You Think You’re Stressed!

Let’s talk about teens, stress, and anxiety

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What Stresses Your Teen Out?

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 Negative ways teens deal with
stress
• Self-medicating
• Using drugs or alcohol
• Self-injury
• Avoidance
• Procrastination
• Over preforming

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 Stress is Real and it’s Here to Stay
• Stress comes from a primitive part of our
brain that tells us to be afraid. So, some
fears are worthy and some are not.

• Stress looks forward and backwards to the

what if's and I should have's.

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 Types of Stress
• There are two types of stress:
– Eustress (good, motivating)
– Distress (bad, hard to cope with)
• It is important to identify causes of stress
and manage them with either changes of
behavior or attitude.
How do you know when your teen is
stressed?
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 The Science of Stress

Stress is regulated by the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and

adrenal gland.
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 What About Anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and every child
goes through phases. A phase is temporary and usually
harmless.
Warning signs:
•Panic attacks
•Avoidance of places or situations
•Obsessions or compulsions
•Re-experiencing of traumatic events and avoidance of
stimuli
•Persistent and excessive anxiety and worry
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 Other Mood Disorders
• Major depression
• Cyclothymia
• Dysthymia
• Bipolar I
• Bipolar II

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 Signs and Symptoms
• Disinterest in favorite • Emotional distress brings on
extracurricular activities  physical complaints (aches,
• Problems at school and losing fatigues, migraines)
interest in school  • Hard time concentrating and
• Substance abuse, including alcohol paying attention 
and drug (illegal and legal drugs) • Declining grades in school
use • Loss of interest in schoolwork 
• Behavioral problems 
• Risk taking behaviors 
• Withdrawing from family and
• Complains more frequently of
friends 
• Sleep changes  boredom 
• Does not respond as before to
• Changes in eating habits 
praise
• Begins to neglect hygiene and other
• Changing friend groups
matters of personal appearance 
• Isolating from friends and family

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 How To Deal
• Validation
– I hear you saying you feel really sad.
– That sounds very painful.
• Ask open-ended questions
– Have you ever felt really depressed?
– How long have you felt that way?
– Has this happened before? How long did it last?
• Be in contact with your child’s therapist and psychiatrist
• Get therapy for yourself
– Sending only the kid gives them the message: “I am broken, and
they want this therapist to fix me.”
– It is hard to watch your kids struggle!

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 Stress Management Tools
• Sleep • Study smarter, not
• Eat right harder
• Avoid caffeine • Planning/organization
• Exercise • Compartmentalizing
• Music
• Relaxation techniques
• Prayer/spirituality
• Set priorities

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 Coping With Stress
1. Identify causes
– What stresses you or your children?
2. Change what you can
– Attitude…listen to negative messages, listen carefully
to your child's negative messages
– Gratitude…count your blessings, but recognize some
things are just simply hard
3. Learn to let go
4. Teach your children these lessons as you go by
talking to them about your process
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 Jesus' instructions from the Sermon on Mount
Mt 6:25:
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you
will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap
nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you
by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do
you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if
God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more
clothe you—you of little faith?

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 The Message?
“Don’t worry”… That’s easy for him to say!

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