All right, hello everyone. For today, we are going to talk about coping with stress in middle and late adolescence. And if you watch our previous lecture, we talk about the different sources of stress and we talk about the different challenges in life that you face specifically in the adolescence.
And just to recall some, this can include financial matters, this can include family problems, relationship problems, and these problems produce stress. Okay, so today Let's talk about how do we define stress and how do we attempt to deal with it. So when we say stress in general, it is a reaction of the mind and the body to a stimulus that disturbs the well-being, state of calm, or equilibrium of the person.
Meaning before you felt those problems, you are not that stressed. You are not feeling the stress that you are feeling now. But ever since you started experiencing the challenge in your life, you are more stressed than ever. For example, Your life was less stressed during the vacations, but when you started attending online classes, then you experienced or you felt more stress. And stress is not just a reaction of the mind, it's also a reaction of the body.
Hence, sometimes when you're stressed, you feel as if your body is weaker than normal. You feel as if you're not so physically capable. That's why athletes who are exposed to a lot of games, a lot of events, they need to rest from time to time. That's why some athletes, they have what we call load management.
So in order for them to preserve their energy, there are certain times wherein they are not allowed to play or they choose not to play. And that's their way of protecting themselves. So as students, we need also to have our own load management for us to be able to handle the stress that we are going through right now. Because it is a challenge, not just to your mind, but also to your body. And if there's too much stress...
then it may lead to a psychological problem or to a mental health concern that needs professional intervention. So let's talk about that. Now, let's look at the different ways in viewing stress.
And the first one is stress as a stimulus. What is a stimulus? When we say stimulus, these are changes in the environment that brings about a response. For example, When you feel it's cold, it's a stimulus that signals you to protect yourself from the cold temperature.
So same goes with stress. Stress may be caused by situations that may be life-threatening or life-changing. So not all stress are products of life-threatening situations. Sometimes we can also be stressed by life-changing situations. For example, even college graduation is considered stress even though it's a happy event.
Because after you graduate in college, you will face a lot of new challenges or you may experience difficulty in transitioning. And those stimuli from the environment, those are what we call stressors. So it's important for you to identify the stressors that make you feel stress.
All right. Other than that, stress is the way the body reacts to challenging situations. So it's not just in this perspective, we view stress as a reaction.
to challenging situations and that can be physical that can also be psychological for example when you are being challenged cognitively what you do is that you try to make yourself better or you try to perform better for example during exams or if you are exercising you're putting some stress on your body that's why it's being challenged so we respond by trying to adapt by trying to change our performance so that we can deal with stress Take note that the stress hormone is known as cortisol. It's normal for you to have elevated cortisol from time to time. However, it's not healthy to be exposed to stress for a long period of time because it may result to permanent brain damage.
Here's an example. There's a mental health condition called PTSD. And what is PTSD? That's post-traumatic stress disorder, meaning this happens typically among soldiers. After the experience in the battlefield and then they go home, even though they're no longer in the battlefield, they can still remember their experiences as if it's happening in the present.
They have elevated amounts of cortisol resulting to permanent brain damage, particularly in the hippocampus. Okay, and that's the part of the brain in charge of learning and memory. So we don't want to be exposed to stress for an extended amount of time.
time. So we need to learn how to manage the stress. Stress is also relational. So stress is when a person experiencing stress takes a step back to look at the situation that is causing stress and assesses it.
Meaning, if you are stressed, it allows you to reassess the situation, reevaluate the situation, instead of looking at it negatively, you may take a look at it positively. Because by changing your thinking, you're also changing the way you feel and the way you behave. Perhaps it's necessary for you to adopt a positive way of appraising the event so that it will not be a damaging event.
It's important for you to know that there are events that you can control. It's important for you to be reminded that you have the capability to go through this situation. Instead of simply dealing with the stress, or sometimes it's important for you to take a step back and reflect first before you attempt to do something with a stressful situation.
Now, I'm going to talk about the different types of stress, okay? And it's wrong to say that all types of stress are not helpful because there is a helpful type of stress. And let's look at this. When you are not yet stressed, you are calm.
Sometimes you are bored, sometimes you are excited. But if you are excited, it means that you are entering the stress threshold. For example, you have a game or you're going to work out in the gym, then you are excited. And now when you are now working out, for example, when you are now running or when you are now in the exams, at first you feel energized, you feel focused, or you feel challenged.
And that's what we call eustress or positive type of stress. That's why there are people who are proud that they were able to conquer their stress and it makes them a better person because not all types of stress are bad. Sometimes stress is there to challenge us and to make us better. However, if you're exposed to prolonged stress, then that's no longer good because that's no longer eustress but rather it's distress.
And when we say distress, that is characterized by fatigue, you're tired, exhaustion, and burnout. And we don't want people to experience burnout, specifically in school or at work, because if you experience burnout, then you're not just tired of what you're doing, you also lose interest in your career or at school. For example, you no longer want to go to work because you feel what we call burnout, and we don't want you to experience that. Now, let's talk about how can we deal with stress. Remember from our previous discussion, here are the common stressors.
school demands or so many requirements. For example, in online learning, perhaps you don't have the right resources or selecting a school or college. Okay, remember that we have our guidance counselors who can help us with this career choice.
Sometimes they will assess our strength for us to know what are the courses that will fit our personality. That's one of the ways they would help us. Also, we have separation anxiety.
For example, you have to study somewhere else but your parents are in another location. If you are an adult, you would think that your child will be separated from you for a long period of time. That is very stressful. That's why people get homesick. Also, you may be stressed in thinking about your college life in the future or maybe you are stressed about romantic relationships or the lack of it.
Here are other sources of stress, family definitions and expectations. For example, In one family, they might say that all of us should be doctors or all of us should be lawyers or you're going to be the first doctor in the family. That's very stressful to the side of the student.
We also have health concerns, body image concerns. We also have social life concerns. And related to that is bullying, especially in schools.
There are a lot of people feeling the negative effects of bullying, not just when they are in school, but also in their lives in the future. So it might have a permanent effect on the way that you see yourself. So it's important for you to know that you should not be defined by these bullies, but rather you should have a stable self-concept and do not listen to what other people are saying about you, especially if they only point out the negative side of your characteristics.
In order for me to illustrate how we deal with stress, let me... Let me make use of this stress bucket. So basically, all of us, we have our own stress buckets.
Some of us, our buckets are empty. But for most of us, our buckets are almost full. But some of us are able to deal with the stress and make it manageable. So how can we use the stress bucket here?
So look at this. What fills our stress bucket that can be interpersonal stress, for example, your family, academic stress? Or environmental stress, for example, you're living with difficult housemates or you are struggling to focus in your studies because the people you're living with...
do not allow you to have a time for yourself to study. So this is our stress level, the water in the bucket. In order for you to manage that, we have to use these posets at the bottom, and we call them coping skills. In other words, you need to learn how to use your coping skills so that you'll be able to release some stress from your body to reduce the amount of water or stress in your stress bucket. However, sometimes we are dealing with too much stress that our coping skills are not enough.
That's why we make use of unhealthy coping skills. And what are these unhealthy coping skills? These may be drugs, excessive use of alcohol, sexual activities, pornography, gambling, etc. You just think that they make you happy, but in reality, your behaviors are leading to more problems. That's why there are arrows going from this faucet back to the top of the bucket.
Why? You just think that it's helping you deal with stress, but even though you're forgetting your problems, you don't realize that because of your behaviors, you will face more problems. That's why I want you not to make use of unhealthy coping, but I want you to develop healthy coping skills.
So what are the common coping mechanisms that are healthy? So let's not make use of drugs, of substances, of sexual behaviors, of pornography, or any other unhealthy coping, but rather learn how to make use of these coping skills. For example, conduct creative imagery of the problem, which means that sometimes you need to take a step back and reflect.
What is this problem trying to tell me? For example, my parents shouted at me. me. Think about it. Why did that happen?
Is there a problem with you? Maybe they are facing issues, that's why they are displacing their problems upon you. So maybe it might help if you ask them about their personal life.
Mom, dad, are you okay? Because I noticed that you have been so mad lately and I'm the one feeling those difficulties, especially when you get mad at me. Or seeking group or social support.
may come from your family or this may come from your parents. We may also have some relaxation activities, progressive muscle relaxation, breathing exercises. If you want to learn more, perhaps your mental health professional in your school can help you learn some relaxation activities, especially if things are going out of hand. Also, you can create a more comfortable situations. For example, you can have a quiet corner at your house.
wherein if someone is in the quiet corner, no one can talk to that person and allow that person to reflect. That is how you make a comfortable situation and make your home a place wherein you can share to each other what you are feeling without being judged. Learn to manage your time as well. So sometimes we are stressed because we no longer have boundaries between academic life and personal life.
especially for those who are very hardworking. So you need to learn. You don't have to be a slave to either your schooling or to your work.
We need to find a balance between our demands and the well-being of our students and also eat nutritious food as well as exercise because those things will help not just physically but also psychologically. So those are the coping skills that I want you to learn about from this lecture. And I hope that... From now on, you'll be able to manage your stress in a healthy way and do not engage in unhealthy coping mechanisms. Remember, take care of your mental health and your well-being.
That's it. Thank you.