Stress is unavoidable and something that you as parents will have to face with your teen. It could be something as simple as school stress to something more complicated such as pressure from friends or romantic relationships. As a parent you never want to see your child upset but it is important for your son and daughter to realise that stress is a part of life and is something that they will have to cope with it.
Manage your own stress
How you handle your own problems can have a great effect on how your teen thinks they should handle theirs. Demonstrate your own coping mechanisms and try to remain calm when dealing with your own stressful situations. The best way to deal with stress is often to talk the situation out. This will not only help you with your own problems but it will show your teen that stress affects us all and we shouldn’t keep things bottled up, no matter how daunting the situation may seem.
Help your teen to identify stress
Sometimes your teen may be unaware that they are stressed and by ignoring the typical signs, will not only cause things to escalate for them but often make a problem seem worse than it actually is. Help your teen to identify signs of stress which could vary from butterflies, fast heartbeat, and chest tightness to the most common affliction of stress, the inability to enjoy restful activities. By teaching your teen to identify their stress will not only help them feel in control but also enable them to move onto the next stage which is coping with stress.
Coping with stress
We all cope with stress in different ways and this of course could vary for your teen. He or she may like to take a bath, exercising, yoga, deep breathing or listening to music. The best way however to deal with stress is to talk the situation out with your teen, as a problem shared is a problem halved.
Discourage unhealthy ways of coping with stress
Sometimes we like to take the easy options when comes to dealing with stress and teens are no exception. Your teen could choose to deal with stress in unhealthy ways such as drinking, watching too much television or simply ignoring the issue at hand. Encourage them to identify what is causing their stress and assure them that it will feel a lot better to face it head on, than having the burden weighing them constantly down.
