Stress Management for Teens

How to Manage Stress in Teenage:

Eighteen years old, David is quite struggling with his many roles in real life. He has to look after his father’s shop after the school, has to complete his home work assignments, prepare for the upcoming semester exam. He also want to give some of his friend a good time, has to play his beloved game, “Cricket”. At the same, David is so much desperate to complete his all daily works, he has a feeling of being over exited, sometimes pessimistic and totally out of control and genuinely called, “Stressed out teen for help”. David’s daily routine is the common amongst the many teens, whose facing stress situation similarly to his.

“Stress” is defined as the reaction of our mind and bodies to the different circumstances of daily life. It is because that the teenage is usually the stage of rapid change, it’s that the social, physical and academic, majority of the teens are more inclined towards the pressure or stress in this stage of life than at any other.
Factors increasing the Stress:

• Education problems and career planning
• what to wear or make certain types of clothing or hairstyles
• How to refuse or accept the drugs, alcohol or even sex
• How to fit into social and community groups and checking with others
• How to check and accommodate with different physical changes
• Managing time between family and groups
• How to look onto different routinely activities simultaneously

The teens have to look over those factors and they have to learn, how to handle these stress related problems. The professional help is not out of question in this regard, if not properly handled; this may lead to several illnesses, including severe depression, anxiety and some mental and physical signs of illness.
Signs of “Stressed out” teenagers:

• Signs of physical illness, like dizziness, headaches, muscles stiffness with pain, fever and severe fatigue.)
• Social isolation and distance from family members
• Bad temperament and irritating behavior among themselves and others
• Increase in or towards Pessimism ideology
• Nervous breakdown and increase in sense of worry and agitation
• Sleep and eating disorder
• Loss of focus

Natural reaction or our body biological response against the overload daily routine would sometimes be an uneven blood pressure, irregular heart cycle, hoarse breathing, and a suicidal sense of escape from all the worries. However, opposite to it, the teenagers can easily over these biological reactions, by clearly and calmly thinking to relax the mind; so the blood pressure would be normal, regular hear cycle, calm and routine breathing, and a clear optimistic thinking . To easily overcome such targets, there are numerous stress management skills that teenagers can adopt.

Lessons of Stress Management for Teenagers
• Before doing of anything, take a deep breath and feeling of being in the full control. (“Whispering the words that I can handle this situation alone.”)
• Before attempting, gradually relax muscles, especially the large muscles of the body.
• Always sets the small objectives to achieve and sets the smaller daily tasks
• Perform daily physical exercise and use well balanced diet, and avoid the unnecessary drugs
• Concentrate on the work in hand and forget worrying about the work on later time
• Practice and rehearse the difficult situations that might get you in trouble (e.g., speech practice or taking someone on a date.)
• Always share your obstacle of your daily life with reliable friends, including your parents and teachers
• Always makes the unrealistic approach at a minimum scale
• Take the schedule breaks and indulge into happy and enjoyable events, such as games, art classes, music and socializing.

• Be in yourself and satisfied with your abilities, identify within yourself the weaknesses and strengths, but always remember that no one is perfect.

All the activities which should be prohibited among the teens are well adapted, and there are no other reasons, which are not defined above. Improvement in teens life, are only when there is decrease in stress among them. Only authentic remedy would be to spread common stress management techniques, especially in the age bracket of 10 – 16 years, and let them decide, what is better for them. By forcing, or to persuade them to adopt the ways and means to overcome the daily problems, will ultimately leads towards another dilemma of stress; so it is better to and sometime very helpful to develop such a strategy which they easily accommodate themselves. Stress management is a time taking phenomenon and it is worthwhile for teens as well.

Stress Management Therapy Techniques

Different Stress Management Therapy Techniques: An Insight

In this post I would shed some light on the stress management therapy techniques used to combat stress in one’s life. The techniques involved in curbing stress are commonly known as Stress Management Therapy. Stress management is not done by ordinary people but it is done by professionals like Doctors, Psychiatrists and qualified therapists. Further on I would explain the basics and slowly moving to complex topics which will clearly help you in the time to come.

Let us start from the basics What is Stress? Now, the most commonly known definition of stress (mainly credited to Richard S Lazarus) is that “stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize”. Different people behave differently when presented with the same problem. This means that stress has a different affect on each individual. The symptoms which are visible and show that a person is under stress are also important and help to diagnose a problem before it enhances itself into a bigger challenge. Some of the symptoms are given below:

• High blood pressure.
• Palpitation.
• Sweaty hands.
• Becoming prone to illnesses.
• Headaches.
• Anger.
• Eating disorder
• Insomnia.

These symptoms are the tell tale signs of stress and should never be ignored and should be tackled effectively before things get out of hand. Stress when left untreated is one of the major causes of serious diseases and disorders. Some of them are:

• Depression and anxiety.
• Drug abuse.
• Heart diseases.

This would give you a brief insight into what stress means and what harmful effects it can have on a person’s life. Moving on to the treatment and cure of this problem, one can firstly help themselves and if they can’t handle it then move on to therapy which would be done by professionals. The simple things or techniques one should adopt to reduce stress are given below:

• Break down every big job into small parts so you are not overwhelmed.
• Do neck rolls frequently throughout the day to relieve the stiffness in neck
• Avoid being a perfectionist. Just do your best
• Take time out from your work. Schedule regular vacations.
• Exercise regularly and moderately
• Maintain a reasonable diet.
• Develop outside interests and activities.
• Talk it out. Confide to someone close
• Listen to soothing sounds or music.
• Participate in hobbies, sports, games, reading.
• Build friendships, join a social group or society
• Most importantly become an optimist.

If things are still getting out of hand then one must without any hesitation seek professional advice. This is called Stress Management Therapy. Let us explore the therapy part of stress treatment. Stress Therapy exists to help individuals out and is used to free people of stress so they can lead a happy life. As mentioned earlier the first step to stress therapy is identification of the conditions in which a person feels stress. In stress management the counselors or psychiatrists gain the person’s confidence and start to probe their lives to identify the root causes of stress. The counselor then moves on to treating this issue by either eliminating the cause of it or secondly decreasing the fear of those situations where stress is generally felt by their patients. This second technique will teach the patient to adapt to those situations. An example is in order so let me explain a situation we all have felt one time or the other. The problem I am referring to is ‘stage fright’ or the inability to speak in front of an audience. We all have experienced sweaty palms and dizziness when we go on stage, in this situation the first treatment of eliminating similar situations is virtually impossible so the second treatment is more suitable and effective i.e. overcoming this fear and learning to adapt to this problem. Some treatments have been given above in the above section.
Stress Therapy programs employ different techniques and therapies for relaxing an individual. Some of these therapies are mentioned below:

• Hypnotherapy
• Pharmaceutical Therapy
• Rational emotive behavior therapy.

Now I will give some information regarding these therapies.

Hypnotherapy: Hypnotherapy is used to combat stress related issues, it involves treating the issue by putting the patient in a semi conscious state. Hypnotherapy is a natural state of deep relaxation and concentration. Hypnosis releases stress, tension, pressure and removes negative thoughts. Behavior therapy aids in overcoming undesired behavior and reduces stress. Problem solving therapy enables the patients to identify current problems in their life and learn to counter them. This therapy has two parts:

• Emotional aspect of the problem.
• Practical aspect of the problem.

The most important part of hypnotherapy is the willingness of the patient, without a person’s consent complete hypnosis is impossible

Pharmaceutical Therapy
This type therapy is brought into work for treating very high stress conditions. Benzodiazepines and Buspirone are the most common medications given to the patients for treatment. All the antidepressant medications are given to lower stress created by muscle tension. Aromatherapy is also a part of pharmaceutical therapy for stress in which concentrated aromatic oils or candles are used. The aromas are inhaled and carried to the nervous system of the brain for creating good effects. Crystal therapy, color therapy and reiki treatments and are also used for better management of stress. These therapies keep you stress free by refreshing the mind, body and spirit.
Rational Emotive behavior therapy: Rational emotive behavior therapy is a result oriented therapy. Rational emotive behavior therapy helps individuals to handle the problems and situations of life. It enables individuals to identify their own self defeating thoughts, beliefs and actions, and teaches them to entertain more effective and constructive thoughts. Stress management massage therapies help to release stress and strain. These involve holistic and neuromuscular treatment. The massage therapies help to overcome emotional exhaustion and overtiredness due to stress and reduce the muscle tension due to work stress. Light relaxation therapies reduce headaches, anxiety and worry. Deep relaxation therapies are used to overcome severe stress conditions like insomnia and shock.

All the above stress management therapy techniques are effective and are used for different levels of stress affecting a person. You must be ready to ask for help any time, do not feel shy or let your ego dictate you because these stresses left untreated will eventually lead you to a miserable life. Try to act on the different therapy techniques prescribed in this post and God willing you will lead a happy and stress free life

Stress Management Relaxation Techniques

It is a well documented fact that, we are so busy in our daily life that we do not even notice the harmful effects of stress and anxiety. Its related problems begin slowly and gradually and its symptoms become evident in weeks and months. It is rather easy for others, who are part of our daily life, to recognize the behavioral changes rather than by us (the victims of stress). However, there are stress management relaxation techniques to counter stress.
There are well defined two types of stress effects, one is physical and the other is perceiving effect. Physical stress related symptoms are commonly recognized through the muscles tightening, change of heart rate, increase in the blood pressure, irregular breathing, sweating and adrenaline secretion may also be the sign. On the other hand, the perceiving effects easily recognizable by the loss of focus, interests, and memory disorder.
Uneasiness or Anxiety can be named as a disorder in its own way of psychological related disorders, certain phobias and sudden panic attacks. It can be motivation behind taking such drugs or self medication that may become harmful, if taken in abundance. It can also be called as a disorder in relation to certain delusional self imposed rituals, lethal domestic violence, and excessive over eating disorders.

Sometimes the stress is so strong that it becomes impossible to avoid but becomes even desirable to complete (i.e. sensual and fictitious situations,) situations by this approach of human mind; but it is obvious to curtail level where it could damage the human emotions and could reach the harmful level. It is better for us to think at certain level of stress, as to how and why it is happening. At a certain, low level of stress, it becomes clear that we are feeling some signs of stress and it is the level where we spend a lot of time, on this level we can easily evaluate and skip the stress factors and produce the results, which are beneficial for us.

Similarly, at the highest level of stress, it is very difficult for the people to mention the factors and to curb down the symptoms, as the effect is as rapid as briefed above. Apart from these levels, there is a middle level; where the chances are equally split to either go in favor or go against. In this middle level of stress, our engagement in certain thoughts, in single and mutual feelings, we feel to take on longer and this is the decisive level to really work on.
Many stress relaxation techniques can be adopted to provide moderation into the vigorous stress level. As through out the day, we are at certain different moods, but we can induce the relaxation methods to jump down from the upper level of stress into the middle or lower level of stress. There should be a continuity of this practice on average daily basis, as if we leave this practice then stress level will gradually and sometimes rapidly goes back to previous condition. This practice, if adopted in real sense, can be very handy in terms of maintaining the stress level in the limit of human patience.

By bringing these methods of relaxation into our daily routine, we can easily get our mind and body use to it, where we can define our limits and zones to avoid any dysfunction. So, in a way we can achieve goals for our own safety and by this we have wide range of choices for dealing with the stress.
The best way to effective implement the relaxation methods is to first identify the level of stress, when we feel the stress of any during our daily routine. It is very important on that very moment, we should have to become very calm and attentive towards our mental and bodily changes and sometimes through others judgment for ourselves. Identification of any level of stress is the key to overcome the stress and get relaxation through stress management relaxation techniques.

Stress Relaxation Activities:
Techniques or training of stress relaxation are methods where one could briefly become controlled tensed and then become relaxed; this is to judge the difference between the two levels of different condition. It can easily be understood by the following practice.
First, lie down on the floor facing your back. Hold your breath while inhaling and simultaneously lift your feet about one foot above the ground. Same way, raise your both arms the same height. Keep tense all of your bodily muscles and hold it five minutes and then drop your legs and arms on the ground. While inhaling, feel the relaxation comes to your body and mind. Make no moves and think of yourself melting onto the floor. Think of your muscles getting relaxed. Think, what are your feelings at that time? Differentiate the muscle which feels the most relaxation after this exercise. During all these working, breathe slowly. Think and concentrate on how your muscles are feeling before and after the relaxation exercise. Repeat it as many times as you want it. It can be best done by isolating different muscles and exercise on them separately. There are many stress management relaxation techniques like meditation, breathing techniques, hypnosis, yoga etc but the above given are proven to work for all.