What is Stress?

Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry or nervous. Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand.

Stress is a normal reaction to life situations, such as a busy schedule or changes to your routine. Stress affects all of us. It is a natural reaction to new challenges or situations. Some stress can be positive, like starting a new project or moving on to the next grade level. A stressor may be a one-time or short-term event, or it can happen repeatedly over a long time. While not all stress is bad, stress that we experience for long periods of time can harm our health. Learn about the different types with the interactive image below!

There are three main types of stress: positive, tolerable and toxic stress.

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Toxic stress can cause us to feel upset, tired, unable to concentrate, angry, sad and can cause our bodies to react too. Over time this can also lead to issues related to anxiety and depression.

One of the critical ingredients that makes stress tolerable rather than toxic is the presence of supportive adults that help us learn how to deal with and recover from difficult experiences.

Can you think of an adult that can help you through some stressful times? (it could be a teacher, parent, sibling or relative.)

What is Trauma?

Trauma and traumatic experiences can create or add to our toxic stress. Adverse Childhood Experiences(ACEs) are one of many types of traumatic experiences that can impact a young mind. This course defines trauma and ACEs in the upcoming sections.

The word “trauma” is used to describe experiences or situations that are emotionally painful and sad and that can overwhelm a person’s ability to cope.

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Trauma and Stress

**If you feel that you have experienced trauma or a traumatic event, talk to a trusted adult and seek professional support. There are numbers listed in the first page or click on this link for phone numbers.

What are ACES?

Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are situations or events that can cause trauma and have lifelong effects on our mind and body
For example:

experiencing violence, abuse or neglect
witnessing violence in the home or community
having a family member attempt or die by suicide

There are also circumstances in our environment that may make us feel less safe or connected to the people in our home. Some of these situations include:

substance misuse
mental health problems
instability due to parental separation or household members being in jail or prison

ACEs can lead to health problems in the future. ACEs and trauma are very common; however, the good news is that we are very resilient and ACEs do not have to determine how our lives will develop. There are ways that we can develop our own resiliency.

What is resilience and resiliency?

Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of difficult times, trauma, tragedy or significant sources of stress. Resilience (or resiliency) is our ability to adapt and bounce back when things don't go as planned.

There is no “one way or “right way” to be resilient, but we can take a look at people or environments around us that help us get through tough times. Maybe it is family, friends or even pets that we connect with that help us get through our difficult moments. It could also be doing activities that you enjoy that help you manage the stress in your life. Some of these activities could be sports, coming up with dances for social media or painting.

PAUSE to Process:

What is one thing that keeps you motivated, even during difficult times?

Reducing Stigma

Mental health is an important part of our well-being. To stay healthy and feel great, we need to take care of our mental, emotional AND physical health.

What is stigma?

Stigma means a form of discrimination or judgment placed on someone due to possible differences in their appearance or behaviors.

Remember that everyone's experiences are different. Just as people don't know what we are experiencing, we may not know what someone else is going through or may have experienced in the past. Trauma, toxic stress and ACEs can often result in mental health concerns, such as Depression, Anxiety or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These, among other conditions, are considered mental health concerns or mental health disorders. It is important to remember that our peers may be coping with a lot. We won't know what they are managing or if they are experiencing a mental health concern unless they tell us.
Sometimes their mental health will make them act in unusual ways, which may even make you feel uncomfortable. When we feel uncomfortable, we often treat others differently, whether we do it consciously or unconsciously.

When we treat someone differently, we may be stigmatizing them based on ideas about mental health disorders that are wrong. This wrong information is sometimes circulated through social media or sources that are not credible. If we continue this stigma, it can discourage the person from receiving the help they need out of fear of being judged. The effects of stigma can often make them feel sad, ashamed or alone.

So how can we fight stigma? By learning more about mental health, we can challenge the misinformation and negative attitudes that we may have or others may say out loud.

We can also help empower our peers by reminding them how important they are and the value of their voice.

Let's commit to being kind to others.

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