Imagine taking almost all AP and honors courses and having homework for each class plus a project, but after school you have to go to sports practice with extracurricular activities the next day. Finally you get home, and after a quick meal, you start your homework and finish around 12 a.m. This is a similar story for many Northwood students and all of this work is leaving a heavy burden of stress and anxiety, which is said to be getting worse.
According to the American Psychological Association, teen stress levels are now rivaling that of adults. These levels of stress are reported to cause very negative effects to the health of teenagers in school.
Guidance counselor Ciera Dixon thinks that high school stress has gotten worse in the past few years.
“Colleges have become more selective in their application process [and] student applicants are beginning to feel that more,” Dixon said. “Lots of universities are wanting to see [students] taking highly selective courses.”
Junior Haydn Spurrell thinks that daily work from each class piles up, which leads to an overload of work.
“It seems like everyone always has work that they need to get done,” Spurrell said.
Spurrell believes the expectations have been raised for high school students.
“Things that used to be an extra step [in school] are now the step you have to take,” Spurrell said. “It’s no longer, ‘You can take that [course] if you are ready,’ but now you have to take that [course] if you want to get into college.”
According to a poll with Stanford Medicine, 87 percent of students get far less sleep daily than the recommended eight or 10 hours suggested.
Sophomore Ryan Parker says he has trouble getting enough sleep and usually ends up going to bed in the early morning.
“When I get done with my homework it is around 12 a.m., but with anxiety and fear it gets later, to around 3 a.m.,” Parker said.
Parker states that that more than homework is to blame for the stress and anxiety.
“A combination of both homework and extracurricular activities seem to pile on anxiety and stress,” Parker said.
He says that he feels more stress and anxiety as the week progresses, which cause him to fall behind on school work.
“You catch yourself behind and you have to catch up, [and] with anxiety it just makes it harder,” Parker said.
Dixon’s advice for students struggling with stress is that having an outlet away for stressful situations.
“I think it’s important to have a positive outlet,” Dixon said.
Music teacher Matthew Cox thinks that the arts programs at Northwood help students with stress from other classes.
“I think it gives them [students] an outlet to be able to do the creative things that they want to do maybe already in their homes but in an atmosphere of collaboration,” Cox said.
Dixon has a final word of advice for students who struggle with stress.
“If students just turned their laptops off for 2 hours on a Sunday or Saturday and just enjoyed life, I think that would help.”
– By Zach Brackett
