I believe that getting your emotions and feelings out of your head and into the atmosphere or onto some paper is really helpful. It's like when you blow up a balloon and there's all this pressure building up inside it the bigger it gets until it eventually pops. But that pressure is relieved when you let the balloon go (before you tie a knot obviously). When our emotions and feelings remain in our heads we often feel guilty or ashamed about them, we go over them again and again and imagine worst case scenarios, we get stuck and don't move on. By talking about them or writing them down, it helps us to move on.

Catastrophizing is when you think that things are way worse than they really are. For example, when you get a zit in the middle of your forehead on the day of the Year 10 formal and you think that life is no longer worth living. Like, it's not great when you get a zit just before a big event, but it's not the end of the world. It's not in the same category as my Nana got cancer, or my Dad lost his job. When bad things happen, we have to put them in perspective and remember that it's probably just a bump in the road, not the end of the road.

We’re really good at sharing random stuff like what we ate for lunch, a blow by blow of what we did today, a rant about the latest episode of [insert latest popular Netflix series] but we’re not really good at sharing what’s really going on in our lives. We don't talk about how we’re going at school, how we're getting along with our parents, or things that we're scared of. Psychologists endorse talking as a way of dealing with stress. It's hard to be open and honest if we're too busy hiding our deep dark secrets behind our insta-worthy facades. Find a trustworthy friend and tell them about what's going on in your life. Ask them what's going on in their life too. Sharing helps - sometimes talking about stuff helps us to sort things out. Sometimes you might need to talk to a trusted adult instead - a parent, aunt, friend's mum, school chaplain or teacher. If you can't find a trusted adult you can always call a helpline.
Kids Helpline (5-25 year olds) 1800 55 1800
Headspace (12-25 year olds) 1800 650 890
Lifeline 13 11 14.

In her Back to School Stress-Management Toolkit for Teens, Melanie Greenberg suggests that one way to deal with school (or any other stress) is to distract yourself. The first part of this is to write a list of things that you can do to distract yourself. The second part is to do one of them. This engages the "on task" part of your brain instead of the "worry" part. The trick is to choose short activities that won't take too long. Avoid computer games, social media and netfix - they are sure to consume too much of your time.

In an article on how to deal with pessimistic thoughts, Dr Mike Dow said that the single most effective tool is gratitude. And not just listing things that you are thankful for but writing why you are thankful for them as well. You can read the full article here.

How often do you hear yourself saying things like, I'm so stupid, I'll never get good grades, I'm not good at anything, nobody likes me? These kind of thoughts can affect your behaviour and become self-fulfilling prophecies. With a bit of time and effort you can change your thinking.

Think about your self-talk and write down negative things you say to yourself.
For example, I'm not good at anything.

Judge your thoughts to see if there is any evidence that this is true.
For example, I can cook the best chocolate chip cookies. I get good grades in Math, I am great at Sodoku puzzles. You are good at three things (most likely more) so the statement, I'm not good at anything, is not true.

Replace the negative thought with a more positive one.
Next time you're tempted to say, I'm not good at anything, say something like I'm not great at spelling but I'm getting better. 
 
​All the best!

Read more at Brain Train Me.