AR-15 semiautomatic rifle: 5.56 caliber, deadly from 1300 yards.

M-16 rifle: 5.56 caliber, deadly from 875 yards.

9 mm revolver: 9.00 caliber, deadly from 1800 yards.

All weapons that can end your life in the blink of an eye.

But have you ever thought about a weapon that will kill you, but in a very different manner? It will slowly eat away at your insides until there is nothing left of you but a hollow shell of the person you once were. Do you know what it is?

No? Well, what if I told you this was the most dangerous weapon known to mankind-and it isn't something material?

Do you know now?

The teens of today are so vulnerable due to all of the mediums that they are exposed to. They are taught to believe that these fake, photo-shopped pictures are what they are supposed to look like. That they have to be a size 0 to be worth something. That no matter how much they do, they will never be enough.This intangible punishment we are subjected to today is comparison-the most deadly weapon known to man.

There is so much pressure on kids today to excel. They are expected to do so much: keep high grades, perform well in sports, do service, and still maintain a social life. There just isn't enough time in a day for everything. So they push and push and push themselves, until they are mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted, on the verge of collapsing just for validation. Far too often their efforts go unnoticed, and they end up feeling worse than before, because nobody will acknowledge their successes, but only bring up and dwell on their failures. A major aspect of the stress is also parents. When asked about what brings kids stress, 68% of teenagers say that their parents make them feel stressed. Too often kids struggles are pushed aside by parents who just want to bring up how great they have it now. Saying things like "When I was your age, I had to walk 3 miles each way to school even when it was raining and snowing" is only going to make a child feel worse because it seems as though you think their stress is not valid. Many parents also bring up that we have a much better education system than they did and we should be grateful for that. We are grateful, but that doesn't mean it isn't hard. All the kids want to hear is that we have to work so much harder than our parents ever did and that they are there to do whatever they can to help make everything easier.

Not only do parents compare their children to themselves when they were in school, a pointless comparison due to the drastic changes from when they were our age to now, but they too often are compared to their peers and siblings. One of the worst things to hear from a parent is "I don't care about everyone else, I care about you." When you are trying to tell your parents that everyone did bad on an assignment or something of that nature, and they just push it aside and put the blame of you for not doing well when it very well could not be your fault. It is especially hard for kids who are younger siblings with very successful older siblings. They have precedents that are set for them and if they are not as academically or athletically inclined, they have to work much harder to achieve the same things that their brother or sister did so they aren't treated as subordinate. I am an older sister, and I hear my parents tell my brother things such as "Well your sister did this, your sister did that" or "She could keep her grade higher in this class" and it fills me with sympathy for him. Siblings are not the same person so they should not be held to the same standards in endeavors such as school or sports.

In fact, no two people are exactly alike, therefore holding everyone the same standards is an unnecessary and unproductive. We all have an obligation to support the people in our lives and lift them up. We have to remind them that they are the best them that there ever was, has been, or will be and that no matter what other people achieve, they will never diminish their successes.

Sadly, that's not the truth of today. Kids spend their time feeling insufficient no matter how hard they work. And that's what makes comparison so dangerous: we are the only people who can fix ourselves, but we're aiming the weapon straight back at ourselves.

Comparison: deadly from anywhere.