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(Existing solutions to relieve stress)
-Create schedules.
-Drop some extracurricular activities if you are unable to maintain a balanced life.
-Take breaks to reduce stress levels.

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Much has been made of recent studies revealing that Millennials (young people ages 18-29) are America's most stressed generation. But younger members of Gen Y know that the pressure begins long before they're legal. With exam pressures and college admissions anxiety at an all-time high, academic stress can become a daily struggle as early as middle school. According to an Associated Press/MTV survey, school was the most frequently-mentioned source of stress for 13 to 17-year-olds.

Whether it's your parents pushing you to boost your GPA, teachers criticizing you for a less-than-stellar test scores, or your own drive to get in to your first-choice college -- or some combination of the three -- academic pressure can get the best of you if you don't learn how to deal with it properly.

"I think it all ties in to fear," Susan Stiffelman, author of "Parenting Without Power Struggles," tells the Huffington Post. "Fear of not getting into a college, fear of not getting financial support if that's what you need, fear of not shining in college or in high school so that you're employable. Fear is a powerful motivator, but it also creates and generates tremendous amounts of stress."

We chatted with Stiffelman, a psychotherapist who has helped countless teens cope with school stresses, about her best tips for cmanaging academic anxiety. Scroll down for five helpful ways to get through your high school years with less stress.

1. Take time for self-care.

Stiffelman emphasizes that you have to start with the basics, like sleep. "You have to give your organism the means to cope with stress, and that includes healthy food, non-harmful substances, sleep (dramatically more than most kids think they need), down time... Building into your day right-brain activity that lets you digest what you've been going through and process it. Those are some basic and almost biological needs we have."

Taking time to pause from the relentless pace of everyday life and enjoy creative activities that keep you from dwelling on or stressing over school pressures can go far in decreasing your stress levels.

2. Learn to change your thinking.

"You cannot get stressed out unless you believe your thoughts," says Stiffelman. "All stress is precipitated by stressful thinking."

When you start stressing about not finishing your project on time, your mind builds a case for why what you believe is going to happen will happen -- and this can be paralyzing. So, when combating negative thinking patterns, Stiffelman recommends coming up with specific examples to counter the stressful thoughts. Think instead of concrete ways that you can create the time to work on a project, and how your previous line of thinking isn't accurate.

3. Take assignments one baby step at a time.

Stiffelman advises her young clients to chunk their work down into manageable, bite-sized portions that feel less overwhelming than looking at the big picture. If you have an essay to write that's making you feel anxious, list the individual steps that lead to the destination of the essay being finished (finding sources, creating an outline, writing an intro), and the task will begin to feel less daunting.

"List what you have going on, and list how much time each thing is going to take," she suggests. "Chunking things down makes them feel more manageable and less anxiety-inducing."

No, we're not talking about being a slacker. According to Stiffelman, following the truism "Lower your goals, you'll achieve more," can help to relieve stress and boost academic success.

Instead of setting your goal to be getting the highest grade in the class, set a goal to feel satisfied with your performance.

5. Stay balanced during exam periods.

The importance of taking breaks and working in time to relax during your busiest and most stressful periods can't be overestimated, Stiffelman urges. Not matter how hard you push yourself, nobody can maintain constant focus, and you will burn yourself out if you try. Take frequent, short breaks for fun activities so that you'll be able to go back to your writing or studying refreshed.

"Do something that, even for 15 minutes, brings you back to yourself," says Stiffelman. "I'll often say, 'What did you love to do when you were six years old?' Do a little bit of that when you're in prep mode to counterbalance the stress -- no brain can work for 24 hours."

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Tell us: How do you cope with pressure at school? Do you think schools have a responsibility to help their students manage stress? Share your thoughts in the comments or tweet @HuffPostTeen.

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Stress is caused by the busy schedules teens face nowadays and their inability to balance what they have to do: Schoolwork and studying take up time, especially for challenging academic classes. After-school hours are likely packed with extracurricular activities. Add in a part-time job, a social life, and spending time with your family. There's also the fear of failure, concerns about college and social pressure.
Richards-Gustafson, F. 2017, June 13. Common Causes of Stress Among Students.

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Stress is the body's natural response to challenges. When a student experiences high levels of stress or chronic stress, regardless of her age or grade, it can interfere with her ability to learn, memorize, and earn good grades -- as well as lead to poor physical, emotional and mental health. By learning about common stressors, a parent can help to mitigate negative or chronic stress in a child's life.

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Students who don't have healthy sleeping habits or don't get enough sleep at night are more likely to feel stressed than students who get plenty of sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Sleep allows a student's body and brain to recharge, and it helps to keep the immune system strong. Inadequate amounts of sleep can make a child more aggressive and limit his ability to learn, concentrate and solve problems. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that young people sleep 8.5 to 9.25 hours per night, and that they maintain a regular sleep schedule.

In preparation for standardized tests, more and more teachers are assigning homework to children who are as young as six years old. In the "CQ Rearcher," professor Wendy A. Patterson shares that education professionals suspect the state and federal academic standards placed on schools and teachers to be the cause of an increased amount of stress experienced in the classroom throughout elementary, middle and high school. According to Denise Clark Pope in a February 2005 Stanford University report, the pressure that students feel from parents and schools raises stress levels so high that some teachers regard student stress to be a "health epidemic." To cope with the pressures, Clark Pope explains, some high-achieving students resort to cheating or "finagling the system."

Even those students who have not experienced an increased homework load may experience stress due to overscheduling and overstimulation, according to Tom Loveless of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Loveless shares that full schedules can stress a child's brain and impair her ability to learn. While a teacher or parent may want to help a child succeed by planning, for example, various worksheets, projects and extracurricular activities, a child's brain benefits from "boredom," or free time, because it allows her to figure out and develop her talents and identity. In the "CQ Researcher" publication, family therapist Michael Gurian suggests allowing a child to be "bored" for one hour a day.

Poor nutrition and unhealthy eating habits can increase a student's stress level, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Foods that can increase stress levels in students include those that are high in fat, caffeine, sugar and refined carbohydrates, which is the case with many types of convenience, processed and fast foods. Examples of stress-inducing foods are sodas, energy drinks, donuts, candy bars, processed snack foods, white bread, and French fries. A healthy diet that helps to reduce stress includes foods that are low in fat and high in fiber and complex carbohydrates. Such foods include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and lean proteins.

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Stress is the body's natural response to challenges. When a student experiences high levels of stress or chronic stress, regardless of her age or grade, it can interfere with her ability to learn, memorize, and earn good grades -- as well as lead to poor physical, emotional and mental health.

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-A little stress and in moderation can be helpful to high schoolers in so many ways. It motivates them to study, to do better. It helps push them.
-The ideal time for people to learn how to deal with stress is during high school as teens can then deal with it better in college and in their adult lives.
Ossola, A. 2015, October 9. High-Stress High School

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Kids who go to elite private high schools enjoy lots of advantages. They have access to the most challenging academic classes at reputable institutions, with staffs that are well-equipped to help them prepare for college. Parents pay an average of $10,000 per year to ensure their kids this privilege.

And yet the rigor that these opportunities demand can come with an extra cost for the students themselves. A recent study surveyed and interviewed students at a handful of these high schools and found that about half of them are chronically stressed. The results aren't surprising-between the homework required for Advanced Placement classes, sports practices, extracurricular activities like music and student government, and SAT prep, the fortunate kids who have access to these opportunities don't have much downtime these days. These experiences can cause kids to burn out by the time they get to college, or to feel the psychological and physical effects of stress for much of their adult lives, says Marya Gwadz, a senior research scientist at the New York University College of Nursing.

The problem is that at least some of that academic pressure is warranted. It's more competitive than ever to get into college, so it's incumbent on students with the wherewithal to apply to the most competitive schools to present the strongest possible portfolio, and their parents and teachers push them to do so. These kids find different tactics for coping, sometimes in ways that aren't healthy. So how can administrators and parents start to change the culture of stress while still pushing kids to reach their full potential?

At its most basic, stress is defined as any change or pressure in the environment. Most people think of stress as a bad thing, but in reality most people need some of it. "A little stress and in moderation can be helpful to high schoolers in so many ways. It motivates them to study, to do better. It helps push them," says Mary Alvord, a psychologist specializing in teens based in Maryland. Adolescence is an important time to learn to deal with stress because teens can then deal with it better in college and in their adult lives.
"A little stress and in moderation can be helpful to high schoolers in so many ways. It motivates them to study, to do better. "
But too much stress has many effects on the body and mind, Alvord says. In the short term it can cause anxiety; over long periods of time, elevated levels of stress hormones can degrade the immune system, cause heart problems, exacerbate respiratory and gastrointestinal issues, and bring on chronic anxiety and depression. That's bad for anyone, but it can be especially bad for high schoolers: "Colleges are complaining that kids are disengaged, they're dropping out, taking a long time to graduate. It's not developmentally appropriate for them to work so hard," says Gwadz, one of the authors of the recent study. And since everyone has a different psychological capacity for stress, it's hard to know when a student is pushed to the point of degrading his or her health.

The study, published recently in the journal, Frontiers in Psychology, focused on students in two elite East Coast high schools, a population that has received surprisingly little research attention. The researchers surveyed and interviewed 128 students, teachers, and administrators about students' stress levels and coping strategies. They found that 49 percent of students reported feeling "a great deal of stress" on a daily basis. Half reported doing three or more hours of homework per night, and 26 percent noted that they had been diagnosed with depression-over four times the national average of 6 percent.
Roughly half of students reported feeling "a great deal of stress" on a daily basis.
Pinpointing where this stress is coming from is no easy task. "Students described that schoolwork, grades, and college admissions constituted their greatest sources of stress," the study reads. But many students are only stressed about these things because they internalize pressures from parents, teachers, and peers. School culture undoubtedly plays a large role. "Indeed, chronic stress has been cited as the new 'cultural currency' in highly competitive private schools, where students often equate their schools' level of rigor with the amount of stress experienced by its students," the study authors write.

Importantly, chronic stress doesn't just happen to privileged, wealthy kids-in fact, its effects are likely most pronounced on the upper and lower extremes of the socioeconomic ladder, says Bo Paulle, a sociology professor at the University of Amsterdam and author of Toxic Schools, which details Paulle's years of field work in the South Bronx. But comparing stress levels at wealthy and high-poverty schools may prove to be an apples-to-oranges analysis because the causes are so different. "Schools are stressful at the bottom because of physical safety," Paulle says, citing examples of dangerous scenarios to which some of the highest-poverty schools are prone: stabbings, gang activity, fights for perceived slights. And as a result the stress that these students experience is likely more intense-exponentially greater, Paulle estimates-and more woven into the fabric of their everyday lives than the stresses students experience at elite high schools. It's hard to isolate the stressors at low-income schools from those outside of school, such as family issues or unstable living conditions. But even those parents who make their children's education a top priority are often still powerless to prevent the stress that comes with the school environment. "Those parents don't have economic or social resources to keep their kids out of these stressful schools," Paulle says.
"Schools are stressful at the bottom because of physical safety." The stress that these students experience-exponentially greater.
The stress that students experience at these schools may be more all-consuming than at the elite schools, but the way cope with it is surprisingly universal. "We learn a lot by modeling," Alvord says-teens mimic de-stressing techniques of those they see around them and figure out what works. Hopefully, she adds, they're lucky enough to see some healthy coping strategies, like exercise, meditation, listening to or playing music, planning busy days or weeks in advance, or talking about the issue with family or friends.

But if they're less fortunate, or the chronic stress is too intense, they seek less healthy methods of coping with the pressure. Students in low-income communities struggle to find models of good stress-relief tactics around them, Paulle says. Many find themselves unequipped to talk about earlier traumas that may be affecting their behavior as teenagers; instead, even if they know better, they find themselves lashing out or totally shutting down. "We're giving them nothing to actually cope with this, no constant relationships, and maybe one guidance counselor," Paulle says. "And when I was in the Bronx, no one was talking about how your body constantly being on alert [the result of chronic stress] is going to alter your behavior."

Another common way in which teens avoid the issue, no matter their income level, is in drugs or alcohol. In the study of the elite high schools, 38 percent of the students surveyed claimed that they had been drunk in the last month, though few noted that they had gotten in trouble for doing so. Past research shows that the numbers are pretty much the same for students in low-income schools. Starting substance use when a student is just maturing to adulthood can be particularly damaging, Gwadz says-it's a quick fix to forget about the real problem at hand instead of dealing with it, and can also lead to addiction in the long term.
How do parents and teachers create the right kind of school environment-preparing for college, but aren't killing themselves in the process?
Though past studies have focused more on the psychology of stress, in the future, researchers studying student stress will likely incorporate information about biological aspects, measuring students' stress-hormone levels to determine the most stressful factors, and even compare the physiology of stressed and non-stressed students in the same environment. But in the meantime, how do parents and teachers start to create the right kind of school environment for students, one in which the kids are preparing as best they can for college-and with the right amount of stress-but aren't killing themselves in the process?

"That's the million dollar question," Gwadz says. Parents are often the first group to be blamed for their kids' stress, since many equate their children's success with their own, or push their kids to go to an Ivy League college because the parents assume that will help them lead happier lives. But Gwadz thinks that blaming parents is a mistake-the issue is often bigger than just a family dynamic, and it's hard to know what's best for your kids.

Parents can still help their children cope, however. Alvord suggests that parents help their kids find balance, even in their most stressful periods, by encouraging them enjoy free moments and helping them find coping strategies that work for them. Sometimes, parents who address their children's stress head-on find themselves rejiggering their family values, Gwadz says. Parents ask themselves: What is really the most important thing for my kid?
"You can't be 'on' 24/7. How can you allocate some time to an activity that can help relieve stress?"
Ideally, the school culture would shift as well, though Paulle is not very optimistic about it. "School cultures reflect the greater competitive environment of global capitalism," Paulle says. "Our current system is a warped manifestation of our general anxiety about downward social mobility and what it takes to move up." But Paulle is more hopeful that equipping kids to learn better coping strategies will help them to thrive within a dysfunctional system.

Schools can help students achieve that by teaching them coping strategies as part of the curriculum, at both ends of the socioeconomic ladder. There are programs that do this, such as the Guiding Rage Into Power (GRIP) program piloted at San Quentin state prison in California. Programs like GRIP haven't been tested in schools, nor modified to be culturally and developmentally appropriate for students, but researchers are starting figure out what kinds of adjustments would be necessary to do so. "The best thing we can do is really giving these kids the types of programs to teach them to cope, and integrating them front and center into the curricula along with insights from neurobiology," Paulle says.

In some ways the most elegant solution is the one that is the most difficult to execute: letting students themselves learn to strike an equilibrium between stress and relaxation, especially when stress seems to be the more powerful force. "It comes down to balance," Alvord says. "You can't be 'on' 24/7. How can you allocate some time to an activity that can help relieve stress?" Sometimes those activities can look good on a college application, too-a student who plays recreational (not hyper-competitive) soccer for many years is moving to relieve stress and also shows college that she can persevere; clearing hiking trails can be relaxing and constitute community service hours that many kids need to graduate. Teens especially need to make time to sleep. "If you don't sleep enough, your mood and performance are affected," Alvord says-an easy fact to forget when students are staying up until 1 a.m. doing homework and getting up at 6 a.m. to go to school.

The authors of the Frontiers study didn't write about any concrete solutions, either for the wealthy high-school students they studied or those in low-income communities. They hope to address them in future research; "The next step for us would be to develop more actionable strategies and policies, relying on experts, and helping schools interpret the data that we collect," Gwadz says. "Everyone wants to know what the solution is."

Paulle assumes that whatever solutions the researchers find will be implemented slowly. "Everyone's got a role to play. We have to collectively reorient ourselves [towards addressing student stress] and slowly but surely use the insights into what actually works and determine how might it be best translated across different groups of students."

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Today's High Schoolers Are Way Too Stressed

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Kids who go to elite private high schools enjoy lots of advantages. They have access to the most challenging academic classes at reputable institutions, with staffs that are well-equipped to help them prepare for college. Parents pay an average of $10,000 per year to ensure their kids this privilege.

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I narrowed down my field of research to how people might reflect upon what they see in the game played from visuals, and how such visuals might affect them either in a positive way or a negative way; and how this might be considered a way or art therapy (our targeted issue which is "stress among hight school students and +" and how essential their psychological life is). Psychological life should be in balance with Physical life, because if one of them lost the required balance, will affect their life by a way or another and they won't be as achievers and successful as they should. Adding to what is said above, the visuals in our game are considered the actions made by the players, not an actual visuals of certain footage, but the actual visuals considered in the game are live events occurred when the game is played, from actions acquired to be done when a player draws a card, to the mental line of thoughts followed or the tragedy applied in order to win the game. The game is simply about experiencing various personas' stress perspective, and how would they react to such situations; by this the player will know back in his mind they various kinds of stress, and will help him react in situations in real life with a more courageous responses by building confidence more and more than he used to have.
I have interviewed few people, and made a focus group to see how would they respond to certain visuals and situations, I showed to this group certain pictures and drawings made by me, as they will be asked to reflect upon these pictures and drawings what have they seen or felt or acknowledged when these subject are shown to them. This procedure will go biased, abiding no norms, but freedom of expression. For the focus group, I have distributed papers on 10 random people that I have gathered in a AUC gardens and asked them to draw things that they love while they are closing their eyes in 10 minutes, while having ambient music played in the background. But I took then these papers from each one and discussed it individually with them, figuring out their favorite colors and by using the reverse psychology of colors, I could analyze their mental illnesses without even telling, because deep inside their minds and souls they might really do face such issues and they are not aware of it. By using the psychology of words, and relating it to the psychology of colors and art, I would find what triggers them the most when certain word is said, and we start debating about what was triggered throughout the focus group, and we end up solving certain issues together; and I have related this to stress mainly and I have been witnessing how would they define stress in general.

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You have a mission or a purpose to your life. Maybe you can still remember the excitement you had when you first started nursing school - that feeling like you were going to be able to help people and make a difference. And yet, that sentiment can fade away with the daily pressures of school, work and family responsibilities.

To be most effective, Dr. Stephen Covey, businessman and author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said that we need to "sharpen the saw." The analogy refers to the fact that a sharp saw will cut better and more efficiently than a dull saw. The saw represents your abilities and your talents.

How sharp is your saw? If you are stressed and irritable, how effective are you with your patients, your peers or your family? If you feel like your interpersonal relationships are often grating and rough in nature rather than smooth and refreshing, than your saw is pretty dull.

Motivational speaker Brian Tracy said, "Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals and values are in balance."
Relaxation and Burnout
Relaxation is important to help you shift gears and access deeper levels of thinking. When you are constantly rushing around at school or work, after work, and at home, you will have a constant "fight or flight" stress response. The response can be energizing, and many nurses take on even more responsibility to continue to get this "high."

But "fight or flight" is not conducive to deep meditative thinking, which is essential to finding your purpose, setting goals, and living in congruence with your purpose and goals.

Remember, even professional athletes have an off-season. This is time to regroup, recover, relax and prepare for next season. Many experts agree that a daily time of reflection is essential to living a stress-free and highly productive life. Daily reflection helps you to keep in balance.
Balancing the Stress in Your Life
Stress occurs when demands on you outweigh your resources. The unmanaged stress in your life can cause physical problems ranging from headaches and cardiovascular disease to memory problems and even substance abuse. Unmanaged stress leads to poor job performance, errors and injuries.

The greater the demands on your life, the greater the number of resources you need to balance the stress. Resources can be found in the relationships of friends and family, in the fellowship of a church group, or in the physical relaxation from exercising. Try some of the stress-busters below to help you balance the stress of the demands of your life:

Take a 20-minute walk

Soak in a warm bath

Read a chapter in a novel

Eat a salad

Call an old friend

Hug a child

Practice slow controlled breathing for 30 seconds

List five things that bring you joy.

Remember: "Balance in your life between work and your personal life is very important. Without balance, you eventually burn out, negatively affecting your performance at work." ~motivational writers Byron & Catherine Pulsifer
Related Stories: 5 Tips To Balance Family, Work And Nursing School 4 Tips To Master The Nursing School Balancing Act

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School, Life, Work: Finding Balance in Your Life

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You have a mission or a purpose to your life. Maybe you can still remember the excitement you had when you first started nursing school - that feeling like you were going to be able to help people and make a difference.