Is Your Child Or Teenager Suffering From Stress And How
Can You Help?
As youngsters, or even as adults, life can be full
of challenges and constant changes, especially when growing up, learning
new skills, finding a career path and many other rites of passage. So
there is a thin line between excitement and stress. Life can be fast and
furious.
This is when we experience good stress or ‘eustress’, which challenges us
to bigger and better things. Teenagers often feel this very keenly as
everything is new and has to be learned. Under these conditions, it’s easy
for stress to become distress. If you have children or teenagers, can you
spot the signs?
Is it possible that stress can be caused by
friction between parents and children? If you think this might be
happening to you, take a look at a new
more fun, less work
view of parenting.
And if you are struggling to learn and keep up with everything going on in
your life, are you still ‘in touch’ with your ‘inner child’. Can you still
play and have fun when you want to? Whether you have children or not, you
need to understand the stress of learning and how to cope confidently with
what life throws up.
Children are physically robust but emotionally delicate, so stress can
cause considerable problems for them. Mostly it’s about maintaining a
balance. But a balanced life can be difficult to achieve. For example,
eating disorders can often be sign of distress. Bulimia and anorexia can
be common in young women struggling to cope with too many challenges.
Bullying can be a serious problem in school. The
statistics are frightening. As many as 15% of children are bullied. Learn how to
solve the bullying
problem with solutions for both parents and the
victim.
There are many things you can do as a parent. Just being there, listening
and being supportive is often all that is needed. Today, there are
problems for teenagers with drugs, smoking, alcohol and other addictive
substances. All you can really do is teach right from wrong. Education is
key with drugs.
A balanced perspective is needed as a parent too. You must know when to
let go and allow your children the freedom to learn the lessons they need
from life, or simply to learn under their own ‘steam’. Children, as well
as adults, benefit from stress relief management skills too. This is where
you can truly help, by teaching them these skills.
And, as an adult, you can learn from children. They naturally have the
ability to change their mood, behaviour and pace very quickly to suit the
circumstances. So if you experience a period of stressful activity
changing pace quickly can work.
One of the most effective ways to change pace is with music and music
therapy. Music is a significant mood changer and has the ability to relax
you very quickly. If you haven’t yet cultivated an ear for classical or
slow tempo instrumental music, now is a good time to start.
A new report has just been released - "A
step-by-step guide to beating stress", which includes, what happens to
your body, situations to avoid, 15 instant stress busters, 13 stress
management strategies and creating a plan of action.
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