How does Stress affect your body Stress-Relief Strategies Keep a positive attitude. Accept that there are events that you cannot control. Be assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive. Learn and practice relaxation techniques (like meditation, yoga or martial arts). Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is fit. Eat healthy, well-balanced meals. Learn to manage your time more effectively. Set limits and learn to say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life. Make time for hobbies, interests, and relaxation. Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events. Don't rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviors to reduce stress. Seek out social support. Spend enough time with those you enjoy. Seek treatment with a psychologist or other mental health professional trained in stress management. Some Stress is Good Not all stress is bad for you. Good stress is referred to as eustress. This kind of stress can improve your quality of life. Some examples of eustress include: anticipating a roller coaster drop, falling in love, having a child and participating in a sport or competition you enjoy. Eustress can be stressful, but also exciting. It can improve your motivation and give you a desire to succeed. Too little eustress may make you feel bored. However, people who always seek out eustress (by participating in activities like skydiving or base jumping) could endanger their health. To change this brochure, replace our sample content with your own. Or, if you'd rather start from a clean slate, press the New Slide button on the Home tab to insert a new page. Now enter your text and pictures in the empty placeholders. If you need more placeholders for titles, subtitles or body text, copy any of the existing placeholders, then drag the new one into place. And did you notice we made fold marks for you? They are really light, but if you don’t like them showing on your brochure, select and delete them before you print. How does Stress affect your body Sources: 1. http://study.com/academy/lesson/stress-definition-and-impact-on- overall-health.html 2. McLeod, S.A. (2010). What is the stress response. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/stress-biology.html 3. https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress- management 4. https://www.npr.org/sections/health- shots/2013/12/02/246599742/school-stress-takes-a-toll-on-health- teens-and-parents-say

What is Stress? Long-Term Problems Stress in School Short-Term Affects Stress is a response to any events, threats, changes or demands that we feel we might not be able to deal with. The thing or event that causes stress is called a stressor. Examples of stressors are a test, changing jobs or schools or losing a loved one. Stressors can be real or imagined, but can have an affect on the body either way. Short-Term Affects Long-Term Problems Stress in School Some signs of stress in children include increased irritability with others being withdrawn from family and hobbies that were once enjoyable more illnesses (stomach aches and headaches). Ways to help your student deal with stress: Listen! Let them know that you hear their worries and want to help them. Talk about homework. You can help your child plan their week and avoid the last-minute stress of a project due the next day. Establish a routine. Make mornings calm to give kids the right start to their day. Un-schedule kids! Extracurricular activities are important. But so is time to relax. Give them space for unstructured activities at home or outside. Continuing stress (such as an overwhelming amount of work, an abusive relationship or ongoing health problems in a loved-one) can cause your body’s adrenal glands to produce the hormone cortisol. This can affect your body in many ways. Some stressors can be sudden and severe. These types of stressors trigger what is called a “fight-or- flight” response. If a situation is seen as stressful, the hypothalamus is activated and the hormone adrenaline is released. Release of adrenaline causes the body to have an increase in heart rate, an increase in breathing, a decrease in digestive activity, increased sweating and a release of glucose from the liver (energy). Once the stressor is gone, the body returns to normal and there are no lasting affects. While “fight-or-flight” stressors are unpleasant, your body’s response can help you survive and has an evolutionary benefit, Long-term stress, however, can be harmful to your body.