Pressured & Stressed Students
Introduction
In order to maintain focus on your college work it is important to keep stress levels low. Reducing your stress level in college will ultimately improve your power of concentration, your work level and last but not least your marks. Let’s face it. There are lots of things to get stressed about when you’re in college, from earning good grades to co-existing with your roommates, or getting accepted to a sports team, sorority/fraternity or other organization. There is no reason for extra stress of managing your financials and keeping your renter’s insurance policy up-to-date. Every aspect of life is a potential source for stress, it’s all about keeping it managed and under control or taking different approaches to dealing with certain issues.
Correlation between stress and medical problems
Have you ever heard someone saying: ‘it’s all in your mind’? The effects of stress often express in mental problems. But it is also a fact that continuous high levels of stress can be harmful to your body, not just your mind.
Continuous high stress levels leads to things like migraines, hypertension and ultimately also to physical complaints like kidney problems - also for young people. If you suffer from constant stress, please discuss the situation with your medical doctor. Physicians can advise you on how to reduce your stress levels or help you with medicines.
If you are prone to get highly stressed very fast or if you have a clinically diagnosed stress-related illness, medicine is important to keep the stress level low and to avoid other stress related diseases or syndromes. Taking your medication will not only help you to reduce the stress level, but also will subsequently help to protect your body from developing physical side-effects. Even though you are usually rather young when attending college, you should consider comprehensive health care coverage, better to be safe; this also contributes to peace of mind.
Strategies to reduce stress
There is an old saying that claims ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’. Just by talking to someone with a sympathetic ear, you may discover that whatever is bothering you is half as bad.
As a college student, you’ll have contact to academic tutors for any student problems, counselors for personal and financial issues, and your friends and room-mates for everything imaginable. And if living on campus or student life in general is stressing you out, then leave university and stay at home for a few days.
The next two ways to reduce stress seem to contradict each other, but depending on your personality, one of them may work well for you. If you’re a bit of a party animal and if you are on the way all the time- take a rest! Slow down the pace of your life and spend a few quiet nights re-charging your batteries. The alternative, if you’re more reserved, is to gather with a few friends and go out and have some fun. - find something suitable to do that will let you blow off some steam.
Whatever you do, try to avoid these common pitfalls most student experience. Stress is often related with eating disturbance because if you are stressed, you either eat nothing or you eat very fast and above all unhealthy things like fast food. Developing this bad habit could result in becoming obese, and an earlier claim on your life insurance policy! So, if you’re eating too much junk food, change your diet to include more fruit and vegetables. And if you do not have a regular sleeping pattern, develop some regular sleeping hours. Finally, even if you’re not the sporty type, get some exercise and fresh air. Just a daily 30-minute walk outdoors will give you some personal time get your blood circulating and help you clearing your head. You’ll feel refreshed and ready to start again.
Being a college student is all about earning a qualification that will help you developing your interests and pursue them down a chosen career path. It should be something that you can enjoy and look forward to on a daily basis, not something that you dread. No one wants to be stressed, but if you are stressed, there are people you can talk to about it, and who will help you to overcome whatever your current difficulty is.