PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

COPING WITH STRESS IN MIDDLE AND LATE ADOLESCENCE

LEARNING SKILLS FROM MELCs:
 Identify causes and effects of stress in one’s life.
 Demonstrate personal ways to cope with stress and maintain mental health.

REVIEW:
Instruction: TRUE OR FALSE. Write the word TRUE if the statement is correct. Otherwise, write
FALSE.
_____1. Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand.
_____2. Stress causes the body to flood with hormones that prepare its systems to evade or
confront danger and it is commonly refer to this as the fight-or-flight mechanism.
_____3. Some of the physical effect of stress is it slows down some normal bodily functions, such
as those that the digestive and immune systems.
_____4. Mental health is determined by a range of socioeconomic, biological, and environmental
factors.
_____5. When you are happy and contented you are not stress.
STUDY:
Adolescents react to stress in much the same ways adults do. Common reactions are
excitement, fear, anxiety, sadness, and anger. The behavior of an adolescent who is stressed may
change, but each adolescent reacts in a different way. Some adolescents withdraw from others,
some lash out at others, and some actively seek the comfort to others. Although adolescents
cope with stress in different ways, there are general patterns in their coping behaviors – problem
solving and managing emotions.
 Stress as a stimulus – caused by situations (which often called stressors) that may be life
threatening or life changing such as car accident, breaking up with your
boyfriend/girlfriend, or failing the exams.
 Stress as a response – the way the body reacts to challenging situations. It involves the
interaction between hormones, glands, and nervous system where the adrenal gland
drives the production of Cortisol aka “stress hormone”. Cortisol enables the body to
produce energy geared for action. Another response of the body similar to cortisol is the
release of a substance Norepinephrine which triggers the body’s reaction like increased
heart rate, higher blood pressure and respiration to prepare the body for action.
 Stress as relational – when a person experiencing stress takes a step back to look at the
situation that is causing the stress and assesses it. The person allows reasoning to prevail
and weigh the relevance of the situation.
Most mental health problems diagnosed in adulthood begin in adolescence. Half of the
lifetime diagnosable mental health disorders start by age 14; this number increases to three
fourths by age 24. The most common disorders among adolescents include depression, anxiety
disorders, and attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder and substance use disorder. The table
below shows some common types of mental health.
1. Depression
Symptoms:
 Disorder of emotion or mood (sadness, hopelessness, misery, inability to enjoy). On Cognitive
aspects symptom manifest by negative conditions about self, world, and future. On
Motivational symptoms are loss of interest, lack of drive, and difficulty on starting in
anything. On somatic symptoms are loss of energy, sleep difficulties loss of appetite and
weight loss /gain.
Causes:
 Self-images, body images, Separation of parents, emotionally unavailable parents, parents
who have high marital conflict, and parents with financial problems. Poor personal
relationships, experiencing peer rejection.
2. Eating Disorder
Symptoms:
Extraordinary weight loss
Causes:
 Feeling negatively about their bodies and highly motivated to look like same-sex figures in the
media

TYPES OF EATING DISORDER

A. Anorexia Nervosa
Symptoms:
Persistent pursuit of thinner built through hunger. Intense fear of gaining weight. Weighing less
than what is considered normal to their age and height.
B. Bulimia Nervosa
Symptoms:
Binge eating and then purges by self-inducing vomiting or using a laxative.

3. ANXIETY
Symptoms:
Over worrying about future events and fear is a reaction to current events.
Causes:
Genes likely play a role in causing anxiety, as well as the home, neighborhood, school, and other
environmental factors.

TYPES OF ANXIETY
A. Separation Anxiety Disorder
Symptoms:
Excessive anxiety felt by children when their parents leave them. They may worry that something
bad might happen to their parent or to someone else they love. Refuse to go to school or they
may be unable to go to sleep without a parent being present. They may have nightmares about
being lost or kidnapped. They may also have physical symptoms like stomach aches, feeling sick
to their stomach, or even throwing up out of fear.
B. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Symptoms:
The condition in which has many worries and fears. They have physical symptoms like tense
muscles, a restless feeling, becoming tired easily, having problems concentrating, or trouble
sleeping.

C. Social Phobia
Symptoms:
It involves worrying about social situations, like having to go to school or having to speak in
class. Symptoms may include sweating, blushing, or muscle tension. Often overly sensitive to
criticism and have trouble standing up for themselves. Has low self- esteem, become easily
embarrassed, and become very shy and self- conscious.
D. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Symptoms:
Frequent, uncontrollable thoughts ("obsessions") that are unreasonable. These thoughts come
into their mind a lot. They then need to perform certain routines or rituals ("compulsions") to try
to get rid of the thoughts. Children and adolescents with this disorder will often repeat behaviors
to avoid some imagined outcomes.
E. Panic Disorder
Symptoms:
When they feel very scared or have a hard time breathing and their heart is pounding. They may
also feel shaky, dizzy, and think they are going to lose their mind or even die. The teen or child
may not want to go to school or leave the house at all because they are afraid something awful
will happen to them.
F. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Symptoms:
The symptoms include jumpiness, muscle tension, being overly aware of one's surroundings
(hypervigilance), nightmares, and other sleep problems. Feeling like they are "re-living" the
traumatic experience.

Magpantay and Danao (2016) stated two categories of stress: eustress and distress. Eustress is
positive stress for it is helpful—it motivates the individual to keep on working and reach for the
goal. Distress, on the other hand, is negative stress because it could give harmful implications to
the individual, such as anxiety and depression; discourages the individual from becoming
productive; and could cause emotional, physical, and psychological problems.
KINDS OF STRESSORS
1. Cataclysmic events are strong stresses that suddenly occur and may simultaneously affect
many people (Feldman, 2010). Natural disasters like typhoons, coding, global warming effects,
and earthquakes are examples of this kind of stressors—likewise, man-made troubles such as
terrorist attacks, ship or plane crash, and bombings.
2. Personal stressors refer to conditions, events, situations, or anything that causes stress to an
individual. It could be positive or negative stressors such as marrying, death of a loved one,
getting a new job or job loss, starting and ending class, 15 transferring to new schools, leaving
old friends, and many others.
3. Background stressors or daily hassles (Feldman, 2010) are also referred to as displeasures
that could be encountered every day, such as standing in the long line while waiting for the
train, stuck in heavy traffic, noise, and pollution of the environment.

ACTIVITY: Thinking Outside the Box; Our Family Destress Reinforcement

(Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, Character Building)
Instruction: How do you and your family deal in this trying time we are facing right now, the
COVID-19 pandemic? Let us think outside the box. With the help of your family members make
your family destress reinforcement.

Ask your family members and write the ways on how your whole family cope up with the stress
caused by COVID-19 pandemic?

1.__________________________________________ 4.___________________________________
2.__________________________________________ 5.___________________________________
3.__________________________________________

EVALUATION:
My Mental Health Awareness

Instruction: For ONLINE USERS make an INFOGRAPHICS on MENTAL HEALTH AND

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AWARENESS.

For OFFLINE USERS on one-fourth WHITE CARTOLINA/BOND PAPER

Be CREATIVE and ARTISTIC to make a SLOGAN about MENTAL HEALTH AND

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AWARENESS.
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