COPING WITH STRESS

IN MIDDLE AND LATE

ADOLESCENCE
WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND
ABOUT “STRESS?” HAVE YOU
EXPERIENCED STRESS?
 Dictionary definitions do not quite
capture the meaning of stress as it is
seen and experienced in the world of
work. One of Webster’s definitions
describes it as an “…emotional factor
that causes bodily or mental tension.”
 A practical way of defining stress is the feeling
one gets from prolonged, pent-up emotions. If the
emotions you experience are pleasant and
desirable—joy, elation, ecstasy, and delight—you
usually feel free to let them show. They are not
suppressed. Therefore, positive emotions do not
usually cause stress. Negative emotions, on the
other hand, are more often held inside.
 They are hidden. You suffer quietly and you
experience stress. Do not confuse positive
situations with positive emotions. A wedding,
for example, is a positive situation that often
brings about the negative emotions of
anxiety and tension. So stress can exist in
great situations.
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.
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.
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
 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.
CAUSES AND EFFECTS
OF STRESS
 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.
 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.
 Problems in our personal life can be
devastating
 Surviving the normal, everyday stress
described earlier can be difficult.
 Aside from being reaction(or
response), stress is also a
stimulus, as well as a relational
condition between person and
the situations they are in.
THREE VIEWS ON STRESS
 Stress as stimulus,
 Stress as response, and
 Stress as relational.
STRESS AS STIMULUS
 As a stimulus, stress is caused by
situations that may be life
threatening or life changing, such as
separation, moving into new home,
or having a new job.
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.
STRESS AS RELATIONAL
 Stress as relational is when a person
experiencing stress takes a step back to look
at the situation that is causing the stress,
and asses it.
 Assessment here means that when the
person allows reasoning to prevail and weigh
the relevance or irrelevance of the situation.
HERE ARE SOME SAMPLES OF
POSSIBLE STRESSORS A
STUDENTS FACES:
 School and demands
 Selecting a school, college course, or
career
 Separation anxiety
 College life
 Romantic relationship or lack of it
 Family demands and expectaions
 Health concerns
 Demands of life
 Bullying
HOW DO PEOPLE COPE
WITH STRESS?
 Since stress is real and cannot be
avoided, we need to deal with it. When
we are stressed out, we typically
wanted to feel good and well. This may
include knowing the causes of stress,
understanding its effects on us, and
finding ways to deal with it.
APPROACHES IN COPING
WITH STRESS
I. Avoidance Approach
 In this approach, people tend to run away from
the stress by denying the presence of stress and
by taking steps away from the causes of stress
or stressor.
 People will tend to avoid the place, people,
situation, feeling, etc., that would remind them of
the stressful moment in their lives.
 Example: You want to avoid the
person who has hurt you badly
because it will remind you again of
the past pain, he/she has caused
you.
 Some people practice avoidance by
directing their actions or resorting to
bad/negative habits like smoking,
drinking alcoholic beverages, or even
taking illegal drugs, which they think is
helpful, but is worsening the situation
and causing more stress.
II. Acceptance-Action Approach
 In this approach, you acknowledge and
accept the fact that stress is real, and that
stress has good and bad effects on a
person.
 Dealing with stress leads to finding better
solutions.
 Example: You know that you have
an upcoming test. So, in order for
you to pass or get a high grade on
the test, you have to exert some
effort like studying/reviewing.
 Acceptance –action will help to lessen the
stress in your life by doing something before
or even during stressful times, which can
help you do better and live well.
 In this approach, adolescents are
encouraged to think of helpful and effective
ways to cope with stress.
WHY IS COPING WITH
STRESS IMPORTANT?
 Coping with stress is very significant in middle
and late adolescence since at this stage, there is
a hormonal surge. Stress creates hormonal
imbalances as adolescents face different
issues/expectations, challenges, and
responsibilities while handling its effects on their
physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
 Coping/managing stress is important because it will
help you to keep moving amid the daily challenges you
are facing. It will help you live a healthy mind and a
healthy being.
 Too much stress can cause damage to your well-being
if you will not properly deal with it immediately. We are
like an elastic rubber band but when stretched out too
much because of stress, we may lose the elasticity and
eventually snap and break.
HOW TO MINIMIZE
STRESSFUL
SITUATIONS?
1. Manage your time wisely
2. Work with others
3. Think optimistically
4. Trust God
Have faith, Stay Calm, and Live Healthy
by coping stress!
Activity #
Group Activity
Form a group in class and have a role-playing
session using the following situations.
Assign a roles to be played by each member
of the group. No script is necessary. Make
sure that the stressors are clearly identified
and how the individual roles are affecting
each other.
1. Arguing with parents over the choice of
carrer or course college
2. Bullying in school
3. Peer pressure in group
4. Breaking off from a relationship
5. Choosing a college course or career.