Stress

Stress is a natural reaction that has positive and negative impacts depending on if your response is within a healthy level or not.

Sometimes people believe that the goal with stress is not to have any, but that is not realistic or a reasonable goal.  Stress comes from many different aspects of life – good things create stress such as getting a new job, dating someone new or celebrating holidays with your family.  And, obviously, negative circumstances also create stress – break-ups, tests, difficulty with parents, and car accidents to name a few.  The reality is that if you look at some of the stress scales, many of those positive experiences create just as much (or more) stress than the negative examples.  This is a link to the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory which allows people to indicate what stressors they have experienced in the past year and come up with a point total to gauge their stress levels.  As you read through the list it will be obvious that this inventory was written for adults, but it makes an important point that stress happens and will continue to happen throughout your life… the key is knowing how to successfully manage your stress and to use it to harness your energies to move you forward rather than paralyzing you with overwhelm.

If you are struggling with high levels of stress, please discuss this with your school counselor and be sure to check out some of the information on the website related to coping strategies.  Your well being is of critical importance and learning strategies now for how to manage your stress will benefit you for the rest of your life.