“I really wish adults knew that literally any teen, no matter how much they laugh, how good their grades are, or how ‘put together’ they seem, can be struggling.”
By Meadowlark Monaghan, AIM Youth Advisory Board Member
Last week at the AIM Youth Mental Health Symposium, our AIM Ideas Lab youth researchers shared their message to parents, educators, policy makers, researchers, and their community about how to address the youth mental health crisis that is growing in the wake of COVID. The bottom line? Teens want adults to be more considerate of youth mental health and the nuances of their experience… beginning with the understanding that the stress teens face is acting as a barrier to their mental health care.
“I really wish adults knew that literally any teen, no matter how much they laugh, how good their grades are, or how ‘put together’ they seem, can be struggling,” one participant in the peer-to-peer surveysLab shared. The AIM Ideas Lab findings showed that youth mental health is a very important issue for teens and at the same time, teens are experiencing immense pressure from academics that leave them feeling as if they don’t have the time to address their mental health.
While academic pressure and toxic stress can have long-lasting effects, prevention and coping strategies are providing a framework for youth to feel more supported, empowered, and on track to achieve their goals while preserving their mental health. Today, we’re sharing a tangible tool to reframe stress and help teens identify when to lean into academic motivation vs. when to pull back and take time to care for their minds.
Wait, Stress Can Be Good?
One liberating way to understand stress is to know that, to a certain extent, stress can be adaptive. Remember those youthful summers, a long awaited reprieve from the taxing school year that begs you to embrace sinking into the couch and ever-lasting cartoon marathons? When there is no stress to complete an assignment or accomplish a task, it becomes easy to fall into the embrace of comfort until the dishes pile up and the dirty clothes are strewn about our bedrooms. In this case, too little stress equates to too little action.
Now think of the antithesis of those relaxing summers: finals week. When there is an abundant amount of deadlines, tests, or looming anticipation of a never-ending to-do list, our stress becomes overwhelming. Instead of making a game plan, we again, sink into a Netflix marathon or perhaps take a nap, unable to cope with the tasks at hand because we don’t even know where to begin. The stress becomes so great that our actions are (once more) limited.
With too little or too much stress, our performance and productivity go down. But lucky for us, there is a sweet spot for stress.
Introducing: The Stress Curve
The Stress Curve is a normal, bell-shaped curve that indicates how our stress levels impact our performance. As you can see, with too little or too much stress, we are inactive—stuck somewhere between complacency and laziness or burnt out and in desperate need of implementing some coping strategies. Yet right in the middle – in the sweet spot – is our “optimal level of stress”. That’s right, there is a healthy amount of stress!
In this zone, we have just enough on our plate to light a fire under us to move through the tasks at hand but not enough to become overwhelmed and exhausted. Now, as the AIM Ideas Lab findings show, many teens are living in the overwhelm and burn out end of this stress curve. When we find ourselves there, our way back to the optimal level is through taking some time to cope.
Mental health challenges are as unique as the person experiencing them—meaning, we all have different experiences and therefore, will all cope in different ways. When it comes to approaching caring for your mental health, identifying what coping strategies work for you and structuring the time and space to implement them is imperative. It’s also important to note that sometimes, we wake up and our tried-and-true coping strategies just won’t cut it anymore. That’s normal. The only constant is change; therefore, keeping up with our ever-changing selves requires continuing to make the space for ourselves.
With all that being said, here are some favorite coping strategies to get you out of burn out and back to the optimal level of stress:
- Developing a meditation or breathwork practice
- Spending time in nature
- Connecting with someone who makes you feel safe + supported
- Getting into a flow state (drawing, playing sports, sudoku puzzle, surfing, etc)
- Going for a walk
- Journaling (stream of consciousness writing is great)
- Reading (we love “The Tools” by Phil Stutz & Barry Michels)
- Taking a 10-min stretch break
The Stress Curve not only indicates that some stress is helpful, but also that rest is completely productive—and necessary!—to get back to peak performance. In an effort to display to youth that taking time for mental health care directly supports our ability to keep moving through life’s never-ending tasks, reframing stress in this way can be liberating.
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About the Author
Meadowlark Monaghan (she/hers) is a consultant using her knowledge gained as a mental health professional to act as a liaison between brands, creators, + online communities with the field of psychology and mental health. She also co-hosts the personal development podcast, Thoughts May Vary. Her work has been seen with Madhappy, Local Optimist, The Mayfair Group, Lonely Ghost, AIM Youth Mental Health, NAMI San Diego and more
Moving Upstream: A Proactive Approach to Addressing Behaviors and Bullying
Krista Reuther is the Assistant Director of Ohana’s Community Health and Prevention Program. She received her Masters in Public Health and Social Work at UC Berkeley. She comes to this position after 14 years of clinical social work experience at Stanford Children’s Hospital in pediatric oncology, critical care, and bereavement. Her goal is to reduce the incidence of mental illness in children and adolescents in Monterey County.
Dr. Guss is a 35-year veteran educator with a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership. She served as a classroom teacher for 10 years, including two years as a teacher in a bilingual program in South Central Los Angeles. She has also served as a college professor, mentor teacher for new teachers, and a master teacher for teacher candidates completing their student teaching experience. She continues to be a strong advocate for the teaching profession.
Fellowship: Stanford University School of Medicine (1994) CA
Michael G. Thompson, Ph.D. is a consultant, author and psychologist specializing in children and families. He is the supervising psychologist for the Belmont Hill School and has worked in more than seven hundred schools across the United States, as well as in international schools in Central America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
is 15 years old and a sophomore at Marina High School in Marina, CA. Her academic interests include math, history, and psychology. She joined the AIM Ideas Lab in 2021 because she wanted to be a part of something that could have a great impact on her community. Marwa is interested in youth mental health because she has always been fascinated with the human mind and she wants to support those that are suffering who may feel like their challenges in life aren’t important enough or are too afraid to seek necessary help.
Giovanna Panetta is a 16 year old junior at Carmel High School. She has always been called to STEM subjects, specifically biology. The AIM Ideas Lab instantly attracted her attention as a research opportunity. Gia has always comprehended the importance of mental health. She knows that COVID only exacerbated previously existing problems, and that as a community we can try and find the root of those problems. Mental health is an integral part of life, and can impede a body’s ability to be healthy. She strongly believes that life is worth living, and she wants to help anyone that thinks otherwise.
Dr. Friedman completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology from University of California San Diego (UCSD). She went on to complete her masters and doctorate degrees (Ph.D.) in Clinical Psychology from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/Chicago Medical School. Dr. Friedman completed her pre-doctoral internship at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, and her post-doctoral fellowship training at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. Her clinical training and experience has been focused primarily on comprehensive assessment and effective treatments for anxiety, mood and related disorders. Dr. Friedman has extensive experience in providing Cognitive Behavioral Therapies for anxiety disorders (e.g. worry, OCD, social anxiety, phobias and PTSD), depression, adjustment disorders/life stress, insomnia and body-focused repetitive behaviors (e.g. Trichotillomania and skin picking). She has received training in evidence-based interventions for a variety of specific problems, including exposure with response prevention (ERP) for treatment of OCD, Prolonged Exposure (PE) for treatment of PTSD, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). Moreover, she has specialty training in the treatment of childhood anxiety and related disorders, such as ADHD, selective mutism, separation anxiety, PTSD, depression and specific phobias. In addition, Dr. Friedman has developed an expertise in research on Trichotillomania and body-focused repetitive behaviors, which has led to numerous local and national presentations. Dr. Friedman regularly attends local and national conferences, training seminars and workshops in order to stay informed on the most up to date treatments and apply state of the art science into her clinical practice.
Dr. Piacentini is a board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist and Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. He directs the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Clinic and Tourette Association Center of Excellence which provide diagnostic evaluation and treatment (both therapy and medication) for youth with the above problems. He also directs the UCLA Center for Child Anxiety Resilence, Education, and Support (CARES; carescenter.ucla.edu) which provides education and programming to parents, teachers, and clinicians about anxiety prevention and management.
Citlalli Nava is 18 years old and a first year majoring in Psychology at Hartnell Community College in Salinas, CA. She is passionate about understanding how mental health affects how youth think, act, and feel. Citlalli joined the AIM Ideas Lab in 2021 after witnessing the increase in mental health challenges in teenagers and considering the mental health issues they are facing. Citlalli is interested in youth mental health because it is a real problem faced by her generation.
Clinical and community psychologist and health care innovator Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, is CEO of the American Psychological Association, the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. With more than 146,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students as members, APA promotes and disseminates psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve lives – a mission consistent with Evans’ life work.
