Breathe
Rigorous classes and high expectations are pushing students to their limit. How do extraordinary stress levels affect them academically and mentally?
By: Tara Brolley
Valeria Garcia-Pozo, an 18-year-old senior at Clarke Central High School, sits at a desk in a quiet, cluttered side room, away from the noise of students working and chatting in the journalism classroom. She flips through her agenda, in which every item is meticulously listed under its due date and is crossed off to indicate its completion. Eventually, she stops at a lengthy, overarching to-do list, with the assignments and tests separated by class. The title of the list reads, “Sadness and Despair.”
She continues flipping the pages and stops again at a list that lays out what she needs to get done to prepare for college, like submitting her ACT scores. Number four on the list is “Breathe.” It remains uncrossed. “[Time management] is really a struggle for me this year,” she said. “The sheer amount of things that I’m supposed to do and the responsibilities that I’m taking upon myself stress me out.”
High school students have a lot on their plates, ranging from academics to extracurriculars to the typical struggles of growing up and forming their identity. But since mental disorders often have their first onset during adolescence, teenage stress and anxiety is not something that should be ignored and brushed off as ordinary teenage angst. Students like Garcia-Pozo, those who always feel the pressing need to be better and achieve more, need a reminder to breathe, or things could get worse.
Main Stressors
Students often get wrapped up in the competitive atmosphere of school and become obsessed with getting the highest scores on standardized tests. “[Students worry about] the average amount of AP’s [they have] completed or taken, getting admitted into the University of Georgia, the average SAT score and the average ACT score,” said Tessa Barbazon, the director for school counseling and social-emotional learning in Athens-Clarke County schools. “The numbers tell a story themselves.”
A large, purple piece of paper hangs in the hallway at Clarke Central High School with the words “What holds us back?” written across the top in bold handwriting. Underneath, students have scribbled their answers. They have written things like “anxiety” and “doubt,” as well as “too much homework” and “not enough time.”
Garcia-Pozo is not just dealing with the pressure of getting good grades and high test scores. Despite her ambitious personality, having taken eight AP classes as well as dual-enrolling at the University of Georgia, her future remains unclear. “Being an international student really, really, really stresses me out,” she said. “I’ve had multiple meltdowns over the course of this year because there is so much uncertainty surrounding being admitted to college and then having enough money to go.”
According to a 2014 report by the American Psychological Association (APA), 83% of students report that school is a somewhat or significant stressor. That stress results in lower grades, difficulty managing their time, and neglecting responsibilities. It does not just affect their behaviors, but their physical health as well, especially in the long-term. High stress can weaken immune systems and exhaust the body. Teenagers who experience consistent stress also have higher levels of inflammation, which is associated with the development of cardiovascular disease.
Only a small number of teenagers engage in physical activities to deal with stress management, the majority preferring less strenuous activities such as playing video games or going online. But the teens who do engage in more physically active stress management behaviors report lower stress levels and better sleep schedules.
How Teens Deal With Stress Differently Than Adults
“Teenagers are more responsive to stress,” said Steven Kogan, a professor at the University of Georgia with a Ph.D. in Child and Family Development. “They feel it more intensely.”
A main factor that differentiates how teenagers experience stress from adults is the way the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis processes cortisol, which is often called the “stress hormone” because of its connection to the stress response. During adolescence, there is are significant shifts in HPA axis reactivity, resulting in heightened stress-induced hormonal responses. Limbic and cortical brain areas are still developing in adolescence and are particularly vulnerable to these shifts.
Elevated levels of cortisol secreted during childhood and adolescence have been linked to the subsequent onset of Major Depressive Disorder, which is comorbid with anxiety, eating disorders, ADHD and more.
Garcia-Pozo mentioned that students she works with on her school newspaper have some of these issues. She said, “I know other people on our staff, kids who have really bad anxiety, who have had to go and talk to [our teacher] and [our teacher] had to reach out to their counselor.”
Oddly enough, low levels of cortisol secreted in childhood and adolescence seem to produce the same result, proving that knowing when and how far to push children to achieve more is a delicate balance.
Research shows that teenagers, despite reporting high levels of stress, do not know how to manage it correctly. According to the APA study, 42% of teenagers say they either are not doing enough to manage their stress or they are not sure if they are doing enough to manage it.
For Garcia-Pozo, she found that participating in theatre is a good way for her to take her mind off of the pressure that comes with maintaining her GPA and figuring out where to go to college. Although preparing for shows can sometimes be overwhelming and hectic, she explains that it is a good kind of stress.
“I think it’s really, really important for students to have something that they do that relieves their stress. For me, theatre is really, really therapeutic. That’s the reason that I do it,” Garcia-Pozo said.
Garcia-Pozo explains that she thinks high schoolers are not capable of juggling so many things and they should not be expected to. “I think it comes as a sacrifice to sleep. Or I remember last semester, I wouldn’t hang out with my friends. And often I’m still not hanging out with my friends as often as I would like to. Because I have so much work, and I prioritize my work because it’s really important to me to get good grades.”
The Warning Signs and What To Do
In order to stand a chance in today’s academic environment, teenagers need to take intense college-level courses as well as find the time to dedicate to clubs, extracurriculars and volunteering in order to get into their dream school. Realistically, that will not change any time soon. However, in order to keep stress under control, teenagers need to do self-check-ins and prioritize their mental health.
It is also up to the adults in their lives, whether it be parents, teachers, coaches or advisors, to watch out for them.
Kogan describes the vital role family plays in helping teenagers deal with stress. He said, “whatever kinds of stress that you have in front of you, probably the single most important feature that can help protect you, that can help you be better at dealing with it, is a close, supportive and warm family relationship.”
There are several signs to look out for to tell if an adolescent may be overloaded. Signs include increased complaints of headache, stomachache, muscle pain or tiredness, shutting down and withdrawing from people and activities, increased anger or irritability, crying more often, feelings of hopelessness, chronic anxiety and nervousness, changes in sleeping and eating habits, or difficulty concentrating.
Teenagers have valid stressors in their life. It helps to listen to them with an open mind and to avoid the notion that because they are young, they do not know what “real stress” is. According to the APA study, the average stress level reported by teen girls is on par with adult levels.
What many parents often fail to understand is the experience of being a teenager is significantly different from when they were teenagers themselves, so their perception of teenage stress can be skewed. Colleges are more competitive and more selective. For example, according to the UGA Fact Book, in 1980, 68% of students who applied to the University of Georgia got accepted. Now, only 49% who apply get accepted.
“Mental health, I think, is still highly stigmatized, even though it’s gotten better,” Barbazon said. “Even for students and parents, they’re not always fully aware or as educated on mental illness. It’s like, you don’t just go in and see a counselor four or five times and it’s gone… It’s something that can represent.”
Increasing education about mental health is a crucial step needed to help high schoolers. Lack of education is a significant reason why students and their parents do not seek support.
“We’re teaching stress to our children,” Kogan said. “Adults who are increasingly interested in work… send messages to young people about work, work work all the time. And that’s the center of a life, right? And maybe not. Maybe that shouldn’t be the center of a life.”
Despite all that Garcia-Pozo is juggling, she walks around her journalism class with her head held high. She is in a leadership position in the class and the students look to her for guidance. She has found balance by managing her time well and reaching out to her school counselor when she needs help. Other students could benefit from doing the same.
