People often underestimate the impact high school has on teenagers. We are constantly bombarded with responsibilities. The life of a teenager is not just school and home. It is: school, sports, extracurricular activities, friends, family, sleep, social life, and everything in between. I once heard that anxiety levels in teens today are equivalent to the ones of mental asylum patients in the 1950's. Yet, the American education system continues to deny that there is a problem here.
I have been so stressed recently, it tears me apart physically, mentally, and emotionally. The lack of sleep and daily stress I am faced with eventually catches up to my emotional health, sending a signal to my brain to take a break and just try to calm down. But it isn't that easy. After being pulled into a vicious cycle of no sleep and stress, it takes a while to come back from it. People just say, "well if you weren't procrastinating so much, you would get things done and be fine" but it isn't that easy. It is truly difficult to get yourself together and have a day where you truly feel at peace with where you are emotionally. Dear American education system: we are not superheroes. Dear fellow high-school students: we all need to relax and enjoy what it is supposed to be "the best four years of our lives". Take a break; your brain and body is begging for it.
Check out an article on CNN about stressed teens: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/05/living/teen-stress-overscheduled-parents/