BREATHE AIR (and more)

A Deep Dive on Stress Management

(From an Expert)

A slow dread latches on to your heart, elongating its wretched black fingers until it’s pierced through every artery in your body, sucking the final remaining fragments of energy from your hapless corpse. You walk home as the clouds congregate above you, thunder crackling at your demise. Rain drenches your face as to cover up the tears flowing downwards, and you collapse against the door to whimper in unison with its rustic old creaks.

You dump a pile of papers formulating a Leaning Tower of Pisa against the couch, and let the pressure of the world climb up your back, sneer into your eardrums, and slowly drag your body through its blatant lack of resistance into your hard wooden bed frame, knocking you into an abyss that would take sorcery to pull you out of.

Every year, 120,000 people die of work-related stress. That's a staggering statistic no doubt, and one that should go near to petrify the 18.8% of high school students who have already reported considering suicide from stress each year.

But what if there was a solution? What if there was a way to make all of that stress go away, and a step-by-step strategy to effectively reduce all of the pressure and anxiety closing in on people every living, breathing moment of their life? Stress is an option, not a requirement, and it can be fixed through a plentitude of ways and choices.

Psychiatrist Nilou Tohidian has several suggestions for students as to how they can manage their stress, both long-term and short term.

“I’m a huge fan of planning ahead, maybe having to-do lists on maybe your calendar or phone, so if you accomplish these things by the end of the day, you feel good about yourself,” Tohidian said. “Trying to accomplish a smaller portion of your to-do list makes you feel more in control. In terms of long-term, maybe doing something related to mindfulness, or something with friends, sports, hobbies, anything that makes you feel joy in your weekly routine.”

Yet, as omnipresent as stress is, its escalations always seem to be time-bound and potent. Now that the semester is bridging, many students seem to be dejected with the restart, and their mindset has been rolling in the gutters. University High School Counselor Nick Perfetto has a valid outlook on the matter, and believes that swapping out this mindset is not an option out of reach.

“Students should make sure they are taking care of themselves in terms of utilizing their support, making sure they get enough sleep, and are actively using their coping skills to make sure they are dealing with stress in a healthy way,” Perfetto said. “We can also help them to identify and build their own health coping methods if they haven’t already, because everyone is different. More specifically in terms of mindsets, it would just be about doing their best, and trying not to stress about things that are outside their control.”

On the track of academics, what is there for students who feel overwhelmed from their classes, but value the rigidity of class rigor over their physical and mental well-being, in an attempt to polish up their college applications in the future? Well, Perfetto has had an abundance of experience in this field, and feels as if he has come close to perfecting the formula for averting this crisis.

“I don’t think students should sacrifice their mental health in order to take a challenging course,” Perfetto said. “That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take courses that are stressful or time-consuming, but just something that isn’t detrimental to their mental health. We wan’t to find that balance, and make sure they aren’t taking too much that they can’t maintain their health, activities, responsibilities, and simply have fun or enjoy their lives.”

But of course, with every calamity comes its extremes. As many as 22,000 high schoolers injure themselves from stress, and the numbers are on the rise. To all of those who may do so, Tohidian may have just the advice to street one on a better path.

“People should just try understanding that even though school and academics are important, that’s not all there is to people’s understanding, purpose, and identity,” Tohidian said. “At the end of the day, it's just high school, and your life does not depend on your GPA or high school/college. You can always make up or accomplish things that you have been previously unsuccessful with. This could be your grades, major, job, etc. Sometimes you just have to put a little more effort into it, but it's manageable.”

Hundreds of thousands of people. An epidemic that is slowly sucking the life force out of the youth of our future. It’s been tough, it’s driven many close to perishing, but the pain and anguish tinted in its fibers is not to go in vain. We cannot let the chains of a thousand pressures prevent us from moving forward, as that is simply the mechanics of life.

The chains will keep on coming, the boulder will constantly accumulate mass until it feels as though our very bones are going to be crushed, but we must withstand the pressure, and triumph. Let’s end the boons of stress, and capitalize on it, forming it into a blessing. Let's embark on a new journey, a new era for the basis of the world, and capitalize on the skills and strategies that we can use to manage this critical facet of our lives.