Coping with stress: information for young people
About this factsheet
This is one in a series of factsheets for parents, teachers
and young people entitled Mental Health and Growing Up.
The aims of these factsheets are to provide practical, up-to-date
information about mental health problems (emotional, behavioural
and psychiatric disorders) that can affect children and young
people. This factsheet looks at what stress is, what causes it and
how it might feel to be suffering from stress. It also gives some
practical advice about how to cope with different types of
stress.
Introduction
What is stress?
Everyone feels stressed at times. You may feel under pressure,
worried, tense, upset, sad, angry - or maybe a mixture of
uncomfortable feelings. There are many ordinary situations that can
make you feel stressed. For example, your school work may pile up,
preparing for exams may seem as if it'staking forever, you may be
being teased or bullied at school, or having problems with
teachers. At home you may be arguing with parents, brothers or
sisters, or close friends.
Stress can be even worse if your family is breaking up,
someone close to you is ill or dies, or if you are being physically
or sexually abused.
The effects of stress
Stress can affect you physically. Your body is designed to be
able to cope with stresses such as danger, illness and emergencies.
This is called your `fight or flight' instinct, where hormones such
as adrenaline and cortisol gear your body up to cope with immediate
stressful situations. For example, if you accidentally step into
the road when a car is coming, adrenaline will pump around your
body enabling you to jump out of the way of the car - this is your
`flight' instinct coming into play in a short-lived stressful
situation. Your body is less able to cope with longer-lasting
pressure. This can make youfeel tired, make you go off your food
and find it difficult to sleep. You may get stomach-aches or
headaches.
Stress can affect you mentally as well as physically. You may
find it hard to keep your mind on your work, to cope with
frustration or to control your temper. You might get depressed.
Stress that goes on for a long time can be exhausting.
Understanding and support from other people can make it much
easier to cope. If you have someone you can trust to talk to, this
can help. Feeling alone makes it harder.
Coping with stress
There are several things that you can do to help yourself
cope. For things that happen every day, it can be useful to think
of your stress as a puzzle to be solved:
- Think about the situations that stress you, and how you
behave.
- Think about how you could behave differently in these
situations, so that you would feel more in control.
- Imagine how other people might behave if you acted
differently.
- List all the things you can think of that would make life
easier or less stressful - write them down on a piece of paper.
This can help you sort things out in your head.
Where can I get help?
Sometimes stress gets on top of you. Especially when the
situation causing the stress goes on and on, and the problems just
seem to keep building up. You can feel trapped, as if there is no
way out and no solution to your problems. If you feel like this, it
is important to get help.
People you might want to talk to:
- parents, a family member or family friend
- a close friend or carer
- a school nurse, teacher or school counsellor
- a social worker or youth counsellor
- a priest, someone from your church or temple
- someone from the Samaritans (08457 909090)
Your general practitioner or practice nurse may also be able
to help. They may suggest that you see someone from your local
child and adolescent mental health service - a team of
professionals specially trained to work with young people. They
include child and adolescent psychiatrists (see
Factsheet 31 about child and adolescent
psychiatrists), psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists
and specialist nurses.
You should get help if...
- You feel that stress is affecting your health
- You feel so desperate that you think about stopping school,
running away or harming yourself
- You feel low, sad, tearful, or that life is not worth
living
- You lose your appetite and find it difficult to sleep
- You have worries, feelings and thoughts that are hard to talk
about because you feel people won't understand you or will think
you are `weird'
- stress is making you hear voices telling you what to do, or
making you behave strangely.
It is possible that you are depressed rather than stressed if
you feel these things (see
Factsheet 34 on
Depression). If so, it is very important that you get
specialist help as soon as possible. Your general practitioner will
be able to help.
References
- Carr, A. (ed.) (2000) 'What Works with Children and
Adolescents?' - A Critical Review of Psychological Interventions
with Children, Adolescents and their Families. London:
Brunner-Routledge.
- Rutter, M. & Taylor, E. (eds) (2002) 'Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry' (4th edn). London: Blackwell.
- Scott, A., Shaw, M. & Joughin, C. (eds) (2001) Finding
the Evidence' - A Gateway to the Literature in Child and Adolescent
Mental Health (2nd edn). London: Gaskell.
Sources of further information
- ChildLine provides a free and confidential telephone service
for children. Helpline 0800 1111; www.childline.org.uk; helpline
0800 1111.
- The Samaritans provide a 24-hour service offering confidential
emotional support to anyone who is in crisis. Helpline 08457 909090
(UK), 1850 609090 (ROI); e-mail:jo@samaritans.org website:
www.samaritans.org.uk.
- Youth Access offers information, advice and counselling
throughout the UK. 12 Taylor's Yard, 67 Alderbrook Road, London
SW12 8AB; tel. 020 8772 9900.
- The YoungMinds Parents' Information Service provides
information and advice on child mental health issues. 102-108
Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5SA. Parents' Information Service
0800 018 2138; www.youngminds.org.uk.
Or try these websites:
- http://www.teenagehealthfreak.org/
- www.rethink.org/at-ease
- peersupport.ukobservatory.com
- www.bbc.co.uk/health/mental
- www.channel4.com/health/stress
- The Mental Health and Growing Up series contains 36
factsheets on a range of common mental health problems. To order
the pack, contact Book Sales at the Royal College of Psychiatrists,
17 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PG; tel. 020 7235 2351, ext. 146;
fax 020 7245 1231; e-mail booksales@rcpsych.ac.uk, or
you can download them from this website.
© [2004] Royal College of Psychiatrists. This factsheet may
be downloaded, printed out, photocopied and distributed free of
charge as long as the Royal College of Psychiatrists is properly
credited and no profit is gained from its use. Permission to
reproduce it in any other way must be obtained from the
Head of Publications. The College
does not allow reposting of its factsheets on other sites, but
allows them to be linked to directly.
Please note that we are unable to offer advice on individual cases. Please see our FAQ for advice on getting help.
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