Stress & Stress Management of The Gifted : Stress & Stress Management of The Gifted By Buğra Çiftçi
Outline : What is stress?
What are stresses on a gifted children?
How Can Stress Hurt A Gifted Student's Self-Esteem?
How Can Gifted Students Cope With Stress?
Coping strategies
Unhealthy coping strategies
Checklist for Burnout Outline
What is stress? : Stress is the body's general response to any intense physical, emotional, or mental demand placed on it by oneself or others. While racing to meet a deadline, dealing with a difficult person, or earning a poor grade are all stressful, so are the excitement of playing a lively game of tennis, falling in love, and being selected to join a special program for gifted students.
back What is stress?
What are stresses on a gifted children? : Anything can be a stressor if it lasts long enough, happens often enough, is strong enough, or is perceived as stress. Working diligently on a project, performing many simple but boring tasks, or earning an "A" grade when one expected an "A+" may all be stressful.
back What are stresses on a gifted children?
Slide 5 : Many gifted youngsters have a heightened sensitivity to their surroundings, to events, to ideas, and to expectations. Some experience their own high expectations for achievement as a relentless pressure to excel. Constant striving to live up to self-expectations--or those of others-- to be first, best, or both can be very stressful. With every new course, new teacher, or new school questions arise about achievement and performance, since every new situation carries with it the frightening risk of being mediocre. Striving becomes even more stressful when unrealistic or unclear expectations are imposed by adults or peers. The pressure to excel, accompanied by other concerns such as feeling different, self-doubt (the "imposter" syndrome), and the need to prove their giftedness can drain the energy of gifted students and result in additional stress.
Slide 6 : Stress occurs even when everything is going well. Youngsters get tired from their constant efforts and may secretly fear that next time they will not be as successful.
Many gifted students accept responsibility for a variety of activities such as a demanding courseload; leadership in school activities, clubs, or sports; and part-time jobs. Even if it were humanly possible, doing everything well would be physically and emotionally stressful.
Slide 7 : Vacations may be stressful if students are comfortable only when achieving and succeeding. Taking time off may make them feel nervous and lacking control.
Gifted students need intellectual challenge. Boring, monotonous busy-work is very stressful for individuals who prefer thinking and reasoning activities. Boredom may result in anger, resentment, or, in some cases, setting personal goals for achievement and success that significantly exceed those of parents or school.
Slide 8 : Some gifted students value independence and leadership, yet the separation they feel from their peers results in loneliness and fewer opportunities to relieve stress. Finding a peer group can be difficult, particularly for adolescents. Some experience a conflict between belonging to a group and using their extraordinary abilities.
Slide 9 : Gifted students are complex thinkers, persuasively able to argue both sides of any question. This ability, however, may complicate decisions. Students may lack information about and experience with resources, processes, outcomes, or priorities that help tip an argument toward a clear solution. Furthermore, not every problem has one obviously correct answer. Compromise and accommodation are realities in the adult world, but they are not easily perceived from a young person's viewpoint. Thus, decision making may be a very stressful process.
How Can Stress Hurt A Gifted Student's Self-Esteem? : During the early years, school may be easy, with minimum effort required for success. If students are not challenged, they conclude that "giftedness" means instant learning, comprehension, and mastery, and that outstanding achievement follows naturally. As years pass, however, schoolwork becomes more difficult. Some students discover that they must work harder to earn top grades and that they have not developed productive study habits. Many suspect they are no longer gifted, and their sense of self-worth is undermined.
back How Can Stress Hurt A Gifted Student's Self-Esteem?
Slide 11 : Stress can hamper the very abilities that make these students gifted. Stress clouds thinking, reduces concentration, and impairs decision making. It leads to forgetfulness and a loss of ability to focus keenly on a task, and it makes students overly sensitive to criticism. Under these conditions, they perform less well and are more upset by their failures.
How Can Gifted Students Cope With Stress? : Some ways of coping with stress are healthy; others are not. Some healthy ways of handling stress include the following:
Change the source of the stress. Do something else for a while. Put down those study notes and jog for an hour.
Confront the source of the stress. If it is a person, persuade him or her to remove the stress. Ask the teacher for an extension on a project. Sit down with the person driving you crazy and talk about ways you might better work together.
Talk about the source of stress. Rid yourself of frustration. Find a good listener and complain. Talk through possible solutions. How Can Gifted Students Cope With Stress?
Healthy strategies : Shift your perspective. Tell yourself that each new situation or problem is a new challenge, and that there is something to be learned from every experience. Try to see the humorous side of the situation.
. Healthy strategies
Healthy strategies : Learn skills and attitudes that make tasks easier and more successful. Practice effective organization and time-management skills. For example, large projects are easier and less overwhelming when broken down into manageable steps. Learn to type and revise assignments on a word processor. Learn about yourself and your priorities, and use the information to make decisions. Learn how to say "no" gracefully when someone offers you another attractive (or unpleasant) task about which you have a choice. Tell yourself that this unpleasantness will be over soon and that the whole process will bring you closer to reaching your goal. Mark the days that are left on the calendar, and enjoy crossing out each one as you near the finish Healthy strategies
Healthy strategies : Take time out for enjoyable activities. Everyone needs a support system. Find friends, teachers, or relatives with whom you have fun. Spend time with these people when you can be yourself and set aside the pressures of school, work, or difficult relationships. As a reward for your efforts, give yourself work breaks. Listen to your favorite music, shoot baskets, or participate in some other brief activity that is mentally restful or fun.
Ignore the source of the stress. Practice a little healthy procrastination and put a pleasant activity ahead of the stressful one. This, is, of course, only a short-term solution.
Get regular physical exercise and practice sound nutrition. Physical activity not only provides time out, but also changes your body chemistry as you burn off muscle tension built up from accommodating stress. Exercise also increases resistance to illness. Nutritious food and regular meals help regulate your body chemistry and keep you functioning at your sharpest. Eating healthy and attractively prepared food can be an enjoyable activity on its own.
back Healthy strategies
Unhealthy Strategies : The following are some unhealthy ways students cope with stress:
Escaping through alcohol, drugs, frequent illness, sleep, overeating, or starving themselves. These strategies suggest a permanent withdrawal or avoidance rather than a time out.
Selecting strategies to avoid failure. Gifted students closely link their identities to excellence and achievement. Failure, or even the perception of failure, seriously threatens their self-esteem. By not trying, or by selecting impossible goals, students can escape having their giftedness questioned. Only their lack of effort will be questioned. Unhealthy Strategies
Unhealthy Strategies : Aiming too low. This reduces stress by eliminating intense pressure or possible feelings of failure. Dogged procrastination in starting projects, selecting less competitive colleges or less rigorous courses, or dropping out of school rather than bringing home poor grades allows students to avoid feelings of failure in the short run. Sadly, this sets the stage for long-term disappointment caused by a destructive coping style. Unhealthy Strategies
Unhealthy Strategies : Overscheduling daily life with schoolwork and extracurricular activities, selecting impossibly demanding courseloads, or fussing endlessly over assignments in vain attempts to make them perfect. With this strategy, it is possible to succeed only through superhuman effort; thus the student can save face by setting goals too high for anyone to achieve.
back Unhealthy Strategies
Checklist for Burnout : Students respond differently to stress. How to draw the line between constructive excitement and downright overload takes finesse. Here's a list of symptoms. Your student:
Is no longer excited or happy about school, activities, teachers, courses, classmates, parents, achievements;
Resents assignments or acts with resignation;
Is bored;
Suffers from sleeplessness, difficulty waking or falling asleep; Checklist for Burnout
Checklist for Burnout : Overreacts to everyday events;
Exhibits low energy and extreme tiredness;
Develops nervous habits like stuttering, blinking, head shaking;
Complains of ailments, headaches, stomach aches;
Is frequently ill;
Needs constant support, reassurance; Checklist for Burnout
Checklist for Burnout : Engages in acting out, being aggesssive, and seeking attention;
Feels "trapped" or out of control;
Loses perspective and sense of humor;
Is just plain exhausted -- physically, emotionally, mentally. Checklist for Burnout
Thanks for listening! : Thanks for listening!
References: : http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/stress_management.html
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e488.html
http://school.familyeducation.com/gifted-education/stress/38663.html
Varma, Ved P.(1996)coping with children in stress References: