An average of 600 to 800 students in the UK between the ages of 15 and 24 commit suicide annually due to stress caused by academic pressure.

Causes

Most high school students have to deal with stress due to many different factors such as social pressure, academic pressure or health problems within their family. This stress negatively affects each student in different ways.

According to New York University, more than half of school students researched reported feeling a great amount of stress on a daily basis. This stress was linked to college applications and the competition to get into a good college, which gets harder every year.

“The pressure of good grades comes from parents, teachers and each student; There exists a social pressure and the social stress that is caused by the image others have from us and how they see us,” Andres Rendon Columbus School High School counselor, said.

Many factors that can cause stress. Modern technology can cause stress do to the fact that people often prefer to use technology instead of reaching out to another person or going out to play in the sun.

“Life styles that are too monotonous and sedentary, like computers, cellphones, TV may generate stress since humans aren’t designed to sit behind a flat screen all of the time,” Rendon said.

Many students suffer with school based stress and do nothing about it. The heavy workload and poor time management skills contribute unnecessary stress that could be avoided if students knew how.

“I think it mostly comes from the school because teachers don’t have consideration and place large amount of homework and exams in a week, this has affected my grades and my health,” Laura Santamaria Uribe, 11th grade TCS student, stated.

What you need to know

The counselors are available to help those who struggle, but many students aren’t aware of support available through the counsellors and the school.

“I think the school should work on it because most students feel stress once or twice a week and that is not good because it affects their social life and health,” Santa Maria said.

Also the Learning Center was created to help students with academic struggles, this extra help given in the developement center might help some of the students release stress.

“Seek for help with peers and make a good use of the developement center and the teachers of the school,” Ana Garcia High School counselor said.

While there have not been known cases of suicide among TCS students, the potential exists as long as students are not trained to manage their stress and ask for help if they need it.

“As a psychologist I think that there are many ways to release stress, there is one in particular I like, sports. While performing physical activities human beings generate endocrine that helps to lower stress levels,” Rendon said.

Students can also help each other manage their stress levels.

“Stress can be caused by health issues. When I have the chance to deal with it I watch series, internet videos, read books,” Sebastian Gil, 11th grader said, “The other one is driving, I put some good music and just drive and the not so healthy way is that I eat salty and greasy things and that helps me calm my nerves.”

Stress, as chaotic as it might be, can often be handled by each student with simple activities  such as sports, reading a book, taking a drive around the city, or just talking to other people about their stress.

“I enjoy talking to my friends about my problems to release stress caused by school or just about issues with other friends or family. At first talking about my problems was difficult but as I started doing it it made my life so much better,” Julia Medina,  Columbus School 7th grader, said.

These strategies can help students when they feel overwhelmed by school, their social life or health issues, among others. If teenagers are aware of these strategies in The Columbus School, the institution can assist in caring for each of their students and avoid any major problems.