Stress Management Techniques for Teens

• Managing stress involves learning skills to reduce the amount and impact of stress in your life.
• Identifying what is stressful serves as the first step in managing it.
• Managing stress involves learning strategies to prevent it from building up and effectively handling individual stressors.
• The effects of stress are additive, building up over time.
• Many teens experience chronic stress.

Key Vocabulary

• Chronic Stress: Stress associated with long-term problems that are beyond a person's control.
• Relaxation Response: A state of calm.

Stress-Management Techniques

• Strategies can be developed to both avoid and reduce stress.
• Stress-management skills can help manage stressors in a healthy, effective way.

Avoiding and Limiting Stress

• Avoiding situations that cause stress is beneficial.
• Limiting the amount of exposure to a stressor can help when it can't be avoided.

Strategies for Avoiding and Limiting Stress

• Use Refusal Skills: Decline new activities if they add to stress.
• Plan Ahead: Manage time wisely and think about the stress level before taking a test.
• Think Positively: A positive outlook limits stress by shifting perception and response to stressors.
• Avoid Fatigue: Using tobacco, alcohol, and drugs will harm the body and cause more stress.

Overcoming Test Anxiety

• Plan for tests well in advance, studying a little each night.
• Outline material and highlight/number important points for quick learning.
• During a test, use deep breathing, sit comfortably, and engage in positive self-talk.
• Answer the questions you are sure of first, then go back to the more difficult ones.
• Examine mistakes on corrected tests and ask the teacher if a correction is not understood.

Handling Stress and Reducing Its Effects

• Practice stress reduction techniques to achieve a relaxation response for unavoidable stressors.
• Achieving a relaxation response will result in a state of calm.

Tips to Reduce Stress

• Practice Relaxation Techniques: Do deep breathing, think pleasant thoughts, stretch, take a warm bath, or laugh.
• Redirect your energy: Use built-up stress energy constructively by getting physically active.
• Seek support: Confide in someone trusted for an objective view and valuable advice.

Staying Healthy and Building Resiliency

• Taking care of one's health is essential to stress management.
• Positive health-maintenance habits help in dealing with, preventing, reducing, and recovering from stress.

Get Adequate Rest

• Adequate sleep can help face daily challenges and demands.
• Using time-management skills will allow you to get the recommended eight to nine hours of sleep needed each night.

Get Regular Physical Activity

• Participating in regular physical activity benefits overall health.
• Physical activity can release pent-up energy, clear the mind, increase energy levels and endurance, and help improve sleep.

Eat Nutritious Foods

• Eating a variety of healthful foods and drinking plenty of water helps the body function properly and reduces the effects of stress.
• Poor eating habits can contribute to stress, leading to weakness, fatigue, and reduced concentration ability.

Building Resiliency

• Including self-maintenance and stress-management strategies in your daily routine promotes resilience.
• Resiliency helps to handle difficulties and challenges in healthy ways and to achieve long-term success despite negative circumstances.

Learn effective stress management techniques tailored for teens. Discover how to identify stressors, develop coping strategies, and implement relaxation techniques. Understand the impact of chronic stress and ways to limit exposure to stressors for a healthier life.