Teens today are experiencing higher stress than ever before. Psych Central  reported that Therese J. Borchard, their Associate Editor said that, “Most experts would agree with me that there is more stress today than in previous generations.” This stress contributes to teens not doing well in school and maybe not doing what is expected of them at home such as chores, or even functioning in their everyday lives. The stress that teens are experiencing today is negatively affecting their lives in almost every way. On the leaderboard to contributing things that are largely stressing teens out is school and all things academic. According to USA Today, “More than a quarter (27%) say they experience “extreme stress” during the school year, vs. 13% in the summer. And 34% expect stress to increase in the coming year.”

However, school is not the only thing that is making teens stressed out to the max. When you thrown in all of the different things they have to deal with such as balancing a job, deciding on college and finding a career, relationships of all kinds such as dating or friendships, peer pressure from friends and acquaintances, playing sports, and things as simple as finding time to do household chores like taking out the trash. Even finding time to sleep for certain teens just adds to the issue at hand due to lack of time management.

Along with that, teens today have a lot of things to worry about that past generations didn’t even have to give a single thought. The academic pressure that is expected out of today’s generation is just unfair and pretty unrealistic in some cases.

Some teens also have stressors that are very similar to adults. As teens reach high school levels, they want to gain more independence and start to do things like get jobs and then start to have bills to pay like if they were to buy a car or for insurance and needing money to pay for gas. These things can be huge contributing factors to stressed teens as well because while they’re doing this, they are still balancing school, home life, and trying to find free time for maintaining healthy relationships.

In a whole, teens are balancing a lot at one time and it really begins to take a serious toll on the way teens handle different situations and look for different ways to handle stress. While some teens find more positive ways to handle stress such as exercising, finding something artistic to do (painting, drawing, writing, etc.), or even just finding someone to confide in and talk to; some teens turn to more negative stress coping mechanisms like drugs and alcohol. It would be helpful if teens could just have some time to just be teenagers and have some fun without having to focus too much on the things that are making them stressed out.

We can all begin to help each other out and just be a friend to one another and help each other cope with these certain things. Too much stress can make you want to give up and shut down because there is so much to deal with at one time but just try not to fret too much and remember to find time to relax in some way or another. You deserve it.