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PERDEV 11-Module5

This document focuses on coping with stress during middle and late adolescence, outlining the causes and effects of stress, as well as effective management techniques. It emphasizes the importance of understanding stressors, analyzing personal stress responses, and developing coping strategies to maintain mental health. The document also includes a performance task for creating a 'Stress Survival Kit' to help individuals manage stress in their daily lives.

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Promise Salvatiera
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4 views

PERDEV 11-Module5

This document focuses on coping with stress during middle and late adolescence, outlining the causes and effects of stress, as well as effective management techniques. It emphasizes the importance of understanding stressors, analyzing personal stress responses, and developing coping strategies to maintain mental health. The document also includes a performance task for creating a 'Stress Survival Kit' to help individuals manage stress in their daily lives.

Uploaded by

Promise Salvatiera
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT-GRADE 11-MODULE 5

Coping with Stress in Middle and Late Adolescence

LEARNING COMPETENCIES:
Identify causes and effects of stress in one’s life. EsP-PD11/12CS-If-5.2
Demonstrate personal ways to cope with stress and maintain mental health. EsP-PD11/12CS-Ig-5.3

Keep Stress Under Control


There are many effective ways to handle stress. Of course, you can’t avoid stress—in fact, you wouldn’t
want to avoid all stress, because you’d never grow. However, you can manage your life so that you survive the
emotional down times without allowing stress to engulf you. Also, you can work to eliminate controllable stress
factors, such as running late or not getting enough sleep. But when stress is constant or too great, your wisest
option is to find ways to reduce or control it. You need not, and should not, live your life in emotional stress and
discomfort. Stress can be successfully managed. Here are some suggestions that may help.

Understand the Causes of Stress


Understanding why you are under stress is important. This may seem obvious, but it requires deliberate,
conscious effort to pause and simply ponder your situation. By now, you are familiar with the stress response, the
emotional or physical symptoms of uncontrolled stress. Now you need to try to discover the stressors, the factors
of which create the stress in your life.

Analyze your Stress Factors and Write Them Down


Write down your response to stress. For example, you may write down, “I feel tired most of the time. My
lower back seems to ache all through the day and night. I miss deadlines and run behind schedule.” Analyze stress
responses and consequences, and consider each item, and ask why. “Why am I feeling tired? Why does my back
ache? Why do I run behind schedule? Carefully consider each answer, because the answers will reveal stressors,
such as deadlines, anxieties, trying to do so much, managing time or money poorly, or poor health habits.

Deal with the Stressors


Develop techniques to deal with the causes of stress. The longer you avoid dealing with the stress factors,
the more the stress will build up. If tension comes because you have put off an unfinished task, restructure your
priorities so you can get the task that you have been avoiding out of the way and off your mind.

Learn to Work under Pressure or Unusual Conditions


When you can’t reduce the stressors, you need to manage your stress response. Almost everyone, at least at some
point, has to meet deadlines, keep several jobs going at once, resolve problems that come up, and do extra work
when necessary. However, when the pressure mounts, you can relieve it. Relaxation is key—but most people must
train themselves to relax when the pressure is on.
Some tips to relax when under pressure are the following:
 Stop for a moment (especially when you feel your muscles tightening up) and take a few deep
breaths.
 Do a relaxing exercise. Swing your hands at your sides and stretch.
 Take a “power nap.” Lie down and totally relax for a few minutes.
 Find time to do the things you enjoy.
 Leave your study area for a while to take a brisk walk.
 Find a quiet place to read a magazine or novel during break or at lunch.
 If possible, look at some peaceful images such as forests, beaches, etc. These images can initiate a
relaxation response.
 Look up.
 Keep something humorous on hand, such as a book of jokes.
Source: The Nemours Foundation, available from kidshealth.org

Stress Management
Stress and change are part of our lives. We all talk about stress, but we are not always clear about what it is.
This is because stress comes from both the good and bad things that happen to us. If we did not feel any stress, we
would not be motivated to do anything. Too much stress, however, can negatively impact our mental wellness. It
also may put students at greater risk of becoming involved in risk-taking behaviors. In senior high, students are
becoming increasingly more responsible for their own use of time. Often, they are beginning to learn how to
manage multiple tasks and expectations e.g., academic work, extra-curricular activities, family, friends and work.
Learning how to prioritize tasks and breaking them down into manageable steps are important skills to learn for
managing stress.

Causes and Effects of Stress


Just as there is great variety of emotions you might experience, there are many possible manifestations of
stress – in your private life and in your working life. The following are some words that describe the emotions
associated (as cause and effect) with stress:
 Anxiety
 Pressure
 Misery
 Strain
 Desperation
 Tension
 Anger
 Panic
 Dejection
Prolonged stress can be devastating; burnout, breakdown, and depression are some of the potential results of
long-term, unmanaged stress. By wearing a mask, you may expect to hide stress caused by problems in your
personal life and not let them influence your performance on the job. This will probably not work. The more you
try to hold your emotions in, the greater the pressure buildup will be.

Everyday frustrations cause stress buildup


From the time you wake up until you go to sleep, you may be confronted with a succession of stressful
situations. Managing to get yourself (and possibly a spouse and children) out of bed and ready to face the day can
be a challenge to your patience and ingenuity. Driving to school or work can be harrowing – especially if you are
running late. You may experience frustration in arranging to get the car repaired. You may face conflicts in school
or at work, such as coping with unrealistic deadlines, equipment failures, or unexpected bad weather. If part of
your job is selling, you may experience feelings of rejection when most of your customers say “no.”

A series of stressful and frustrating experiences throughout the day can cause you to lie awake at night in
an emotional turmoil – unable to get needed rest. You face the next day with less emotional and physical stamina.
After another stressful day and another night without rest, you may have even less emotional strength and stability.
Therefore, stress buildup, if not resolved, continues day after day.
Problems in our personal life can be devastating

Surviving the normal, everyday stress described earlier can be difficult. But far more serious and painful
circumstances can create long- term stress. More serious stressful circumstances may include separation from
loved ones, personal illness or illness of a loved one, death of someone you care about, or conflict with a spouse or
close friend. Other major causes of stress are problems with drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, care of
children and elderly relatives, chronic mental illness, injury, physical handicaps, and even moving to a new home,
if you have lived in the same place for more than 10 years. The list goes on.
Managing your personal finances can be another stressful experience. This can be a problem no matter your
income level, but it is especially difficult if you must support a family and do not earn enough to live comfortably.
Unpaid bills, unwise use of credit, and budget limitations can make life difficult.

A common cause of stress is dealing with life’s transitions


This is especially true when a person must cope with too many transitions all at once. For example, Ellen has just
completed a program in fashion merchandising. She is eager to get started on her new job. Her mother is ill and
requires care. Her father died a few months ago. Ellen’s new job requires that she relocate to a town 100 miles
from home. The move, a new career, and a change in family relationships may cause excessive stress for her. Too
many changes have arrived at the same time.
Source: Personal Development for Life and Work, 8th Ed., by Wallace, H.R. & Masters, L.A., 2001.

Stress Response
Your stress response is the collection of physiological changes that occur when you face a perceived threat
—when you face situations where you feel the demands outweigh your resources to successfully cope. These
situations are known as stressors.
When your stress response is triggered, a series of changes occur within your body. They include the following:
 Redirection of blood away from extremities and instead to major organs.
 The release of cortisol and other hormones, which bring other short- and long-term changes.
 The stress response is intended to give you a burst of energy so you are able to fight off attackers or run away
from them effectively.
 This helped our ancestors, who faced numerous physical threats, to stay safe.
 However, now our threats tend to be less physical and more associated with our way of life—a challenge to
our status, a demand for performance, etc. In addition to giving us a set of changes that may not match our
needs as well (it might be more effective for us to have a burst of mental clarity or wisdom than a burst of
physical strength, for example), the stress response can actually cause harm if it leads to a state of chronic
stress—that is, if our stress response is triggered, and then our body doesn’t go back to its normal state via
the relaxation response.

PERFORMANCE TASK
Stress Survival Kit
People deal with stress differently. Survival kits are essential to prepare before a crisis. Sometimes, we also
need to prepare survival kits for stressful situations, before they happen. In this activity, you will be making your
own survival kits that will help cope with stress in your everyday lives. Write your responses in a bond paper.
1. Choose 3 objects or symbols that make you feel relaxed to include in your kit.
• You can make symbols.
• You can use words or pictures.
• You can use an object from your home.
2. Think about how the symbol helps you when you are dealing with stress and stressful situations.
3. Write a paragraph for each symbol or object in your kit and how it helps you cope with stress in your
everyday life.
4. Sharing a part of your kit with peers may be a follow-up activity.
Source: Mental Health Kit Manual, Junior High School, Alberta Health Services
(https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/programs/ps-7344-full-manual.pdf)

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