Stress is just a normal part of life

IT’S Stress Awareness Month. No idea why. And a survey done with Ryman’s the stationers (where you’ll find all your revision kit ) for Stress Awareness Month shows that, surprise, surprise, 61 per cent of students are stressed about exams and 56 per cent of girls turn to food to help alleviate stress.

Meanwhile if you swerved that survey, the Prince’s Trust was coming towards you with its clipboard. It has duly found that levels of happiness and confidence among young people between the ages of 16-25 have dropped to their lowest levels since 2006. Almost half said they had experienced a mental health problem.

The young do have things to contend with which previous generations didn’t. Their lives may be more affluent but not necessarily easy.

On the other hand teenagers are very impressionable and if we keep badgering them with questions about how stressed and unhappy they are then stressed and unhappy is what they are going to be. If it’s suggested that they are having trouble coping with life’s setbacks then they will agree that they are.

Stress and unhappiness are an unavoidable part of the human condition and pretending it’s a problem that can be solved and smoothed away is doing young people no favours. Also equating the ups and downs of the teen years with mental illness is a disservice to those who actually do suffer from clinical depression.