Tips to help teens manage stress

Wellness
Pediatrics
Depressed teen student looks at himself in bathroom mirror

Every teenager experiences stress in some way, shape or form. Adolescence is a transitional time when children go through a range of physical, mental, social and personality changes.

Around age 13, the brain starts going through massive developmental changes that can cause kids to be more impulsive and emotional. Fear of failure, body image, peer relations and social media all contribute to the stress teens experience on a daily basis.

"They're really stressed by figuring out where they fit into the world," says Tiara Rodia, M.Ed., LPC, a psychotherapist at Main Line Health's Mirmont Outpatient Center in Broomall.

Stress can cause all kinds of uncomfortable physical sensations, including sweaty palms, increased heart rate, eating changes, irritability and sleep disruptions. And when stress isn't dealt with properly, it can snowball and contribute to mental health disorders, like anxiety and depression, or other health issues, like high blood pressure and a weakened immune system.

Here are some tips and activities for your teen that can help them manage their stress:

Acknowledging stress in teens

The first step in stress management for teens, according to Dr. Rodia, is to recognize the stress that they're feeling. It's natural to feel stress and anxiety. In fact, we're biologically engineered to feel these emotions to help us prepare for distressing situations. But anxiety makes us focus on the worst possible outcome rather than all the other potential possibilities. It also tells us that we can't handle those worst-case-scenario outcomes.

Teaching stress management to high school and middle school students should include that acknowledging and labeling these worries can be very soothing and can help you regain some control over your emotions.

"When you're labeling them, you're really getting your thoughts and emotions out there," adds Dr. Rodia.

Practice breathing and grounding techniques

Practicing stress management activities such as deep breathing and grounding techniques is a great way for teens to manage stress—and something you can practice right alongside them. Grounding strategies take us out of the future, where anxiety lives, and bring us back to the present moment. This helps us behave less emotionally and more rationally.

"Teens are very receptive to deep breathing strategies," says Dr. Rodia. Try these common breathing techniques with your teen:

Belly breathing

This involves inhaling through the nose, filling the belly with air and then exhaling all of the air out through the mouth.

"You want the exhale to be slightly longer than the inhale," says Dr. Rodia. "So, for example, if you inhale for four seconds, exhale for up to seven seconds."

A visual aid can help, too: imagine you're smelling roses when you inhale, then blowing out candles when you exhale.

Square breathing

Square breathing, also called 4-4-4-4 breathing, is performed by inhaling for four seconds, holding your breath for four seconds, exhaling for four seconds and resting for four seconds before repeating the cycle.

5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique

For teens who may benefit from a more cognitive grounding, Dr. Rodia recommends the 5-4-3-2-1 method.

An alternative to the above breathing techniques, this method involves identifying five things you can see in the moment, four things you can feel in the moment, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste.

Flame meditations

Another creative way to teach stress management to adolescents is to have them practice flame meditations, or meditate by looking at a candle or a video of a flame. Focusing on a visual like this often makes controlling your breath much easier.

"Flame meditations can be really soothing and calming, because we're bringing our focus to something real and in the moment. Something that's mesmerizing," adds Dr. Rodia.

Hold an ice cube

When you're starting to feel the physical symptoms of stress and want to ground yourself, Dr. Rodia recommends trying out the ice cube method.

First, place an ice cube on the palm of your hand. Let it sit there and feel it melt. After a few seconds, you'll notice a cold sensation that will start to cause some discomfort.

Having an ice cube melt in your palm calms your senses and physically cools you down, which is helpful since we tend to warm up in response to stress. Because the brain can't focus on emotional distress and physical pain at the same time, the ice cube helps draw your brain away from the stress and toward the physical sensations instead.

Try progressive muscle relaxation

For teens who struggle with focus, such as kids with ADHD or ADD, it can be helpful to engage in progressive muscle relaxation, a physical grounding technique.

With progressive muscle relaxation, you tense all the muscles—one muscle group at a time, from the feet to the head—then relax them. Research has shown that progressive muscle relaxation has powerful stress-reducing effects and can increase our overall well being.

All of these stress management activities can help alleviate stress by giving teens the opportunity to create some distance from their problems so they can regroup and better deal with stressors in their lives.

When to seek professional help for stress

Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal feeling and is even healthy. A healthy level of anxiety can motivate action, keep us alert and even make us more aware of risks. However, anxiety can become a problem if it is ongoing, affecting your ability to live your life or interfering with your relationships. Seeking professional help for anxiety will provide support in learning new ways of addressing the anxiety symptoms you or your teen may be experiencing.

Mirmont Outpatient Centers in Broomall, Exton and Media provide treatment for mental health diagnoses and substance use disorders. Services include:

  • Psychiatric evaluation
  • Medication management
  • Individual and group psychotherapy
  • Outpatient program
  • Partial hospitalization program
  • Specialty services for adolescents and adults

Next steps:

Call us at 1.888.CARE.898 (227.3898) to schedule a confidential appointment
Learn more about Mirmont Treatment Center's adolescent programs

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