Being a teenager is stressful. You’re busy with school, activities, friendships and relationships, family concerns and more. It can be hard to balance it all while staying physically and mentally healthy, but it’s extremely important to prioritize your health so stress, anxiety and depression don’t rule your life.
How does stress affect teens?
Everyone experiences stress, but stress can be especially difficult when you’re a teenager. According to the American Psychological Association, stressed teens experience symptoms such as:
- Difficulty concentrating
- Changes in eating habits and appetite
- Difficulty sleeping or changes in sleeping habits
- Negative thoughts and feelings
- Procrastinating
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Extreme fatigue
- Depression
- Anxiety
How can teenagers manage stress?
There is no one-size-fits all advice for stress management. Reducing anxiety and managing stress is a personal trial-and-error process where you try different things to see what works. As we introduce the brand new Orchard Place Teen Space blog, we’re sharing self care tips for teens and ideas for healthy ways of coping with stress. Read on to explore ten of our top mental health tips for teens.
1. Get Plenty of Sleep
One of the most important mental health tips for teens seems like a no-brainer — it’s essential to get enough sleep. The National Sleep Foundation reports that teenagers need between 8 and 10 hours of sleep each night in order to properly learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems. In spite of this research, one study found that only 15% of teens get at least 8.5 hours of sleep on school nights.
When you don’t get enough sleep, you’re unable to fully participate at school, and it may become more difficult to pay attention and finish your work. Being sleep deprived is related to greater risk for illness, and you may also be more irritable and impulsive when you’re not getting enough sleep.
Here are some common reasons teens don’t get enough sleep, along with beneficial self care tips to help you get more sleep:
I’m Too Busy To Sleep
If school work or activities are preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep, we recommend taking a look at your schedule. If your activities are taking up too much time, you may need to take a break from something so you can catch up on sleep. Time management tools for teens are also helpful when it comes to making time for sleep.
I Can’t Fall Asleep
If you struggle to fall asleep at night, you may need to adjust your habits. One of our other self care tips for teens below offers more ideas for replacing bad habits with good habits. We recommend cutting out the following things, especially if you’re consuming them late in the day: coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks and chocolate. Nicotine and alcohol can also affect sleep, as well as some pills and supplements. You should avoid these things and speak to your doctor if your medication is keeping you awake at night.
Playing video games or looking at mobile device screens late at night can stimulate your brain and make it harder to fall asleep too, so try to limit screen time right before bed.
If you’ve tried various tips and tricks for falling asleep and you’re still struggling to get enough rest at night, ask a doctor for help. Some teens have undiagnosed, but treatable, sleep-related disorders such as sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome. Anxiety and depression can also make it difficult to sleep. A primary care doctor can help you figure out if there is a medical reason for your inability to sleep.
2. Replace Bad Habits With Good Habits
As we mentioned above, one of the most helpful mental health tips for teens involves adjusting habits. You may enjoy drinking soda and energy drinks throughout the day, but they can prevent you from falling asleep at night. Similarly, some teens turn to negative coping strategies to alleviate stress and anxiety. Maybe you’ve tried using drugs, alcohol, sugar or junk food in an attempt to numb your pain. It doesn’t take long to figure out that although these things provide temporary relief, they don’t make you feel better in the long run.
Quitting a habit can bring freedom, but it’s also uncomfortable and annoying, so we recommend starting a new habit at the same time! Instead of turning to destructive habits, you can start a new one like going for a walk or hike or creating art or poetry.
3. Do Activities You Enjoy
In addition to building better habits, self care for teens also involves focusing your attention on things you enjoy doing. We often think we’re relaxing and practicing self-care when we’re actually on autopilot, bingeing Netflix or playing video games to avoid dealing with our feelings and responsibilities.
Identify enjoyable activities that are also good for your mind, soul and body. Our ideas include writing poetry, going for walks, spending time with friends and family, creating art and participating in sports and games.
4. Prioritize Exercise and Nutrition
It’s no accident that many of our self care tips for teens are related to physical health, exercise and nutrition. Physical activity has a huge positive impact on mental health. Exercise releases endorphins and stimulates norepinephrine — two things your body uses to naturally improve your mood. Exercise also increases self-esteem and boosts body image.
We include exercise in our list of mental health tips for teens because it’s an important part of improving anxiety, depression, stress and other mental health concerns. However, we understand that not all types of exercise are enjoyable for everyone. You don’t have to go for a jog if you hate running. We encourage you to think outside the box when it comes to finding activities you enjoy doing. Here are some different activities and exercises you could try:
- Biking
- Boxing
- Rollerblading
- Yoga
- Hiking
- Walking
- Skateboarding
- Dancing
5. Go Outside and Enjoy Nature
This tip goes hand-in-hand with the last tip about exercise and physical activity. There are many health benefits of outdoor exercise, such as breathing fresh air and enjoying increased levels of vitamin D. We recommend trying some outdoor recreational activities, but we also suggest spending time in nature being quiet and still. As a teenager, your life is busy and hectic, and you may not have much time to enjoy silence and serenity. Get out of your house and find somewhere in nature to sit, rest, read or think.
6. Limit Social Media
With the explosive and rapid growth of social media platforms in the past few years, we’re just now starting to understand the impact social media has on mental health, especially in teenagers.
How Does Social Media Affect Teens’ Mental Health?
Social media isn’t all bad. We all use social media to connect with our friends, peers and family members. However, studies have shown that social media can have a negative impact on users’ mental health — especially teens’ mental health. Using social media can lead to unhealthy comparisons and body image issues among teens, and more than 15% of teens aged 12-18 report experiencing cyberbullying.
Conducting friendships online is tricky and can cause emotional pain and drama. People often use the internet to say things they wouldn’t say in real life. Limiting social media use is an important part of helping teens with anxiety and other mental health struggles.
7. Examine Friendships and Relationships
Just as it’s important to be critical about the role of social media in your life, one key aspect of self care for teens involves examining friendships and relationships in order to determine which are healthy and which are bringing you down. It can sometimes be hard to tell when a friend isn’t a good friend, but there are some red flags to look for.
If you’re always getting in trouble when you’re with a certain friend, they may be a bad influence. Also, real friends won’t spread rumors, gossip behind your back, make fun of you or manipulate you. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but be careful about friends who do things like this repeatedly and claim they’re just joking around.
Navigating friendships is difficult when you’re a teenager, especially when you see most of your friends and classmates at school every single day. It might be hard to completely avoid the toxic people in your life, but try to limit the time you spend with them.
8. Set Boundaries
Setting healthy boundaries is a great way to practice the advice in tip #7. As a teenager, you’re a little bit limited as far as what boundaries you can set. You have to obey your parents or guardians, attend school and fulfill other obligations, but there are many areas in your life where you can set boundaries — especially emotional boundaries.
Setting emotional boundaries simply means knowing and understanding your needs and limits and clearly communicating those needs and limits to the people in your life. We encourage boundary-setting as an important part of helping teens with anxiety, self-esteem and challenging relationships.
Boundaries look different for each person. Here are some examples of boundaries you can set with friends, peers and family members:
- Tell your parents you’d like to quit a sport or extracurricular activity you no longer enjoy.
- Tell your friend how you feel when he teases you about the food you bring for lunch.
- Let your friend know you’re upset when she constantly interrupts you and speaks over you when you’re in a group.
You can tell a lot about a person by their reaction when you set boundaries. Not everyone reacts well. Some people are offended and angry about being confronted. The most important thing to remember about boundary-setting is that you aren’t responsible for the other person’s reaction. If someone doesn’t respect the boundaries you’re setting, they may be one of those toxic people you consider spending less time with in the future.
9. Connect With People
Taking a look at the friendships in your life and setting boundaries with people can be emotionally exhausting. When people hurt us or repeatedly let us down, it’s easy to feel defeated. If you’re tempted to isolate yourself, don’t. Find a trusted friend or group of friends who will support you no matter what you’re going through.
Another time we sometimes isolate ourselves is when we feel like we don’t want to burden other people with our problems. But a true friend wants to hear about your struggles and stresses. It may take some time to find the right people to trust, but it’s always worth it.
10. Ask For Help
There’s nothing wrong with needing help and asking for it. If you’re finding it difficult to cope with stress and anxiety on your own, please reach out to a parent, guardian or other trusted adult. Talking to a licensed therapist or psychologist can be helpful, even life-saving. There is no shame in seeing a doctor or taking medication in order to get relief for a mental health concern.
Learn More Self Care Tips For Teens
Keep an eye on the Orchard Place Teen Space for more blogs and articles! We want this to be a great place to find mental health resources for teens, and we’re looking forward to exploring more topics in the coming months.
