Health and Wellbeing

Many situations can cause stress, such as friendships, problems at home, academic worries and coping with exams, dealing with relationships, bullying, sexuality issues or change.

A certain amount of stress can be positive– it can motivate us, be exciting or invigorating and enable us to meet new challenges.  After all, if we never tackled things that we found challenging we would stop learning or moving on in life.  But too much stress can be difficult to cope with and may cause health problems.  It is normal to feel anxious, stressed, confused or even depressed at times.

Please follow this link to a helpful leaflet on coping with stress.

The government, the UK Youth Parliament and Essex County Council are all currently campaigning for additional support for young people's mental health and wellbeing.  In response to this, the Council has established this website: 

http://www.essexyeah.org.uk/index.html

This site covers all aspects of mental health issues facing young people, with particular focus on the support available for bullying, self-harming, stress, problems at home and disabilities.  It also explains how to respond if a friend talks about such issues, and stresses the needed support of friends for overcoming mental health issues.

Always remember if these feelings persist or become difficult to deal with it is important to seek help, whether it’s from a friend, your GP or the School Pastoral Team.