Coping With Stress

Everyone—adults, teens, and even children, experiences stress. Stress is a reaction to a situation where a person feels threatened or anxious. Stress can be positive (e.g. preparing for a wedding) or negative (e.g. dealing with a natural disaster). Learning healthy ways to cope and getting the right care and support can help reduce stressful feelings and symptoms.

After a traumatic event, people may have strong and lingering reactions. These events may include personal or environmental disasters or threats with an assault. The symptoms may be physical or emotional. Common reactions to a stressful event can include:

• disbelief, shock, and numbness
• feeling sad, frustrated, and helpless
• difficulty concentrating and making decisions
• headaches, back pains, and stomach problems
• smoking or use of alcohol or drugs

Healthy Ways to Cope with Stress

Feeling emotional and nervous or having trouble sleeping and eating can all be normal reactions to stress. Here are some healthy ways you can deal with stress:

• Take care of yourself.
  • Eat healthy, well-balanced meals
  • Exercise on a regular basis
  • Get plenty of sleep
  • Give yourself a break if you feel stressed out
• Talk to others. Share your problems and how you are feeling and coping with a parent, friend, counselor, doctor, or pastor.
• Avoid drugs and alcohol. These may seem to help, but they can create additional problems and increase the stress you are already feeling.
• Take a break. If news events are causing your stress, take a break from listening or watching the news.
• Recognize when you need more help. If problems continue or you are thinking about suicide, talk to a psychologist, social worker, or professional counselor.

Helping Youth Cope with Stress

Children and adolescents often struggle with how to cope with stress. Youth can be particularly overwhelmed when their stress is connected to a traumatic event—like a natural disaster, family loss, school shootings, or community violence. Parents and educators can take steps to provide stability and support that help young people feel better.

 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, September  3). Coping with Stress.

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/copingwith-stresstips.html

 

Anxiety

When a child does not outgrow the fears and worries that are typical in young children, or when there are so many fears and worries that they interfere with school, home, or play activities, the child may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Examples of different types of anxiety disorders include

• Being very afraid when away from parents (separation anxiety)
• Having extreme fear about a specific thing or situation, such as dogs, insects, or going to the doctor (phobias)
• Being very afraid of school and other places where there are people (social anxiety)
• Being very worried about the future and about bad things happening (general anxiety)
• Having repeated episodes of sudden, unexpected, intense fear that come with symptoms like heart pounding, having trouble breathing, or feeling dizzy, shaky, or sweaty (panic disorder)

 

Anxiety may present as fear or worry, but can also make children irritable and angry. Anxiety symptoms can also include trouble sleeping, as well as physical symptoms like fatigue, headaches, or stomachaches. Some anxious children keep their worries to themselves and, thus, the symptoms can be missed.

 

Depression

Occasionally being sad or feeling hopeless is a part of every child’s life. However, some children feel sad or uninterested in things that they used to enjoy, or feel helpless or hopeless in situations they are able to change. When children feel persistent sadness and hopelessness, they may be diagnosed with depression.

Examples of behaviors often seen in children with depression include

• Feeling sad, hopeless, or irritable a lot of the time
• Not wanting to do or enjoy doing fun things
• Showing changes in eating patterns – eating a lot more or a lot less than usual
• Showing changes in sleep patterns – sleeping a lot more or a lot less than normal
• Showing changes in energy – being tired and sluggish or tense and restless a lot of the time
• Having a hard time paying attention
• Feeling worthless, useless, or guilty
• Showing self-injury and self-destructive behavior

Extreme depression can lead a child to think about suicide or plan for suicide. For youth ages 10-24 years, suicide is among the leading causes of death.

Some children may not talk about their helpless and hopeless thoughts, and may not appear sad. Depression might also cause a child to make trouble or act unmotivated, causing others not to notice that the child is depressed or to incorrectly label the child as a trouble-maker or lazy.

 

Treatment for anxiety and depression

The first step to treatment is to talk with a healthcare provider such as your child’s primary care provider, or a mental health specialist, about getting an evaluation. It is important to get a careful evaluation to get the best diagnosis and treatment. Consultation with a health provider can help determine if medication should be part of the treatment. A mental health professional can develop a therapy plan that works best for the child and family.

Managing Symptoms: Staying Healthy

Being healthy is important for all children and can be especially important for children with depression or anxiety. In addition to getting the right treatment, leading a healthy lifestyle can play a role in managing symptoms of depression or anxiety. Here are some healthy behaviors that may help:

• Having a healthy eating plan centered on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (for example, beans, peas, and lentils), lean protein sources, and nuts and seeds
• Participating in physical activity for at least 60 minutes each day
• Getting the recommended amount of sleep each night based on age
• Practicing mindfulness or relaxation techniques

Prevention of anxiety and depression

It is not known exactly why some children develop anxiety or depression. Many factors may play a role, including biology and temperament. But it is also known that some children are more likely to develop anxiety or depression when they experience trauma or stress when they are maltreated when they are bullied or rejected by other children, or when their own parents have anxiety or depression.

 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, March 20). Anxiety and Depression

in Children. https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/depression.html

 

 

 

 

 

Self-Directed Violence

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines self-directed violence as anything a person does intentionally that can cause injury to self, including death, For example:

• Cutting
• Suicide

 

CDC notes that these factors increase the risk of youth suicide:

• History of previous suicide attempts
• Family history of suicide
• History of depression or other mental illness
• Alcohol or drug abuse
• Stressful life event or loss
• Easy access to lethal methods
• Exposure to the suicidal behavior of others

 

Other forms of Self-Injury

Other forms of self-injury can also cause harm to self, including death. These behaviors may be unintentional in nature. They are often repetitive and occur in response to something in the environment. Other forms of self-injury include

• Headbanging,
• Self-biting, and
• Self-scratching

 

There may be multiple and unique causes of self-injury for each child. For one child the cause might be poor communication skills. For another child, the cause might be a medical condition. It is important to try to understand the cause(s) of the behavior so that treatment will be more effective.

What Can We Do for Children and Youth?

Families

Contact your health professional if your child attempts to self-directed violence or engages in other forms of self-injury. One way to prevent these behaviors is to understand what causes the child to do the behavior. These causes will be different for each person, so finding the cause and best treatment will be different for each child.

 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, September 17). Self-Directed Violence and Other Forms of

Self-Injury. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandsafety/self-injury.html

 

 

For more information on Mental Health, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/