Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls

by Lisa Damour

Healthy stress happens when we take on new challenges, such as giving a speech to a large audience, or do things that feel psychologically threatening, such as finally confronting a hostile peer.

We don’t want our daughter’s stress level to be consistently too low or too high. But we can embrace reasonable levels of stress as a nutrient

With your help and over time, your daughter can come to appreciate that stress is a positive and growth-giving part of life. Except for when it’s not.

Stress becomes unhealthy when it exceeds what a person can absorb or benefit from.

When psychologists study stress and its impact on health, we sort it into three distinct domains, namely life events, daily hassles, and chronic stress.

Taking a strategic approach—fixing what we can and finding a way to live with what remains—makes it possible to feel less helpless and more relaxed, even in the face of substantial adversity.

stress usually refers to the feeling of emotional or mental strain or tension, anxiety usually refers to the feeling of fear, dread, or panic.

Interesting distinction.