Stress. Everyone has felt it before. Whether it is late-night cramming for a major test or being late to an appointment, stress is present in our everyday lives, making it important for us to understand. Stress is a natural human response to difficult situations. Although it is natural to feel it every once in a while, excessive amounts can lead to many major health problems such as high blood pressure and heart attacks, according to the Mayo Clinic. Given the multitude of well-documented health effects associated with stress and its prevalence in our daily lives, it prompts the question of whether sufficient efforts are being made to address this issue.

Much has changed in recent years. With new technologies always around the corner, there has been a positive increase in the quality of living conditions. However, with these positive changes also have come negatives — namely, teens today are more stressed than ever. According to a study by the American Psychological Association, twice as many teenagers have reported an increase in their level of stress than those who reported a decrease. This is concerning news, as being stressed is detrimental to the overall well-being of adolescents. If left unchecked, this number of affected teens will only continue to rise. But teens aren't the only ones at risk. Adults, too, are reporting higher stress levels. According to NBC News, 26% of adults responded to a survey saying that they expected to be more stressed in the following year, an increase from the previous year of 20%. The increase in stress levels among young people and adults can be described as quite problematic since individuals’ happiness and overall quality of life diminish. To address this rise in stress, we must first understand the primary causes.

People experience stress from different things. A student may gain stress while trying to keep up good grades, while an adult may gain stress trying to make ends meet. These wide varieties of stress factors make it difficult to address in its entirety, but there are a couple of main contributing causes. According to the American Psychological Association, a lack of sleep is a significant contributor to adolescent stress, as most teens report having slept far less than the recommended amount. Teens can also feel stress from trying to achieve academic perfection. This overburdened state is not healthy for any teenager as they go through a very volatile stage in their lives and mature into adults. While stress for teenagers mostly revolves around an unbalanced lifestyle, money is found to be the most significant contributor for adults. Although these wide ranges of factors may sometimes feel outside of our control, managing stress is crucial for our overall well-being regardless of age, and addressing these key factors can greatly alleviate its impact on individuals' lives.

So far, a multitude of measures have been put into place to address this issue of stress. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 57% of schools have offered professional development to teachers in order to assist students with their mental well-being. These have had varying levels of success, with 43% of all schools agreeing that they have been able to provide the mental health services their students need. However, with the continued rise of stress for both teenagers and adults alike, it is clear that more needs to be done to address the issue.

Overall, there already exists recognition of the dangerous effects of overwhelming amounts of stress on teenagers and adults alike, as well as a steady move to alleviate them. However, as the ever-changing world continues to pose new challenges to our well-being, we must work harder to properly address this issue before it grows into something bigger.

This article was edited by Grace Hur.