More teens in Singapore seeking help for school stress
SINGAPORE (THE NEW PAPER) - More teenagers from top schools are seeking help at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for school-related stress. IMH said that stress-related, anxiety and depressive disorders are common conditions seen at its Child Guidance Clinics, which treat children aged six to 18. The clinics saw an average of about 2,400 new cases every year from 2012 to 2017. Since IMH does not track the causes of the disorders, it does not have statistics on cases related to school stress. However, Dr Lim Choon Guan, senior consultant and deputy chief of IMH's department of developmental psychiatry, said: "Over the past few years, I have seen more teenagers in our clinic who are from top schools and report experiencing school-related stress." Replying to The New Paper's queries, Dr Lim said this trend does not necessarily mean more youth are feeling stressed about their studies but suggests they are more willing to seek help.
The Effects of Long-term Stress on Adolescents
Effects on cognitive function: The area of the brain that is the most affected is the prefrontal cortex. The grey matter includes regions of the brain involved in muscle control, and sensory perception such as seeing and hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision making, and self-control. When attacked with waves of stress, the grey matter volume in the brain reduces.
The Big Read: Dangers lurk in youth's chase for social media 'likes'
SINGAPORE: Eight hours on TikTok, seven hours on Instagram, and two hours on YouTube. This is a snapshot of a day in the life of 21-year-old full-time model Lukas Koshy, who has been losing sleep since he got sucked into the latest social media craze, TikTok, a video-sharing app filled with 15-second lip-syncing videos, memes, and all things amusing to a Generation Z’er like him. Five hours of sleep is all that he is mostly getting these days.
For Teens: Creating Your Personal Stress-Management Plan
Editor's Note: This article is written specifically for young people from 12 to 18 years of age. Your teen will get the most out of this article if he or she also reads For Teens: A Personal Guide for Managing Stress and downloads My Personal Stress Plan (PDF). Here is a 10-point plan to help you manage stress. All of these ideas can lower stress without doing any harm. None are quick fixes, but they will lead you toward a healthy and successful life.
Keep your stress under control
Feeling like there are too many pressures and demands on you? Losing sleep worrying about tests and schoolwork? Eating on the run because your schedule is just too busy?
More children and teens are stressed out
Last year, a Primary 5 pupil fell 17 floors from his bedroom window on the day he was supposed to take his exam papers home. He had never fared poorly in his examinations from Primary 1 to 4, and scored an average of 70 marks. His mother would cane him on his palm "lightly" for every mark he fell short of her stipulated standard of 70 per cent.
Stress and teenagers - ReachOut Parents
It’s very common for young people to feel stressed out from time to time. Stress is a normal part of life and can even be beneficial in some situations. However, if you’re worried that your child is under a lot of stress and it’s been going on for a while or is affecting their everyday life, there are things you can do to help them. This article can help if you want to: learn about the causes of stress and how stress affects teens be able to spot the signs of stress in your child help your child manage stress more effectively.
When Social Media Is Really Problematic for Adolescents
Dr. Ana Radovic, an assistant professor of pediatrics at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, an adolescent medicine specialist who does research in mental health services, said that only about a third of teenagers with depression get treatment, and it can take a long time. At a clinic that serves teenagers who are severely depressed or suicidal, she began doing interviews about how they were using social media, and found she was hearing both positive and negative stories. “For example, there was one teen who shared with me that she enjoyed following a band that she liked on Instagram, and it made her feel better,” Dr.
Managing Stress in Teens and Adolescents: A Guide for Parents
Teen stress is an important health issue. The early teen years are marked by rapid changes — physical, cognitive, and emotional. Young people also face changing relationships with peers, new demands at school, family tensions, and safety issues in their communities. The ways in which teens cope with these stressors can have significant short-and long-term consequences on their physical and emotional health. What is stress? It is the body’s reaction to a challenge, which could be anything from outright physical danger to asking someone for a date or trying out for a sports team.
Coping with exam stress
A little stress can be a good thing: it can be the motivational push that we need to get things done. However, sometimes, dealing with stress (especially during exam season) can be a difficult thing to do. And, with an estimated 20-50% annual increase of university students seeking help for studies-related mental health issues, it's clear that we're under more pressure than ever before.
Teens 'more depressed and sleeping less'
Image copyright Getty Images Adolescents are more likely to feel depressed and self-harm, and are less likely to get a full night's sleep, than 10 years ago, a study suggests. Yet smoking, alcohol and anti-social behaviour - often linked to mental health problems - were less common for 14-year-olds in 2015 than in 2005. Factors behind mental health problems may be changing, the University College London researchers said. The rise in depressive symptoms was "deeply worrying", a charity said. Researchers from London and Liverpool analysed data from two large cohorts of 14-year-olds - the first group from around Bristol, born in 1991-92, and the second from across the UK, born in 2000-01.
Teens and Stress: Practical Coping Skills
We all experience stress at some point in our lives. No matter your age, gender, ethnicity, or cultural background, stress can cause you to feel over-emotional or lead to health difficulties. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), stress is the brain's response to any demand. Stress may result from a number of life situations that becoming overwhelming.
MOE, MSF ‘very concerned’ about spike in youth suicides; experts say more support and awareness necessary
SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) are “very concerned” about the spike in the number of youth suicides this year, said the ministries in a joint statement. “It is not yet a trend, but we must monitor this closely and take various measures to address it,” said spokespersons for the ministries in response to email queries from CNA. The number of suicides in Singapore rose 10 per cent last year, with suicides among boys aged 10 to 19 at a record high, the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) said last week. A total of 94 people aged between 10 and 29 killed themselves last year, SOS said. Among boys aged between 10 and 19 years old, there were 19 suicides last year – the highest since it began keeping records in 1991 and almost triple the seven cases recorded in 2017. READ: Suicides in Singapore up 10% last year, record high among boys
