Student Wellbeing
Mel Batchelor
Stress and How to Deal With It
We mostly think about stress being caused by negative events.
But did you know that even positive change can cause students stress? Adjusting to change (even if for the better), new or unexpected information and life events can take us by surprise.
Feeling stress can be positive, helping us move from A to B and motivating us to get things done. Conversely, anxious feelings are consistent and intense, staying long after the stressful event is over, and are thought to be anxiety. They can drag us down, making learning, socialising, and doing everyday activities difficult.
Stressful experiences can become opportunities to learn new coping skills. In fact, overcoming small stresses helps us to meet future challenges with more skill and confidence. For children and young people, these stresses within the school setting could include:
- Getting ready in the morning for school
- Being unsure of what others require of them
- Problems with friends and important relationships
- Not feeling like they ‘fit’ or are different in some way
- Preparing for and going through exams
Children and young people are growing and changing, finding their identity in what values they align with and how they feel within their family relationships. Extra stressors include processing family conflict, environmental disasters or not experiencing the nurture of supportive relationships.
Warmth and stability in the home environment, optimism and having a hopeful outlook and developing emotional and social communication skills act as protective factors when it comes to potential for stress to cross over into mental health impacts.
Keeping an eye out for changes in sleeping, appetite, no longer finding as much enjoyment with things that ordinarily would have been interesting and isolating away from friends and family may occur. Intense feelings, worrying and difficulties concentrating are also important to look out for.
Having a conversation in a supportive, nonjudgmental way can help pave the way to understanding and nurturing, making brave those who may need gentleness and kindness to talk about how they are feeling.
Mel Batchelor,
Wellbeing Counsellor