By Maria Kernychny, Editor
It’s 5 a.m. and the alarm in junior Emily Darrow’s bedroom just won’t stop buzzing.
The sun isn’t up yet, but Darrow is. It’s another Monday morning, and she’s feeling the exhaustion before she rolls out of bed.
She’ll wake up. Go to school. Attend dress rehearsal with the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra. Go to rehearsal in Aurora for WSSS. And then work until 10 p.m. at Panera Bread in Aurora. Then she can start her homework.
“At the end of all that, I basically pass out on the couch with some food,” Darrow said.
She’ll get up and repeat a similar cycle tomorrow.
“You have to be so organized. It’s ridiculous. I have to write down everything on my calendar and look at it every day. There’s rarely a day with nothing on it,” she said.
Like Darrow, many teens today are overloaded. They have too many responsibilities and too little time on their hands–and they get hit hard by the physical and emotional effects of it.
According to Dana Poss, RN at Good Samaritan Hospital, there are two types of stress. Chronic stress is mostly categorized with a disease or illness that someone has to deal with on a daily basis.
Though some teens experience this, short-term stress is what the majority of teens go through. It lasts for an acute amount of time, and it eventually goes away. It may be caused by anything–a week of finals coming up, or a big game they have to play well in.
The stress factors differ from teen to teen.
A 2007 Associated Press/MTV Youth Happiness poll showed that 47 percent of nationwide teens aged 13-17 sometimes experience stress. Twenty-five percent of teens said school/college was their biggest stress source, while eight percent said that homework was.
Multiple other factors such as graduation, teachers and coaches, classes, deadlines, high self-expectations and other academics mentions were listed.
“The cause of stress depends on what you consider stress,” Poss said.
For Darrow, it’s “having two jobs, no time to spend with friends, on and off relationships, all my club meetings, keeping up grades, violin lessons and orchestra practice. The list can go on and on.”
For senior Vince Micek, it’s more school-related. “Taking tests, homework, studying and finals [cause stress],” he said.
School nurse Barb Giese said that social pressures, homework and classroom expectations are the most common stressful factors students in high school experience.
No particular kind of person gets affected. Stress happens to everyone. A teenager’s personality and work load will define how their body reacts to stress. A lot of students end up shutting down because they don’t know how to organize their time.
Being stressed out releases adrenaline and cortisol, two hormones in the body. These cause both physical and emotional symptoms.
“Being involved in too much, over-extending yourself and having too much on your plate causes [stress] in a lot of students,” Violett said.
“Physical symptoms are usually the first thing you notice going on,” Poss said. “You might have loss of sleep, headaches, high blood pressure and a low immune system.”
Darrow has experienced loss of appetite, bad headaches and always being tired.
“Severe causes include effects on your immune system, muscles and skin,” Poss said. “If you already have problems with one of those, being stressed out may just make it a lot worse.”
“Emotionally, I get really touchy. I feel overly emotional, I’m vulnerable, and I get pissed off easier than usual,” Darrow said.
Anxiety is common, along with being cranky, always worried, and difficulty of focus.
“Lack of interest in activities, irritability, and easy loss of temper are common,” Giese said. “Surrounding yourself with positive people can help you deal with stress.”
When people go through stressful experiences, most either run from it or deal with their problems.
“Stress affects all of us differently. Some individuals just have better coping skills,” Giese said.
Positive ways to deal with it are talking to friends, family or a counselor, doing hobbies to take your mind off it, meditation or exercise. Negative ways to avoid are drugs, alcohol and lashing out on friends or family.
“[To relax,] I like being alone when I have free time sometimes,” Darrow said. “Just being 16 and having a job adds pressure, especially with junior year being the hardest year of high school.”