media by Em Carls

A graphic introduces the first article of the column “Mental Health Mondays.”

Bells ringing, sweaty kids bumping into each other and an endless pile of homework.

High school, especially the first couple of months, can be exhausting beyond belief for some. If you’re a new student, you may still be trying to get your feet on solid ground while constantly being pulled in every direction. It can be too much to manage by yourself. Unfortunately, I think this is what likely brews anxiety in adolescents, as we have to juggle social and school life simultaneously. 

“School puts a lot of pressure on the students to be good,” Dina Kreutz ‘24 said. Kreutz is a semester-long exchange student from Germany who faces adjusting to American school life.

While dealing with stress, it is crucial to remember that anxiety is not an inherently destructive emotion. We have these so-called “negative feelings” for reasons–I believe they serve a purpose in our daily lives. 

What is stress?

“Fear is neither a desirable feeling nor a pleasant one, but it gets you out of the way when a fly ball is coming at your head, or a big spider is crawling toward you,” Ph.D. Marc Brackett said in “There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Emotion.” Later in this article, he commented that how we apply these feelings is what matters. These emotions only have a negative effect when they cause us to behave in erratic or dangerous manners. 

My advice on how to manage stress:

Let’s say you have a big test in history coming up. You know you could have been more prepared, but you just can’t find the motivation to study anymore. 

With this feeling of doubt and worry, you could beat yourself up over it. Or, use this as a learning experience for next time. Before you recognize you’re becoming overwhelmed, you could ask a friend or a family member to study with you and keep you on track. Or, you could set aside fifteen minutes each night for a few days to focus on rereading your notes; we’ll dive deeper into time management later. 

There’s nothing you can do about the fact you are feeling this emotion. You can’t go back in time and change the situation that brought this on. You can only work with what you have, which hopefully includes healthy coping skills. Fortunately, it is not difficult to identify these, as you most likely have some that you don’t consider coping strategies. 

For example, petting your dog and listening to music are coping skills–things we do mindlessly every day that make us feel a little bit better. Anything could work; if you are passionate about soccer, go outside and kick a ball around for a few minutes when you’re feeling stressed. All that truly matters is you are not hurting yourself or others while regulating your emotions. 

One of my favorite tactics to challenge my unhealthy habits is to weight-lift. For me, physical exercise is an incredible way to reduce background noise in my head. If you are inclined to take stress or other unwanted emotions out on yourself, safely pushing your physical limits in a productive way could help reduce that urge.