Learning How Teens Cope

When i started my research on how teens cope with too much responsibility, I soon learned there are many different problems that teens cope with.  I went to Google and did a search on effective strategies for teen coping.  I found an article titled "Helping Teens Cope" published by The Public Health Agency of Canada.  The article explains a few things that teens may have difficulty coping with.  For example, "natural or human caused disasters, such as earthquakes, health emergencies, terrorist attacks, or acts of war" ("Helping Teens Cope").  If I was in one of these situations, I can imagine what they're going through.  The article said that is  was normal for teens to worry about their surroundings.  Most people I know don't stress about natural disasters, but they tend to worry about gangs, drugs, violence, or their parents fighting.  

The article says also shares couple of expected ways that teens react to stress.  For example, teens drink or do drugs to cope with the stress.  Teens may also have problems sleeping, eating, have a poor attitude, or do have poor grades.  I have sleeping problems all the time.  Before I go to sleep I always think about things that are going on in school with me, family, work, and the world around me.  Sometimes it takes me hours to go to sleep.  I toss and turn, move to the couch or into another room where it's colder, try to always think about one thing, but it turns into thinking about many things.  I see people I know and care about take drugs to help deal with life.

"Helping Teens Cope." Public Health Agency of Canada 21 July 2005 28 May 2008 http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/oes-bsu-02/teens_e.html.