There is less than two weeks until final exams; it is that time of the semester where projects are coming due, and presentations are happening almost daily. For many students this point in the semester brings a very unwelcome guest: stress.
The National Institutes of Health defines stress as “… a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous.” Small amounts of stress over short periods of time can be a good thing, but large amounts of stress over a long period of time can have negative effects on your physical health. The American Psychological Association Help Center reports that long-term stress can contribute to cardiovascular diseases, like a heart attack.
According to the 2015 National College Health Assessment, 85.6 percent of college students felt overwhelmed by everything they had to do and 56.9 percent felt overwhelming anxiety. And with this 30 percent of college students reported that stress negatively affected their academic performance and 21.9 percent reported that anxiety did.
I can certainly relate to these statistics, not just from this semester, but from every semester since my freshman year. But this semester is by far the worst. Any other semester by now I would only have a final project or final exam for each class; this semester I still have 11 projects or papers due. The worst part about all of this is that I’m only in four classes this semester.
So now I’m left with two choices: I can just allow myself to have a mental breakdown and fail out of college less than 20 days before I graduate, or I can try to cope with all of this stress and get all of my work done.
I think I’m going to try and cope with this stress.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that to cope with stress you should eat healthy meals, exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep and take a break when you feel stressed out. Also, talking to others and sharing your problems and how you are feeling with a parent, friend, counselor, doctor or pastor and avoiding drugs and alcohol can help to reduce your stress.
The CDC urges that you learn to recognize when you need more help and if you notice your stress continues and problems get worse or you are thinking about suicide, talk to a psychologist, social worker or professional counselor.
My only criticism of this would be that most of these coping mechanisms ask you to take time out of your schedule to help you destress. Most of my stress is coming from the lack of time that I have to get everything done, so if I don’t have the time to do what is required of me, how am I supposed to take time to relax?
You get stressed so you try to cope with it, which causes you to lose time to get all of your work completed, which causes you stress… I have pretty much learned that in some cases stress is a Catch-22.
SARAH BARTKOWIAK
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