Stress is a very prominent issue among humans, especially college students. There’s pressure to do well academically, to get a good degree and good job, pressure from friends, from parents, and the overall load of work and study takes a toll on the average student. During the past few weeks it seems like everyone on my floor has been really stressed out about exams and projects, myself included, so I decided that maybe I could do some research on stress. I found some useful info on Amherst College’s health education web site, and I wanted to share what I found to help out my friends and my readers.
Some common signs of stress are:
- Problems eating or sleeping
- Increased use of alcohol or other drugs
- Increased boredom and fatigue; a general sense of "the blahs"
- Problems making decisions; increased procrastination
- Becoming anxious and confused over unimportant events
- Increased frustration with minor annoyances
- Frequent colds and infections
This website also offered different tips to handle stress. Some of these include short term fixes:
- Relax where you are.
- Take a break.
- Ask yourself whether it's worth being upset over the situation.
- List all the things you think you need to do right away. Then prioritize the list and only do the top few.
Long term ways to handle stress include:
- Seek your own stress level.
- Choose your own goals.
- Think positive.
- Make decisions.
- Keep realistic expectations.
- Accept what you cannot change.
- Anticipate potentially stressful situations and prepare for them.
- Manage your time.
- Take care of your health.
- Take time for yourself.
Personally, I have a few ways to handle stress that I feel really work well for me. I really like the short term tip to take a break. Chances are, when you’re feeling really stressed, it’s just mental. If you take a break for a little while and take your mind off things, chances are when you approach your problem again you will come back with a much more collected and calm manner. I will continue to test out these stress tips and let you know what works best for me…
Also, click on the stress title of this posting for a link to the Amherst College Health Education website.
2 comments:
I also like the tip of taking breaks. It really does help. I think there’s just something empowering about saying ‘no’ to your work and doing something fun. I also believe that just letting the problem churn in the back of your head for a while, without focusing on it, gives new insight.
What sort of things do you do when you’re taking a break?
I've found that things like playing video games (there's just something satisfying about beating the snot out of something), taking a hot shower, taking an hour long nap, or eating chocolate (I secretly believe it cures everything...if you eat enough! :D ) help me deal with stress.
I'll have to try some of the other tips to see how they work out for me. I’ll start from the one about making a list. I think there’s going to be some sense of fulfillment when I cross off something from a list.
Thanks for putting up the info!
Yeah one of the best ways to deal with stress is definitely just to stop doing whatever is stressing you for a while and come back to it later. I usually just sit down or laydown and take a nap because when i am stressed I usually don't sleep to well. I end up pushing myself pretty far but I can the also just let myself sleep when it becomes too much. Also in order for this to work you need to be ahead of what you need to get done. Try to finish something two days before it is due. That way if it stresses you out you can step back for even a whole day and still be ahead of it when you come back.
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