Stress By olamide soyinka and troy taylor
"It's not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it."- Hans Selye
As teenagers growing up in Philadelphia, we are constantly having stress factors added to our plates. When it comes to home life, school work, and possibly after-school jobs, teenagers are constantly bombarded with things that stress them out.
If teenagers feel an immense amount stress, what about the adults that's working in middle america and dealing with the stress of a desk job day in and day out. According to the AIS(American Institute of stress) "Increased levels of job stress as assessed by the perception of having little control but lots of demands have been demonstrated to be associated with increased rates of heart attack, hypertension and other disorders."
You man be asking yourself "self, what makes people so stressed?". Wow. What an amazing question. Stressed in produced by one of three hormones; adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine. When these three hormones are released from our brain and adrenal glands into our body, we become more aware, awake and focused. These are all three factors that contribute to the state of being stressed.
It's pretty hard not to get stressed out when talking about how stressed you are! Although stress can be harmful to our bodies, we kind of need it to live. Researchers say that small bursts of stress can strengthen the immune system and even possibly prevent some diseases. But how can this help with stress now?
The graph above shows that a person is at their highest level of performance and happiness when they find the perfect balance between low stress and very high stress. Though stress is inevitable in some cases, there are many ways to keep stress levels low without being bored or depressed. A few relaxation techniques to keep stress at the perfect level are meditation, listening to your favorite tunes and staying active!