HEALTH: Poly brings in a local physician to speak on academic stress in teens and strategies to deal with these feelings.
By Caroline Iglesias, Staff Writer
Over the past decade, the level of academic stress placed on high school students has increased exponentially. Competition from different countries all across the globe has left an indelible mark on the educational system in the United States, increasing the workload and decreasing the amount of sleep students are getting.
On January 27, 2016, Poly High School sought a constructive outlook to address this stress epidemic. Poly’s National Honors Society invited Dr. Sarah Chae to discuss and provide solutions for the problem. Dr. Sarah Chae, a graduate of Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Stanford University School of Medicine, is currently a practicing physician of Internal Medicine at Riverside Medical Clinic.
Dr. Chae cited her inspiration for talking to these students. Along with the other hundreds of worried parents out there, Dr. Chae is also affected by this pure lunacy. She currently has two high achieving high school students competing in this flawed system.
As part of her presentation, Chae cited numerous research studies. One study, conducted by the American Psychological Association’s 2013 Stress in America Survey, showed that teens are the most stressed out group of people in the United States. Upon further analysis, the results displayed that 31 percent of teens felt overwhelmed as a result of stress, 36 percent felt tired and fatigued because of stress, and the other 30 percent reported feeling sad and depressed because of stress. Stress is so severe that the rate of teenage suicide is the highest it has ever been. This was a major eye-opener amongst the audience.“It reminded me that school isn’t worth the deterioration of health and that there should never be a point where I attempt or consider suicide because of school,” Ariana Siddiq (11) expressed.
Dr. Chae, however, made sure to reassure that stress is an important part in the daily life of a human being. Stress can be one’s motivator and can be described as a person’s “fight or flight” response. Without it, one would not be prepared in times of danger. However, she offered a key distinction; temporary stress can be a good thing, but prolonged stress can lead to burnout and mental exhaustion.
The discussion later moved into possible solutions for this stress phenomenon. Some simple adjustments that can be made in everyday life include cutting caffeine consumption, avoiding alcohol and drugs, becoming physically healthy, having a healthy diet, and getting an adequate amount of sleep. Perhaps the most interesting solution was to limit the amount of internet access for teenagers, which she says contributes to additional stress and often wastes time. “My mom has been implementing the rule in our family, and we’ve already started seeing my family as a whole go to bed earlier,” Sarah Parshall (11) stated.
The last important claim that Dr. Chae made was the idea that “sometimes, less is more.” Sometimes people need to put down their work and enjoy life. “I think many of students believe that all this stress, lack of sleep, and irritability is the path to achieving our goals. Yet someone who has reached these goals is reminding us that it is okay to say you need a break, to take care of yourself,” Danielle Oyama (11) declared. Chae also expressed that the idea of attending an Ivy League school does not define a person. She could have just as well gone to Ohio State University and pursued the exact same career.
Life is a matter of moderation. A healthy balance of work and play would be everyone’s ideal goal, but the rushed life of a current U.S. teen makes it a difficult task to acquire. The life of an American consists of rushing that causes potential stress. Rushing to eat so that you can work, rushing to work so that you can go home, rushing to sleep so that you can wake up and do it all over again. However in the midst of all this rushing, we need to take a moment to really realize what all the rushing is about. Is the rush and competition to obtain a particular goal, or is it a race to nowhere?