Under Pressure Quotes

“Unfortunately, anxiety, like stress, has gotten a bad rap. Somewhere along the line we got the idea that emotional discomfort is always a bad thing.”
― Lisa Damour, Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls

“When girls come into my office in a panic...and I can tell that they they’re just a wreck, I get out my glitter jar and I do this.” She picked up the jar and shook it fiercely the way one shakes a snow globe. The placid water immediately became a sparkling purple tempest. “And then I say to the girl, ‘Right now, this is what it’s like in your brain. So first, let’s settle your glitter.”
― Lisa Damour, Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls

“Try this at home. The next time your daughter tells you that she’s feeling really nervous about a test for which she has yet to study, cheerily reply, “Good! I’m glad you’re worried. That’s the ideal reaction, because right now you know you’re not ready. As soon as you start studying, your nerves will calm down.”
― Lisa Damour, Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls

“More than we realize, girls understand us to be saying that they must always be utterly and completely forthright. That's a problem, especially when we combine it with the cultural injunction to be agreeable. A girl can't actually accomplish both because, like any other human, every girl contains a world of complicated thoughts and feelings. She cannot possibly be simultaneously see-through and utterly pleasing to others.”
― Lisa Damour, Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls

“...harassment is actually a sexualized form of bullying. Bullies use social or physical power to intimidate and demean others. Harassers put a sleazy spin on the same dynamic, simply deploying vulgar language and unwanted advances to accomplish the same end.”
― Lisa Damour, Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls

“I have tissues right where students can reach them but have noticed that girls often avoid taking one. It's as though needing to use a tissue suggests that they have totally lost control of their feelings.”
― Lisa Damour, Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls

“In practical terms, this means that the brain's emotional centers, which are housed in the primitive limbic system, are fully upgraded before the brain's perspective-maintaining systems, which are located in the highly evolved prefrontal cortex. When a teenager feels calm, her capacity for logical reasoning can equal or outstrip any adult's. When a teenager becomes upset, her supercharged emotions can hijack the whole neurological system, unleashing a blinding glitter storm and turning your otherwise rational daughter into a sobbing puddle on your kitchen floor.”
― Lisa Damour, Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls