stress can work in a positive way. For instance, during a sports competition, stress might push you to perform better. Also, without the stress of deadlines, you might not be able to finish schoolwork or get to where you need to be on time.
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