Healthy or Unhealthy
True or False: keeping your stress to yourself is healthy.
False! It's not healthy to keep negative emotions bottled up because they can get worse. You should always seek help in a trusted adult if you are feeling overwhelmed or experiencing anxiety.
Molly gets upset with herself when she doesn't get perfect scores in school. She withdraws from her friends and vows to study twice as much twice as much to get better scores, even if it means working on school work during lunch, missing social activities, and staying up an hour later each night to study.
Identify at least 3 unhealthy habits Molly is showing.
1. Perfectionism/being too hard on herself.
2. Withdrawing from friends; skipping social activities...social support is so important for our mental health and reducing stress!
3. Working during lunch...we need that time for being social, nourishing ourselves, and giving our brains a break from academics!
4. Staying up later at night to study.
Healthy or unhealthy: Carter cries when he gets upset about his grades and school work.
It depends! Crying can be a good release for stress from the body and is a completely normal human reaction.
However, if Carter is crying every day or multiple times a day simply over grades or assignments, this might not be so healthy. Carter should find some ways to help with his stress to work through challenged in a healthy way and go easier on himself.
Healthy or unhealthy?: Kelsey works very hard in school, but she is sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of homework and projects she is assigned. She is often exhausted by the end of the day and sometimes goes to sleep before finishing her homework.
It depends! It's a good thing that Kelsey tries to get good sleep, because that is the foundation for our brains to work properly in school!
Kelsey might need to work on some strategies to boost her energy throughout the day and to manage her time better so her work doesn't suffer too much, but sometimes knowing when to prioritize your health is a really positive thing!
List at least 5 unhealthy coping skills for stress.
Drinking/drugs
Restrictive eating or binge eating
Self-harm
Sleeping too little or too much
Withdrawing from friends/family