Stressed Out Teens

A report by the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that more and more teenagers are being sidelined by anxiety and depression. This is due to their every increasingly busy lifestyle, mainly preparing themselves for college. There is more and more pressure on students to do well in school, participate in extracurricular activities, be involved in their community, and perform well on SAT’s. The Admissions departments at colleges admit that there is a lot of pressure on teenagers to prepare themselves for college, and they have a great deal of competition. Doctors are seeing physical signs of the stress that these kids are dealing with, like stomach pains, chest pains, and headaches. Many students begin getting bombarded with college application deadlines and scheduling SAT’s during the first few weeks of their senior year in high school. According to some people, these kids are now suffering in their ability to be imaginative due to their hectic schedules. They do not have any down time to just think about whatever they want. This pressure to do well isn’t just in high school. It often starts in grade school as parents try to prepare their kids for high school activities. The kids are told that they have to be involved in school activities, do well academically, and find other activities in the community to get involved in. This is all in preparation to look impressive on their college application later on. The big problem here is that these kids no longer have the opportunity to do what they really should be doing – being kids.
(See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6221872 for source article.)