Posts Tagged ‘death of a loved one’
Stressed caused by family related changes
August 2nd, 2008 | 
Author: Obviously the death of a partner is absolutely the highest level of stress that one can experience. There are other events that might seem to be events that should NOT be stressful, but since these circumstances signify a major change in your life they ARE stressful. You need to let go of the old way of doing things and make a change to the new. You need to re-draw the map of your world and re-learn the territory. Examples of these types of stressful circumstances are getting married, moving house, or being reconciled with a partner.
It is noticeable how many sources of stress stem from family related events - it is maybe not that surprising since most aspects of our lives revolve around family, friends and relationships. Examples are marital relationships, sexual difficulties, pregnancy and giving birth, relationships with the in-laws, the neighbors and other family members.
Divorce is endemic to our society these days and according to the Holmes and Rahe scale, it is actually the second most stressful event that you can experience, apart from the death of the partner. Yet it is almost expected these days to shrug off the emotional pain associated with this event and continue with life as if nothing major has happened. Just the fact that divorce is not seen as being such an unusual event any more makes it even more stressful to handle. As opposed to getting almost the same level of support and sympathy from family and friends that one would expect with the death of a loved one, when one gets divorced these days the same level of support is not always forthcoming.
Tags: death of a loved one, death of a partner, divorce, emotional pain, family friends, family members, giving birth, level of stress, marital relationships, pregnancy, related events, sexual difficulties, sources of stress, stressful circumstances, stressful eventRelated posts
Posted in Causes Of Stress | 
Tags: death of a loved one, death of a partner, divorce, emotional pain, family friends, family members, giving birth, level of stress, marital relationships, pregnancy, related events, sexual difficulties, sources of stress, stressful circumstances, stressful event | No Comments »
Causes Of Stress Overview
In the broadest scheme of things there are two types of stress - the type is largely self-induced and the type that causes you stress due to unforeseen or foreseen life-changing events.
Self-induced stress is largely due to your personality. Some personality types are just more inclined to ’stress themselves out’. This type of stress is mostly due to working too hard, having too little time, feeling out of control the whole time…
The other type of stress is due to major life-changing events that you might, or might not have control over. Some examples of events that you have control over are getting married, moving house, having a new baby. But then there are those events that you have no control over such as illness, death of a loved one and so forth. BOTH these types of events are stressful, even the so-called ‘happy’ events. The reason for this is that a change in life-style disrupts your routine, it destroys the mental map that you had of the world and it forces you to create a new map. Coupled with this can be extreme emotions such as grief, anger and feelings of loss. Altogether, these feelings add up and can cause stress - feeling of anxiety and fear, depression and anger.
These types of changes can be broadly grouped into these four categories:
- Family
- Personal
- Work
- Finances
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Teenage Stress Management
Stress can affect anyone from children to adults. In between this age gap are the adolescents or teenagers. The cause of teenage stress is different from adult stress but the symptoms remain the same. Due to the difference of teen stress from adult stress, a different approach in tackling their stress is important.
The total population consists of an estimation of 20% teens. Yet teens are sometimes that neglected group of the population. Teenage or adolescent is the intermediate group between dependent childhood to independent adulthood and this transition is never easy. The teenage group is very vulnerable to physical and emotional stress.
Their stress may come from everywhere around them from their families, peers to their education. They may be compelled to follow the footsteps of an elder sibling to avoid comparison from their parents, or teens can be stressed from determining their role and image to the society.
Molding And Stress
The teenage or adolescent stage of life can cause major changes both in the physical and mental aspect of a person. These changes are significant in molding and shaping a person.
Physical changes in a person during adolescence include; increase in weight and height, change in voice, the development of secondary sexual characteristics, and for girls the menarche or the beginning of menstruation. On the other hand mental changes may involve; attraction towards the opposite sex, the feeling of independence, aggressiveness, experimentation.
All of these changes can cause stress to teenagers. It was surveyed that one third of teenagers undergo at least one episode of stress every week. The stress factor or stressors are different for teens and it may be due to; puberty, peer pressure, school demands, safety issues within the community, family responsibilities, negative feelings or thoughts, divorce or separation of parents, holidays, financial problems, or a death of a loved one.
The fact is that teenage girls are more affected or prone to stress than boys. Teenage girls tends to seek help from others for help with their stress while boys respond to stress by dealing with it alone and refuse help from others or by engaging themselves in activities that would help them focus on things other than the stressor.
The family members and friends are usually both the cause and support for teens. Without proper guidance, teenagers use healthy and unhealthy ways to cope with their stress.
Tackling Teenage Stress
Teenage stress can be handled both inside and outside of house. The first step in tackling teenage stress is to identify what caused their stress. The notion that there is no earthly reason for teenage stress should be avoided.
The teens should be allows to talk freely about their problems and they should be supported. Older people around them should help and teach the teens by teaching them stress relief methods and setting realistic goals for them in both curricular and extra curricular activities.
Parents or teachers must ask the teenager to define stress taking an example of an incident and ask them for their natural response to that stressful event. Advice about normal stress response and ways of tackling stress must be explained to the teens. Teach them that different stress can have different responses to different persons. Also, advise the teens to avoid unhealthy methods of relieving stress like aggression, alcohol or drug use.
During the time that a teenager feel stressed, full support must be given by the people around them. Teenagers, like children and some adults, are not ready to face major problems by themselves.
Tags: adolescent stage, death of a loved one, physical changes, school demands, stage of life, stress factor, stress management, teen stress, teenage girls, teenage group, teenage stress