Growing Up,

Figuring Stress Out

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By Hagar Saleh

When speaking to youth who are between the ages of 11 and 14 about what causes them stress in their everyday life, school was unsurprisingly a common source. This makes sense with school being their main responsibility, and the place where they spend the majority of their time. However, even if the source of worry is the same, the way that worry is expressed is different for each person.

 

 

What causes you stress?

 

Eleven-year-old Ruqaya quickly said that “schoolwork, and presentations, and tests” were the main source of her stress.

 

Meanwhile, thirteen-year-old Danya told me that, “My head convinces itself that it’s gonna fail or something’s not gonna go my way,” causing her to stress over schoolwork.

 

As for Malek, age 14, he said that he is anxious when he has any sort of assessment at school.

 

Other reported sources of stress included pressure from family, friends acting irresponsibly, and keeping up with chores at home. These sources of stress will also vary in their effect depending on each person’s experiences. Taking friends as an example, while Ruqaya struggles with her friends “doing weird things,” Danya experiences stress from her friends even when they don’t realize it, and Malek expressed that he has “good friends” that don’t cause him stress.

 

While school is a large contributor of worry for youth, it can also be a place of enjoyment, where they can enjoy learning and hanging out with their friends.

 

 

How do you destress?

 

It is important that we learn how to effectively destress to avoid being in a constant state of stress. While there are many different strategies that a person can use to destress, what is effective for one may be completely ineffective for another. When asked about the ways in which our teen interviewees destress, each person had a different answer.

 

For Malek, playing sports like judo and soccer is the way he “forgets about everything”. Ruqaya deals with the worry in her life by hanging out with her friends and going out for walks.

 

Danya starts by expressing how “destressing doesn’t always work efficiently” for her. She categorized two different ways of destressing, one that was aimed at distracting like reading, and another aimed at addressing the stress by writing it out or thinking about it.

 

 

 

Mental health supports for youth?

 

While a person can try to manage their stress on their own, it can sometimes get overwhelming, especially for youth who are still growing and learning about themselves, to destress effectively by themselves. There are many resources that a person can reach out to when they are feeling overwhelmed by stress.

 

Ruqaya was unfamiliar with any of the resources around her to support her mental health and said that if she knew about any of these resources she would reach out to them. While Malek and Danya were both familiar with mental health resources around them, specifically the school counselor, they felt no need to reach out to them. However, they both stated that they would reach out if they ever felt they needed it.

 

It is important for youth to know the resources around them, and feel comfortable in reaching out without any fear of judgment. It is also not the case that one method suits all people for tackling stress, it takes time and effort for each individual to be able to gain the skill of effectively managing it.