A very similar thing can happen at university. As an example, I saw multiple students (including me) at some point get stressed out as undergraduate students at MIT. Most (including me) managed to get through it. I did however see a few students drop out. One would have dropped out anywhere (his problem was showing up to class at all – he was brilliant and did well on those rare occasions that he bothered to show up). A few others might have been happier somewhere less stressful.
For academically stressful schools I have said “you have to want to do it”.
But then I took the equivalent of a gap (and had a job) between undergrad and graduate school, and this worked out very well. When I went back to get my master’s I did want to do it, and did very well while not noticing much stress at all.
And I have seen a few cases of students transferring to a less stressful high school and doing well.
I think that this is a difficult thing to figure out. We each do the best that we can and hope that it works out okay.