Stress is starting to become more and more common among high school students.Things start to build up in one’s daily life from school work, family, friends and extracurricular activities. According to the Huffington Post article American Teens Are Even More Stressed Than Adults by Carolyn Gregoire “American teenagers are now the most stressed-out age group in the U.S” A survey was conducted and adults and teens were asked to rate their stress on a 10-point scale, the average adult rate was 5.1 while teens said they rated their stress at a 5.8.

Not only are adults less stressed out than teens are now but when they were teens they  didn’t feel that there was as much pressure put on them when they were in high school. In the ABC News: Teens More Stressed-Out Than Adults, Survey by Jonel Aleccia, Dave Forrester  a counselor at Olympia High School in Olympia, Wash said  “You have to be able to perform at a much higher level than in the past, when I was in high school.”

Most of the time when people think of stress, they think of the unhealthy type of stress. But there are also different types of stress that is actually good for you, it’s that “push that can help us reach our goals,” AP Psychology teacher, Mrs.Whitlock, said.

“There’s a psychological theory called the arousal theory, it’s actually a moderate arousal of stress that leads to your best performance. Like when you’re about to take an AP exam and you’re feeling some butterflies in your stomach that’s exactly what you should be feeling to make your performance on the test actually better,” Whitlock said.

Stress can cause people’s attitudes to change, and for their relationships with others to be impacted. Many people cope with stress in different ways.

“[good ways to cope with stress would be by] prioritizing your schedule…[and to] look at the way you’re thinking… sometimes all we need is adjusting the way we’re thinking and adjusting our attitudes and also good ole relaxation exercises,” Whitlock said.
Stress can be much healthier when it is controlled. It is important to remember to put priorities first but then again to balance everything out and not put too much on your plate.