Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The effects of stress on students in high school or college
Effects of stress on teenagers
The effects of stress on students in high school or college
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Growing up, every person experiences challenges. They start off simple but become more complex approaching adulthood. We face these obstacles, conquer, and move on. However, almost one-fifth of the nation faces challenges that are crippling and impairing. Anxiety is an overwhelming sense of fear and worry that plagues the mind. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, roughly 18% of the country age 18 or older experiences an anxiety disorder, making anxiety the most common mental illness in the United States. Of these 40 million Americans, only 37% receive treatment. These numbers just get worse when we look at teenagers. Over 25% of children age 13-18 experience anxiety. Why are all of these people suffering from such a highly treatable illness? With the right …show more content…
A quarter of America's teenagers are suffering from an anxiety disorder. This can be attributed to the challenge every teenager faces, high school. The high school in itself is not the sole factor, but in cases of stress-induced anxiety, it adds pressure to students creating even more stress. Dealing with pressure is a part of growing up and being prepared for everyday life; however, today’s , but high-schoolers are being overwhelmed with stress. A survey by the American Psychological Association showed that almost 45% of high schoolers experience stress from their respective school. Different aspects of high school can all contribute to the problem one-fourth of America's teenager's face. The increased difficulty in coursework, the immediate necessity of responsibility, and the pressure of preparing for the rest of your life is daunting. This results in chronic stress, which is prolonged stress which in most cases leads to an anxiety disorder. If you take in to account the expectations of parents or and colleges, and the burden is even worse.far
Each year, thousands upon thousands of new high school graduates enter college to begin one of the most exciting chapters of their lives. This is a time where young people get to move away from home, learn valuable life skills, meet interesting new people, and pursue the career of their dreams. While all of this may sound like nothing but positivity, there’s a dismal side to all of this that many individuals are not aware of. Out of all of the problems that college students face, social anxiety is an issue that has persisted throughout the years, and has not begun to improve. According to research out of The University of Plymouth and The University of the West of England, 10% of all university students surveyed said they experienced significant anxiety (Weaver,
According to Sharp (2012), “anxiety disorders are the most widespread causes of distress among individuals seeking treatment from mental health services in the United States” (p359).
What if you woke up every morning with a feeling of dread about getting through the day? What if you were constantly in a state of worry? What if you had spontaneous, uncontrollable panic attacks throughout the day? What if you uncontrollably washed your hands to the point where they bled and cracked? What if you had an anxiety disorder? Anxiety is the most common illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults over the age of 18; that counts for 18% of the U.S. population. However, 22.8% of those cases are counted as severe anxiety.
Anxiety is a term for several disorders that causes the body to feel fear, nervousness, apprehension, and worrying, "Anxiety is a word we use for some types of fear that are consequently to do with the thought of a threat or something going wrong in the future, rather than right now" (Mental Health Foundation). Many people suffer from anxiety every day, consequently most people can not pinpoint what exactly their anxiety originates from. No one likes to experience stress and anxiety, but it is just a phase of life that most humans have to overcome and become stronger. Anxiety disorders are one of the most inferior mental illnesses that affects teens and adults in the United States. Anxiety negatively affects the body and
The clock ticks, sweat drips down foreheads, and the professor watches intently as the students take their tests. It’s finals week, a dreaded time when students cram as much information into their heads as possible and try not to burn out until the completion of their semester exams. There isn’t much to be done about the stress. At this point it is inevitable. The stress put upon students while attending college has caused an increase in the number of suicides as well as a rise in cases of depression.
Stress is an important problem faced by many college students, especially first year students, and it can have some large impacts on college freshmen. For example, according to Hirsch and Keniston (1970), about half of first year students do not graduate from college due to dropping out (p. 1-20). Also, David Leonhardt (2009) agrees that the United States excels at putting “teenagers in college, but only half of students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree” (p. 1). In addition, the level of stress seems to increase each year. For instance, the National Health Ministries (2006) claim that many college students have become “more overwhelmed and stressed” than the student generation of the last fifteen years (p. 2). Also, the percentage of first year students feeling stressed is greater than thirty percent (National Health Ministries 2006). If the problem of stress is not resolved properly, th...
Students with academic anxiety are self-engrossed and lead to their own academic demise. Test anxiety does not only affect a student's performance on a test, but Huberty (2009) asserts that test anxiety over time tends to contribute to more common underachievement. He describes the consequences of constant test anxiety including lowered self-esteem, reduced effort, and loss of desire to complete school tasks. Students who have academic anxiety also have a higher risk of developing depression, and often feel deprived of confidence (Cunningham, 2008). Thus, academic anxiety can become extreme, and have negative effects on students’ well-being.
Studies have shown that many college students are not able to handle the stress while in school, which hinders the ability for the brain to act in a normal way (Shahrokh and Hales, 2003). If a person is unable to deal with the stress that one is being faced with, it will have negative consequences in terms of causing several psychological disorders (Canby et al., 2014). Entering post-secondary education is a completely new environment for students, as it can be tough for many to adjust to the new surroundings. There are many factors that cause stress when students enter college, as it can include having the ability to deal with lower marks (Struthers et al., 2000) and having to create a new social life. Once and if a social life is established, it can cause more stress among students because it can lead into peer pressure that results in risky behavior. In particular, peer pressure can cause alcoholism or drug abuse (Seiffge-Krenke, 1990) or it can also cause unprotected sex. Not only does stress revolve around peer-pressure, but it can also be caused by headaches and lack of energy. If a student is constantly staying up late to finish assignments or to study, it can cause headaches from the lack of sleep; thus causing stress. With all the given factors, it can be hard to overcome these external factors which can ultimately lead to stress among
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. Every person experiences some form of anxiety in his or her lifetime. Anxiety helps us deal with tense situations like using our flight or fight reaction, study harder for an exam, or keep focus on important deadlines. Anxiety can be useful until it gets to the point of interfering with everyday life. Some people explain it as not being able to shut the anxiety off. When anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it becomes a disabling disorder (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Each year, anxiety disorders affect about 40 million American adults age 18 years and older (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). There are five major Anxiety Disorders they include Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Phobias.
Anxiety disorders are genuine mental illnesses, and should be treated as such. Modern society doesn’t comprehend them as significant matters, and doesn’t understand how horrifying it can be to have this condition. A lot of people don’t fully grasp the severity of having this disorder, and thus are not sure how to help someone who is suffering with it. I was officially diagnosed with an anxiety disorder during my last year of high school. I was struggling to graduate because my nerves were taking advantage of me getting an education. I would stress out about minimal issues and would purposely skip school to avoid my negative feelings. I always thought I was simply too shy for my own good and overanalyzed everything, but I realized it is more complex than that once it was affecting my schoolwork. My family didn’t believe anything was wrong with me, so it took a long time for me to receive any sort of treatment that would benefit me in the slightest. I was on medication for it until I could no longer afford it. Now my only option is to deal with it to the best of my abilities while having assistance from my family. Having this disorder has limited me to a very sheltered and dull l...
Today, many students report more anxiety due to stress than child psychiatric patients did in the 1950’s. In a 2006 survey of 1,300 students at a public high school in Needham, Massachusetts found that 58% of the students surveyed reported between a great deal of stress and extreme stress due to homework (Bennett and Kalish). Many students in today’s time, have so many things to do that it is difficult for them to come home, only to have to finish five to six hours of homework. This, with the added effects of after school activities and technology, only adds to the stress that is put on students.
Anxiety has a main definition; a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease. Although, it has its single definition, each person diagnosed with anxiety has different symptoms. With that, some have more severe cases of the actual diagnosis. It has been noted that anxiety has had an increase in teens recently. In the last 30 years, the statistics for anxiety in fifteen to sixteen year olds have doubled for both girls and boys (“Increased Levels of Anxiety…” 1). It is said, “in societal moments like the one we are in…it often feels as if ours is the Age of Anxiety”(Henig 1). Anxiety affects teenagers profusely because the emotions of a teenager are more vulnerable than those of an adult. The brain of a teenager is not fully developed and the stress put on teenagers to start putting their life together takes a toll on their emotions. The daily life and activities are interfered with by anxiety when the amount of stress put on a teenager becomes unbearable. Unfortunately, the effects of anxiety become so intense that the mental health is eventually toyed with. So many different components of life contribute to anxiety and cannot be prevented.
“‘I am stressed out’ is a phrase that has been echoed by teens down through the ages” (LaRue & Herrman, 2008). The adolescent years are a time of heightened stress. Adolescents experience a myriad of stressors, the most common being school, money problems, and relationships with parents. Active coping is the most commonly used strategy that teenagers employ when facing stress. Stress management programs can be beneficial to adolescent stress when they teach critical thinking and coping skills for handling stress. As a future psychology professional, the research can be used to develop best practices for stress management in adolescents.
Are the new standards and expectations the world has for teenagers really creating monsters? The amount of stress that is put on students these days between trying to balance school, homework, extra curricular activities, social lives, sleep and a healthy lifestyle is being considered a health epidemic (Palmer, 2005). Students are obsessing over getting the grades that are expected of them to please those that push them, and in return, lose sleep and give up other aspects of their lives that are important to them, such as time with friends and family, as well as activities that they enjoy. The stress that they endure from the pressures of parents, teachers, colleges, and peers has many physical as well as mental effects on every student, some more harmful than others. The extreme pressure on students to get perfect grades so that they will be accepted into a college has diminished the concept of actually learning and has left the art of “financing the system” in order to succeed in its place (Palmer, 2005).
Academic stress is very common in student’s lives. Many students assume that making the academic experience their first priority now, will increase the chance of success in the future. School is an important aspect in most teenagers lives and by being so important a teenager can become depressed very effortlessly at school or because of school. Academic stress can take complete control over a student’s life, sometimes leading to depression. At school this may lead to poor attendance, a significant drop in grades or even annoyance with schoolwork, in a good student. There are many studies that have been performed to prove the correlation between responsibility in school and academic performance being the cause to academic stress. Just like there are numerous causes to academic there are also numerous cures, such as changing mind set and behavior. Academic stress is something majority of students in school can relate to and the cause of it can be something small as a bad grade on an evaluation, It will enforce the student to try harder in the future but it will for sure cause some sort of stress, even if it is for a moment. Stress from school can be one of the most essential causes of teen depression.