Mental Health & Well-Being: Stress

Together for Mental Health: Everyone, Everyday

Developing positive mental health is important to academic achievement and overall well-being.

Stress is a normal response to life’s changes, pressures, and challenges. It’s a mind-and-body signal that helps you get ready for what’s ahead. 

Sometimes when you’re really stressed, it can cause your body to react. If your brain detects a threat to your safety, your body responds with an instant burst of stress hormones. Your body’s stress response is there to protect you by helping you react quickly, fight hard, or run fast if you need to. Most of the time, stress comes from challenges you can face and deal with. But if your stress feels too strong, happens too often, or feels like more than you can handle, talk with a trusted adult to get help and support.  

Parent Information - Mental Health and Stress

We are always aiming to experience good mental health but it seems that unmanaged stress can often be what stands in the way of good mental health for us as parents and our children. Stress is a normal part of life and it serves a purpose by motivating us to get things done and do our best. But when we have too much stress, it can cause problems in our minds and our bodies. When we think about stress, the important question to ask is not how we can avoid it but how we handle it and what we can do to alleviate it.) 

Here is a video you can share with your teen on how stress impacts our brain and how mindfulness helps: The Science of Stress