Stress is seen throughout all ages and in all type Essays

Stress is seen throughout all ages and in all type Essays Stress is seen throughout all ages and in all types of situations. However, the younger generations seem to be facing a much greater amount than previous generations. Whether this is caused by the students pushing themselves too hard or by being pushed too hard by other people in their lives, the increase is very apparent and having dramatic effects on motivation, mental health and happiness. This increase in stress within this generation is detrimental to mental health and productivity and needs to be better addressed by society in order for today's teenagers, as a whole, to be more successful. The culture of youth in this generations and the ways teenagers are expected to perform in high school places a large amount of stress onto them. The causes of such overwhelming stress levels have a broad range but most revolve around performance within school or extracurricular activities. An NYU study examined the causes of high levels of stress within teenagers and found that specifically the top stressors are school work, college applications, extracurricular activities, and parental expectations. Students try to balance school work, multiple sports, clubs, social time with friends, and still need time to sleep and relax. Each of those activities have their own stressors and when combined can cause extreme amounts of stress. With these various causes of stress it seems next to impossible for a student not to experience at least a small amount of stress. According to the NYU study, nearly half (49%) of all students reported feeling a great deal of stress on a daily basis and 31 percent reported feeling somewhat stressed. The statistics prove that a majority of students do experience a large amount of stress, so how are students expected to be successful and happy with such large amounts of stress in their life? Students work so hard trying to fulfill the expectations that they are given and can end up taking on more work than they can handle. The root problems of stress arise due to school, so the issue needs to be addressed by the administration of the school and changes in school work loads and other aspects of school life need to be made. Stress, in small amounts, can prove to actually help students and drive them to be more successful. Some parents set out on a mission to get rid of stress in their kids, but the fact is, some degree of stress is very therapeutic and an appropriate amount of stress is what helps us become strong. The hard part is what's appropriate, Bradley says. Small amounts of stress can build character and teach students to work hard. However, the effects of large amounts of stress can be detrimental to the mental health of high school students. According to an article from USA Today, stress-related behaviors such as lack of sleep, lack of exercise, poor eating habits can all occur in response to stress. Another study conducted by NYU showed that a huge response to extreme stress in students is substance abuse. "Substance use for stress relief was a predominant theme in our interviews with students, over two-thirds of whom described substance use as both endemic to their social experience and as a method for managing stress," says Dr. Charles Cleland, a study investigator. If students are being faced with enough stress that they are turning to substance abuse, than schools need to make changes in order to reduce this large amount of stress. Such changes could include decreasing a student's workload, offering students more help when they are struggling, or simply not pushing the students as hard with such high expectations. The other huge problem with the amount of stress teenagers are facing is that high levels of stress can lead to other mental health problems according to the Black Dog Institute. When a student is faced with chronic stress, they can begin to feel overwhelmed and this can lead to the student becoming withdrawn and feel hopeless and experiencing other symptoms of depression. According to NPR, up to one in five kids living in the U.S. shows signs or symptoms of a mental health disorder in a given year. With this amount of students facing mental health