Common Stressors Affecting Adolescents

Stress is triggered by difficult experiences and demanding situations. These events or conditions are
stressors that lead the body to react in a “fight-or-flight” mode. Parents, friends, teachers, and
classmates can also be stressors when your relationship with them is not good. The following are the
common causes of stress among teenagers:

Family problem – In family problem we have:

- Divorce or separation
- New step-parents or step-brothers and sisters
- Parents always arguing

(Family problem cause negative emotions such as anxiety, sadness and anger. Family members may also
feel isolated, confused, exhausted and stressed when they experience family problems……. All family
members must commit to change their attitude in the process of solving problems.)

Sibling rivalry – well here in sibling rivalry, the main causes are lack of social skills, concerns with
fairness, individual temperaments, special needs, parenting style, parent’s conflict resolution skills and
culture. In many families, the children count their siblings among their friends. The effects of sibling
rivalry can be felt beyond the siblings themselves. Often, they affect the whole family. Parents, in
particular, feel frustration and stress when their children fight. Constant bickering can take its toll on
everyone close enough to hear it.

Self-doubt - Self-doubt occurs when we lack confidence or feel incapable of doing things we need to do.
People who doubt about themselves experience uncertainty around things they can't control or worry
about things not going according to plan. ... However, persistent fear and self-doubt can hugely affect
your life in a bad way.

Expectations - Our expectations can create significant stress when they don't match up to reality. ... Our
expectations for our lives may be unrealistic and skewed based on what we think others have. Our
perspective of what others have is limited; they do not have the lives we perceive.

Peer pressure - The causes of peer pressure include the need to fit in, low self-esteem, fear of rejection,
and at most time the need to feel safety and security from peers. The effects of peer pressure can be
negative and also have the worst outcomes. Peer pressure is most commonly found in the ages of 12-19
years old. ( yung mga gustong umamin nung valentines pero di makaamin baka kase dumagdag ang
friends)

School pressure - “Academic pressure can be a positive force, causing the student to want to do well, or
it could be a negative force, causing the student to have anxiety while studying, concentration problems
or test anxiety.” Concerns about not having enough friends, not being in the same class as friends, not
being able to keep up with friends in one particular area or another, interpersonal conflicts, and peer
pressure are a few of the very common ways kids can be stressed by their social lives at school.

Drastic life changes - unexpected losses, events or challenging situations are part of all our lives, and can
cause significant stress. A single stressful event or a series of ongoing events may trigger depression or
anxiety at any point in life, even many years later.
Financial stability – first is what is financial stability is a condition in which an economy's mechanisms
for pricing, allocating, and managing financial risks (credit, liquidity, counterparty, market, etc.) are
functioning well enough to contribute to the performance of the economy (as defined above). A stress
test, in financial terminology, is an analysis or simulation designed to determine the ability of a given
financial instrument or financial institution to deal with an economic crisis.

Sense of loss - the feeling one has when someone or something that you love is taken from you
permanently.

Romantic relationship - All couples experience stress. Sometimes stress comes from problems at
work or with family and or friends that we carry over into our relationships. Stress can also come from
the couple's issues, such as an argument, differences in wants or needs, or feeling neglected.

Unhealthy competition - The negative emotional reaction of an athlete when he or she feels that his or
her self-esteem is threatened during a competition. The threat comes from an imbalance between the
performance demands of a competition and the athlete's perception of his or her own ability to meet
those demands successfully.

Poor time management - Procrastinating, or wasting time on activities that aren't a priority, can also
result in increased stress, especially when these actions have consequences such as a missed deadline.
The stress caused by a lack of time management can also lead to poor performance at work or school.

Physical Responses to Stress

The reaction of our body to stress is due to the flow of hormones in the nervous system that produce
physiologic responses. The combination of reactions is called the flight-or-fight response.

The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a physiological reaction
that occurs in the presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically. The response is
triggered by the release of hormones that prepare your body to either stay and deal with a threat or to
run away to safety.1

The term ‘fight-or-flight’ represents the choices that our ancient ancestors had when faced with danger
in their environment. They could either fight or flee. In either case, the physiological and psychological
response to stress prepares the body to react to the danger.

The fight-or-flight response was first described in the 1920s by American physiologist Walter Cannon.
Cannon realized that a chain of rapidly occurring reactions inside the body helped to mobilize the body’s
resources to deal with threatening circumstances. Today the fight-or-flight response is recognized as
part of the first stage of Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, a theory describing the stress
response.1

What Happens During the Fight-or-Flight Response?

In response to acute stress, the body’s sympathetic nervous system is activated due to the sudden
release of hormones. The sympathetic nervous systems stimulate the adrenal glands triggering the
release of catecholamines, which include adrenaline and noradrenaline. This results in an increase in
heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate.2 After the threat is gone, it takes between 20 to 60
minutes for the body to return to its pre-arousal levels.

You can probably think of a time when you experienced the fight-or-flight response. In the face of
something frightening, your heartbeat quickened, you begin breathing faster, and your entire body
becomes tense and ready to take action.
The fight-or-flight response can happen in the face of an imminent physical danger (such as
encountering a growling dog during your morning jog) or as a result of a more psychological threat (such
as preparing to give a big presentation at school or work).
Some of the physical signs that may indicate that the fight-or-flight response has kicked in include:

- Rapid Heart Beat and Breathing

- Pale or Flushed Skin
- Dilated Pupils
- Trembling

The body undergoes the following changes during a stressful event or situation:

Headache -Tension headaches occur when neck and scalp muscles become tense or contract. The
muscle contractions can be a response to stress, depression, head injury, or anxiety. They may occur at
any age, but are most common in adults and older teens. It is slightly more common in women and
tends to run in families.

Insomnia - Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, hard to stay asleep,
or cause you to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep. You may still feel tired when you
wake up. Insomnia can sap not only your energy level and mood but also your health, work performance
and quality of life. Common causes of chronic insomnia include: Stress. Concerns about work, school,
health, finances or family can keep your mind active at night, making it difficult to sleep. Stressful life
events or trauma — such as the death or illness of a loved one, divorce, or a job loss — also may lead to
insomnia.

Weakened immune system - When we're stressed, the immune system's ability to fight off antigens is
reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections. The stress hormone corticosteroid can
suppress the effectiveness of the immune system (e.g., lowers the number of lymphocytes).

Heartburn - Stress slows down digestion. Ever notice that you may lose your appetite when stressed
out? That's your body slowing down the digestion process, keeping food in your stomach longer—and
giving stomach acids more time to cause stress-related heartburn. Stress amplifies pain by making you
more sensitive to it.

Rapid breathing - Rapid breathing can be the result of anything from anxiety or asthma, to a lung
infection or heart failure. When a person breathes rapidly, it's sometimes known as hyperventilation,
but hyperventilation usually refers to rapid, deep breaths.

Pounding heart - when you feel uneasy about a situation, your ANS kicks in, increasing your heart rate.
High blood pressure - your reaction to stress may affect your blood pressure. Your body
produces a surge of hormones when you're in a stressful situation. These hormones
temporarily increase your blood pressure by causing your heart to beat faster and your blood
vessels to narrow.
Stomachache - When we're stressed, hormones and neurotransmitters are released in the body. This
can negatively impact gut motility, or the way our intestines and stomach squeeze and move waste
through the body. Also, stress can affect the delicate balance of bacteria in our gut, causing GI
discomfort.

High blood sugar - When you're experiencing physical or emotional stress, hormones are released that
increase your blood sugar. Cortisol and adrenaline are other primary hormones involved. This is a
perfectly natural response.

Fertility problems - Stress can even shut down activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis,
which controls the reproductive system. This can disrupt the connection between your brain and your
ovaries and cause delayed or absent ovulation and irregular or missed periods.

low sex drive - If you're distracted by situations or periods of high pressure, sexual desire may decrease.
This is because stress can disrupt your hormone levels. Your arteries can narrow in times of stress. This
narrowing restricts blood flow and potentially causes ED. If you're distracted by situations or periods of
high pressure, sexual desire may decrease. This is because stress can disrupt your hormone levels. Your
arteries can narrow in times of stress. This narrowing restricts blood flow and potentially causes ED.

Missed period - enter cortisol, which is a hormone your body makes when you're under stress. It can
wreak havoc on the hypothalamus/pituitary/ovary interaction and result in irregular periods. “When
under stress, your body produces cortisol. If the stress is acute, your period might only be a few days
late, but some people who experience severe chronic stress can go months without getting a period.

Tensed muscle - “When stress levels are high, our brain sends a signal to the nerves to go into
'protection mode,' and our nerves activate our muscles to tighten and increase their tone,” says David
Munson, a rehabilitation therapist with TriHealth Corporate Health, who is board certified in
professional ergonomics.