When someone is in high school, one of the most recurring feelings is being stressed out. Stress is something that can appear because of a multitude of factors, whether it’s because you have three tests tomorrow they haven’t been able to study for, because you accidentally put a piece of paper in a trash can, or anything in between. The problem with stress is that if one has too much of it, they might not be able to get much, if any, work done. By having a basic understanding of stress, people might be able to see what things might cause them to get stressed out, and that sometimes a little amount of stress can actually be a good thing.

How Do We Identify Stress

Each person might define stress a little differently:

“Stress is i guess technically a chemical in our body that affects our brain and our vital organs so i think it can affect our processes as well as decision making,” said, senior, Savanna King.

“Stress to me, is what happens when you lose control over the things in your life that are necessary,” US History teacher, Charles Serafine, stated.

“I would describe stress as a psychological and physical manifestation of thoughts and medical issues that create tension, whether that’s internal tension or some kind of physical tension,” Richland Northeast Student Counselor, Patrick Blake said.

While some may not agree with any of these definitions, by figuring out the definition of stress that they feel is most suited to them, they might be able to better understand what causes them the most stress. Identifying what stresses them out is the first step in getting rid of those stresses.

The Effects of Stress

Like the definition of stress, the effects of stress differ from person to person. When stressed out, a person may get very emotional, frustrated, or even start having nervous ticks like ruffling their hair.

The main problem with too much stress is that it can inhibit how well one works or thinks. This means that if something is particularly difficult, it might become even harder to do it, because one might get stressed out, causing more undue stress, making it even worse. When events such as these occur, they may not reside over the course of a single day, and may end up lasting for much longer, and may get worse if it lasts longer.

“it creates this sense of urgency, you feel like you’re always rushing around, running around, and so then, in addition to being in a situation where you’re stressed, you’re also in a situation where you’re tired, and or not eating properly.” Serafine stated. 

While stress is something that is often seen as entirely negative, there are benefits to small amounts of stress. “there’s a certain amount that’s good, you need stress to study, to be sharp, to try hard on that SAT, you need a little amount of that anxiety enough to try.” Blake stated. Sometimes one needs a small amount of stress to focus on the task they’ve been given. To quote Mr. Blake again, “we balance ourselves as human beings between overly stressed and minimally stressed”.

How to Relieve Stress

When it comes to the topic of stress, one of the main questions asked about it is how to get rid of it. While this question can’t be answered concretely, there are many different techniques that can be used to relieve and/or get rid of stress entirely, and it depends on the person using these techniques to determine their effectiveness. In practice, there are two types of techniques that are often used, and act as both a long-term and a short-term solution.

The short-term solution to relieving stress that is often brought up is the process of deep breathing; just taking a couple seconds and taking deep breaths to calm your mind can really help if you reach the point at which you can’t focus at all. “So many different types of strategies including breathing techniques, one of the first foundations of the best way to resolve stress and anxiety” Blake said.

The type of stress reliever that can be considered a long-term solution is organization skills. Stress may often come up due to a lack of organization. If you forgot you had a quiz or a test that day, that will cause high amounts of stress. By organizing your schedule and other things that factor into stress, one can better avoid stress altogether. 

“you lose control of your organization, a lot of times students, they allow themselves to become stressed out about their school stuff.” stated Serafine.

In the end, Stress is an issue that will most likely come up in one form or another during high school, but if one can understand what causes them stress, they can work on finding a solution that best fits them to avoid it.