Cyber Bullying

Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others. Most people have heard of this type of bullying before but I feel I need to talk about it. While posting something that embarrasses or humiliates a person on someones Facebook or Myspace might not seem like a big deal, it can actually lead to alot of problems. Once you post something on the internet its there forever. Sometimes you can take it down ,but whoever has had access to it could have copied it. The problem with cyberbullying is that sometimes its hard to find who is doing it ,and that the effects are about as bad as face to face bullying. Victims have lower self-esteem, increased suicidal ideation, and a variety of emotional responses, cyberbullying back, being scared, frustrated, angry, and depressed. What seems like a joke to you could have a huge effect on another person. Before you post something embarrassing or offensive think about what your doing.

Ways to deal with Stress and Depression

Symptoms of stress can be mental, social and physical. These include exhaustion, loss of appetite, headaches, crying, sleeplessness, and oversleeping. Escape through alcohol, drugs, or other compulsive behavior are often indications. Feelings of alarm or frustration may accompany stress.Here are some ways to help you deal with stress:

• Look around and see if there really is something you can change or control in the situation.
• Remove yourself from the stressful situation for a few minutes.
• Don't overwhelm yourself by worrying about all of your work. Handle each task as it comes, or selectively deal with matters in some priority.
• Get enough sleep, lack of sleep can just increase your stress or make it worse.
• Work off stress with physical activity, whether it's jogging, tennis, gardening.
• Try to be positiveGive yourself messages as to how well you can cope rather than how horrible everything is going to be. "Stress can actually help memory, provided it is short-term and not too severe. Stress causes more glucose to be delivered to the brain, which makes more energy available to neurons. This, in turn, enhances memory formation and retrieval. On the other hand, if stress is prolonged, it can impede the glucose delivery and disrupt memory." All Stressed Up, St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, p. 8B, Monday, November 30, 1998

For other tips and more information check out this site:http://www.studygs.net/stress.htm

Effects of Stress

There are many types of stress but the type I will be talking about today is Biological Stress. There are 3 stages of stress. The first is Alarm. This is the point where the body recognizes what is causing stress. During this stage adrenaline will be produced in order to bring about a response. Resistance is the second stage, if your stress persists it becomes necessary to attempt to a way to cope with the stress. Exhaustion is the 3rd stage, at this point initial autonomic nervous system symptoms may reappear (sweating, raised heart rate etc.). If stage three is extended, long term damage may result. The result can a be a number of obvious illnesses such as ulcers, depression, Diabetes, trouble with the digestive system and even cardiovascular problems along with other mental illnesses.There are several ways of coping with stress, such as controlling the source of stress or learning to set limits and to say "No" to some demands that bosses or family members may make. Coping with stress will be covered in my next post.

Bullying

Bullying is the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coereion such as manipulation.Victims of bullying can suffer from long term emotional and behavioral problems. Bullying can cause loneliness, anxiety,depression and can lead to low self-esteem. Most bullying can be prevented. Schools all over the country run types of anti-bullying programs. Bullying can occur in almost any interaction between humans. This could be social groups, social classes and even between countrys. Because bullying is so common taking steps to prevent it is vital. School shootings are usually a result of bullying. In over 2/3 of the cases the attacker felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured by others prior to the incident. The main thing im trying to say here is dont be a bully. When you bully someone you can cause them alot of problems in thier later years, and cause them to lash out at others who they may have some sort of power over.

Stress from Important Tests

SATs, ACT, LSATs these are a few of the tests some people will have to take before the end of high school. One of the feelings most people experience before large important tests is anxiety. Anxiety is distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune.Studying for a test and preparing for it beforehand can reduce your anxiety. The reason most people have alot of anxiety and stress put on them is because of what you have to lose by failing a test. Tests can put you back in school, delay your entry into a college, and can even prevent your entry into a school. While it is extremely important to be prepared for these tests failing them is not the end of the world.
Lets take the MCAT for example. The MCAT is the Medical College Admissions Test. This is a very important test for anyone trying to get into medical school. This test is required by almost all medical schools. It has 4 parts 3 of which are scored 1-15 and an essay givin a score with the letters J-T with T being the highest grade and J being the lowest. While this is a very important test getting a high grade on the test does not get you into medical school but a low score can keep you out. While you should study as hard as you can the first time you take the test you can take it as many times as you want, but remember when you take the test again it is only helpful if you can improve your score significantly.
The most important thing to remember is to study hard and do your best. Remember that tests are not made to necessarily to hinder you ,but to make sure you are qualified for whatever your doing.

Stress Put on Students by Their Peers

Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to the group.People affected by peer pressure may or may not want to be in their current social group. Many young people are forced to spend time in a social group even if they do not want to spend time in this group. Because youths are forced to spend time in social groups they do not want to be in peer pressure is usually portrayed negitively. Youth peer pressure can have positive side effects though. For example a person who is in a social group that works hard and wants to succeed in life that person may be encouraged to follow suit to avoid being excluded from the group.
In most cases peer pressure is negitive. Students can be peer pressured into drinking alcoholic beverages,having sex, doing drugs, and even in some cases suicide. Now most of you may be wondering (especially the parents) why students have such a strong need to fit in with people who may not even like them. The answer is that because students have to see the same students in school everyday having a social group makes life easier for students. Students with social groups can come to school everyday and have someone to hang out with, and someone to sit with at lunch.
The level of acceptance or rejection an adolescent experiences among their peers influences their trajectory of development.The social status of students while in school often has a profound impact on their development and well-being.The four common groupings of social status are accepted, controversial, neglected and rejected. Accepted adolescents are often liked by most people and get high ratings by their peers. Controversial adolescents get good ratings from half their peers and poor ratings from the other half. Neglected adolescents do not get any ratings at all. Rejected adolescents get poor ratings from their peers. The level of acceptance an adolescent feels will shape his experiences in high school and often throughout much of his later life. Rejected adolescents have poor adjustment skills and low self esteem. They are at high risk to engage in suicidal activitys and commmit criminal acts. Social rejection correlates with poor social skills, poor impulse control, aggression and less psychological well-being. Rejection among a person's peers is often rated as very troubling for people. Positive relations with parents will lead students to have positive relations with thier peers. It is important to understand why children are getting rejected so that programs may be implemented to increase their social competence. Acceptance and rejection among peers will affect an adolescent's trajectory of development based on what experiences they have. More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_acceptance_and_rejection