‘Fight-or-flight’

Stress is stressful!

What is stress?

Stress is a survival mechanism. When danger appears stress can get humans out of trouble quickly. Your body cranks up the gears and throws all its resources into getting you moving. Your heart pumps furiously to increase blood pressure, glucose is sent to the muscles as a fuel injection, and you become totally focussed on what psychologists’ call ‘fight-or-flight’. Stress was extremely useful for primitive humans but for 21^st century humans it is a bit different. Feeling some amount of stress is normal but not all stress is bad. In the short-term stress can be helpful in keeping you motivated for a goal you have or keeping you alert. It is extremely common to be overwhelmed or stressed about something. Stress is something that everyone has experienced in their life.

Have you ever felt like you have so much going on and you’re not sure if you’ll be able to handle it all? This is called being overwhelmed or stressed. Stress happens when:

• - You have a lot of things going on at once.
• - You have an important decision to make.
• - An unexpected change in your life occurs.
• - A big event is coming up.
• - Something frightening happens.

Most common stressors for children and teenagers are:

• - Problems in a relationship or friendship.
• - Exam or test results.
• - Watching the news.
• - Bullying
• - Moving to a new house.
• - Getting a new sibling.
• - Arguments and much more.

How can it affect you?

Stress can affect your body, mind, feelings and behaviours. You can experience things like:

• - Headaches
• - Sweating

Heart pounding

• - Tense muscles
• - Feeling really low in energy

If these happens too often it can sometimes make you feel ill and forgetful. This will disturb your concentration on things that need to get done. When feeling anxious the mind will tend to focus on the negative things about situations. You may feel:

• - Sad
• - Angry
• - Helpless
• - Anxious
• - Irritated
• - Discouraged and feeling like you want to give up!

These feelings change your behaviour when going through something stressful. This will also affect sleeping and eating habits along with avoiding people or work you need to do.

What sort of things stress you out and how do you deal with them?

It is important to know what your stressors are so that you can come up with helpful ways to cope with them when they occur.

Helpful ways to cope with stress. Here are 6 ways to overcome stress:

1. 1. Take a few deep breaths.
2. 2. Focus on the things you can control. Focus on what you can do right away.
3. 3. Manage your time and make time to relax.
4. 4. Take care of your body by having enough sleep and healthy foods. Being active can improve your mood.
5. 5. Positive self-talk. Next time you feel stressed out – tell yourself things like ‘I know I can do it!’ or ‘I know how to handle this!’
6. 6. Talk to a friend or an adult.

Find out what works for you, take a break and stress less.

TP