Stress can be defined as a nature’s way of letting you know that your mind and body have had enough. In case of stress, forces present in the outside world affect the individual in an adverse manner. People tend to respond to stress in many ways. These responses in turn, affect both the individual and the environment in different ways. This is the reason that all living being constantly interchange with their surroundings in terms of behavior as well as physically.

There are major differences in the way a living creature relate to the environment. These differences play an important role in the survival of an individual.

A lot of stress experienced in daily life can make one think negatively or take stress as a negative experience. However, experts feel that biologically stress can be either of the below:

• Negative experience

• Positive experience

• Neutral experience

Generally, stress is associated to internal as well as external factors. The internal factors include your body’s capacity to respond to stress producing factors, your body’s ability to deal with external factors that induce stress.

The external factors include the following:

• The physical environment

• Your job

• Your relationship with people around you

• Your home

• Challenges

• Difficulties

• Expectations

• Obstructions

The internal factors tend to put an impact to your ability to handle stress. The nutrition that you get, your health, level of fitness, emotional state, and amount of sleep and rest you get are responsible for your ability to handle stress.

Stress has known to result in evolutionary change. Experts feel that the species that tend to adapt the best to major causes of stress survived. These evolved in to the planet and different animal kingdoms we get to see around us.

The human being is considered to be the most adaptive creature existing on this planet. This is because the evolution of human brain and the important part known as the neo-cortex existed. This adaptability is contributed by the transformation and stressors that one has suffered and mastered.

- Stress and Its Function

As soon as we come across something that upsets us in a certain manner that scares, makes angry, nervous, sad or pissed-off, a portion of your brain just out stress hormones inside the body. These hormones bring about certain changes in your body. You can feel your heart beating faster, palms sweat and give your knots in your stomach.

There are several bad effects of stress on your body. You can suffer from bad health. Too much stress can make you feel lousy and induce negativity. You will feel unhappy about everything that happens around you.

The stress hormones in your body will make you feel upset. Stress can also result in mental and a lot of physical strain. You may also suffer from headaches, irritability, tensions and in severe cases, heart palpitations.

You should take special care to keep yourself away from stress as far as possible. Take counseling sessions to come out of stress creating situations.

At home, at school, at work, and with their friends, it seems like teenagers are under constant pressure. They are under pressure to succeed, to perform, to excel, and to fit in. And, after a while, all of the pressures and demands being placed on them can seem overwhelming.

Academic Demands

School can be a pretty demanding place. Not only do teens have to worry about getting good grades, and doing well on tests and exams, many suffer from homework overload.

College Aspirations

Now days, high school freshmen are already starting to worry about choosing the right career, being able to get into a good college, and being able to afford to go to college at all. By the time they are juniors or seniors, the pressures on a teenager to make the right decisions to ensure their future success is high.

Job Pressures

On top of a heavy school load, many teenagers also have to deal with a part time, or even full time, job. So much of their time is spent either working or doing school work that they have very little free time during which they can just relax and have fun.

Family Issues

A teenager’s daily life is stressful enough, even when things are good at home. But, when a teenager has to deal with family problems (like abuse, parents who are constantly arguing, parents who are getting divorced, parents suffering from substance abuse, or a sick parent or sibling) the other pressures in their lives can be even harder to deal with.

Self Image

Many teenagers feel a great deal of stress over trying to fit a certain image. They feel like they have to look a certain way, wear the right clothes, have the right hairstyle, or drive the right car. And they believe that, if they don’t fit that image, they will be the objects of scorn and ridicule.

Peer Pressure

When you’re a teenager, it can be difficult not to go along with the rest of the crowd. For example, a teenager might have no desire to smoke but, fearing their friends who smoke might think they are immature or uncool if they refuse, might give in when they are offered a cigarette.

In romantic relationships, teenagers might feel the pressure to do things they aren’t ready for in order to keep from losing their boyfriend or girlfriend.

What are the Effects of Teenage Stress?

As with adults, stress can cause teenagers many physical, mental, and emotional problems.

Physically, teens who feel stressed out might suffer from headaches, fatigue, muscle aches, weight gain, stomach aches, and skin problems like acne.

Teens under stress can also experience emotional problems like depression, anxiety, and low self esteem. Finally, teens under stress can also experience behavioral problems, like drug or alcohol abuse, eating disorders, aggressiveness, and social withdrawal.

Teenagers are under pressure every day. But learning to deal with teenage stress will make them healthier, happier, and better able to handle the challenges and demands of daily life.

Teens experience stress no differently than adults. They can in fact be more susceptible to stress, owing to the fact that they’re going through a stage where everyone and everything they encounter is a new thing. Normally, a manageable amount of these encounters can result in just enough stress, which is a good thing — it lets the teen learn to cope with the different “curveballs” that life throws at them.

However, a little too much of it and the teen suffers from stress overload. This obviously is an event that should be avoided, as it can cause various negative effects on the teen’s physical, psychological, and mental development.

Perhaps the most common stressor for the average teen is school. The teen may be stressed by having too many projects at one time, or by having to go through several difficult subjects day after day. Engaging in more activities than the teen can handle can also be too stressful. Even transferring schools can prove to be a very stressful period for the teen.

The teen’s circle of friends may also cause stress overload. Many teens feel the crush of peer pressure at some point in their development, and may cause them to come into conflict with some of their friends. These can lead to further stressful stimuli, such as negative thoughts and feelings about oneself. When you hear your teen say stuff like, “When I look at myself in the mirror sideways, I look like a surfboard. No one will ever like me,” it might be a sign of crippling peer pressure.

Another reason for teen stress overload is friction within the family. When the teen’s parents have marital problems, it could give the teen a message that he/she comes from a broken household, and this can be very depressing! Many parents aren’t aware that even financial problems within the family can send the wrong signal to the teen.

Stress overload can cause a host of negative consequences on the teen. The teen might often complain of being “stressed-out,” and may suffer from chronic physical discomforts such as headaches, digestive problems, and fatigue. The teen may also suffer from loss of appetite, a decreased levels of attention, or trouble going to sleep.

More serious symptoms of stress overload would include changes in behavior. The teen may be aggressive and develop a bad temper, or be the exact opposite and slip into a deep depression. The teen may choose to withdraw from social contact and prefer to spend time on his/her own. If these psychological symptoms are allowed to worsen, the teen may resort to hanging out with bad kids and using alcohol or drugs to cope.

Fortunately, many of the stress management skills practiced by adults can also work effectively with teens. Aside from these, parents can help their troubled teen by being watchful of the teen’s actions and words. Parents can listen to what the teen is telling them, and discern whether these are signs of stress overload.

Parents can also play an active role in helping their teen avoid stress overload. Encouraging them to join pro-social activities, such as sports, workshops, and field trips, can break down shyness barriers. This can in turn enable the teen to discover hidden talents and boost their confidence in dealing with other people.

The teen can also take practical steps to take care of their health. These include eating healthfully and regularly, exercising, and getting enough sleep. To that end, too much junk food and caffeine should be avoided, since these can cause stressful hyperactivity.

More good news for teens: Studying too much can be bad for the health! It’s never a good idea to stress oneself out studying everyday. Experts suggest that at the first sign of stress overload, the teen should schedule a guilt-free day off. This will allow their mind to relax and assimilate everything it has absorbed during the past few days, and leave the teen refreshed and ready for another go at the books. The teen may also practice other relaxation techniques such as listening to music, playing sports, hanging out with good friends, and raising pets.

Teens are often as helpless as little children when left to face the world alone. They need a strong support group to cope with the stress that comes their way, and the family is always in a perfect position to offer this support. Building strong relationships within the family can be the best thing you can do for your teen, as it teaches them to manage stress successfully – as well as a host of other challenges that will come their way.

You really don’t have to make a playground out of your office room, study room or your personal room. But if you are the type of person who gets easily stressed, you’ll probably benefit from a collection of stress relief toys.

Because of the high stress level that accumulates in almost all imaginable places, it is but understandable that manufacturers of toys are coming out with their new lines of products called stress relief toys. The very aim of these products is to help people cope stress through helping relieve the hands from pressure OR through helping the mind relax a bit while trying to maintain the constancy of work and activity.

The selections of stress relief toys is seemingly endless, that is why you would never run out of choices if you are trying to look for the best stress relief toy. It also makes a good gift for people who are typically affected by too much stress such as those who are yet to acclimatize themselves in office settings. However, even people who may already be considered as “veterans” in dealing with the pressure from office or school work could still benefit a lot from using stress relief toys.

With the immense variety of stress relief toys, it is sometimes hard to identify which are the real stress relief toys from those that are merely toys for kids. However, even kids’ toys could sometimes be used as good alternatives to stress relief toys.

The classic stress relief toy is the “slinky” which may either come as metal or plastic. It resembles the rainbow and looks much like a rainbow too when stretched. This is a good stress relief toy since, unlike rubrics cube for example, you no longer have to exert mental efforts just to make it work.

Stress relief ball is another kind. It is usually made of plastic or rubber which comfortably fits into one’s hands, thus creating a soothing effect.

Stress relief toys may not be the marvel of the century or the greatest thing man has ever created but it is observable that people do benefit from them, starting from little kids who use them for the mere fun of it towards those people who want to hold something to channel away stress.

Lifestyle determines the overall level of health, and small changes make an overall difference. The effect of stress lies with the individual healthy relationships, effective parenting and self-help. Stress has long, octopus-like arms, disturbing the external and internal areas of life, such as jobs, home situation, and lacking the ability to respond.

Stress attack the whole body, if persistent and uncontrolled it causes the blood pressure to raise, depresses the immune system, attacks the heart, ulcers, diabetes, and a new study links memory loss and Alzheimer’s. It is more pronounced in the elderly because they have a low tolerance for stress. How well an individual age set the stage for the length of life, if nothing is done to retard the aging.

(According to a study at the University of California, November 2004, stress added ten years of aging to women with high stress levels. These studies involved women between the ages of 20-50, with the parents of chronically ill children and normal caregiver. The immune system cells life is shorten by chronic stress). Lifestyle can modify age and disease related changes by excise and other physical activity by prohibiting hormones from accelerating aging. Ten years could cause one to miss a lot of living, much travel and a host of other things.

There is a chronological and biological age, outward appearance reveals biological age, which can be deceiving, and enzyme restores and repairs damage from bad habits. An enzyme supplement promotes longevity. Genetic help determines the quality of years; however, lifestyle habits can influence genetics or dictate exactly how much influence genetics has. Enzymes cannot correct an exhausted lifestyle, as healthy choices are selected enzymes can assist and function as expected.

There is a time when one must realize there is no magic wane, and should make a decisions to get help, America’s #1 Life Coach, Janet Luhrs is a good place to start, “Simple Living”. She has powerful information and an excellent writer. However, I am not a doctor and cannot make referrers.

There are many stress outlets, exercise, meditation, long relaxing baths, reading, and others. Meditation is the most popular method both physical and mental. Everything should start with you being good to yourself, handling stressful situations as they occur, getting the required rest, and eating the proper foods.