Nobody can escape from feeling stress and anxiety, especially students. It is a part of life and is not always bad as opposed to the common perception. However, to ensure it does not prolong into chronic stress and to learn how to manage college stress, follow the guidelines below.
How Stress Affects College Students
Stress on students is inevitable. If you want to know how does stress affects college students? Here’s how; If not managed the right way, can take a toll on students’ physical as well as mental health. Your academic performance can also get compromised if you fail to take care of yourself. Stress can be caused due to an array of reasons, including an increase in responsibilities, changes in lifestyles, interpersonal relationships, high academic burden, and many more. Upon research in American schools, it was found that around 48 percent of students who underwent therapy were diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or stress. If you are a student and feel overburdened due to academic responsibilities, feel free to hire professional writers who can write my essay and help you make more time for yourself.
Today’s students are becoming more stressed than ever. According to the American College Health Association National College Health research in 2015, 85 percent of students were identified as having experienced overwhelming stress in the last year. One leading cause for this stress was the social pressure mounted on students for keeping up with the new trends and regularly uploading their social media accounts. Social media platforms have also become an avenue for increased bullying, unhealthy comparisons, and even cyber-crime. Excessive stress can lead to compromised physical and mental health, a decreased quality of sleep, weight gain, failure to retain information, depression, and worse.
Causes of Student Stress
Why are students so stressed? What causes lead to students to feel frustrated? There can be quite a few but let’s read about a few major ones in detail so that managing stress for students can become a tad bit easier.
Living away from home
For many students, entering college means leaving the comfort of their home and residing in hostels, dorms, and other arranged accommodation settings for the academic years. Even though the thought might seem exciting at first but when students get to experience the transition, homesickness soon starts to kick in. Staying away from your loved ones can be quite a challenge for many people and lead to stress at university. This is especially true in the first few weeks of college. Even excitement can induce stress and student anxiety. When students enter an unfamiliar environment, everything feels foreign at first. The social life, style of living, type of food, time of eating, compromised privacy, budgeting, and whatnot. Unlike in earlier times, in stressful situations like a big exam or a fight, you do not have your family readily available. It all adds up to the stress. Nonetheless, this university stress does get better with time, so if you are going through this phase, stay strong and consider this an opportunity to learn and outgrow your comfort zone.
Never-ending Academic Demands
The always increasing assignments, quizzes, and projects are one of the major and long-term causes of stress in university students. After all, learning is the main aim of attending a college in the first place. It is also true that not everyone is a bright student or a hard worker. When students fail to achieve their desired or expected grades, they feel burdened by this education stress. Not only do the academically weak students go through this, but often the toppers of the class also get caught up in the never-ending cutthroat competition. Student stress management is crucial for the mental well-being of students. For many students, college is the first time when they start to see academic performance going downhill. High school might be a walk in the park for you, but the shift to college studies is huge, and coping up with this change can get overwhelming for many.
During these academic years, you might start experiencing a completely different social life. If you begin to live in a hostel with friends, this change is even more noticeable. With increased interactions, extracurricular activities, and events, juggling studies alongside makes the day very hectic. Test anxiety is another one of the causes of stress in students. When the competition gets tough and the stakes high, students often feel immense pressure to perform well. However, this accumulated stress can inhibit the ability to perform in an optimal manner.
Work alongside studies
Managing a job with studies is one of the commonly prevalent causes of stress among students. Many students are not well off and cannot depend on their families to support them financially. Others believe that getting experience this early in their lives can provide a golden opportunity to acquire new skills and learning new things. Regardless of the reason for working, stress from studying is inevitable. If your workplace is away from your institution, managing time and costs to commute between the two locations is a challenge in itself. Moreover, trying to excel in both just seems impossible. One if not both often gets affected. Some students have an additional responsibility of sending money home. Coping up with stressful situations like this requires a lot of patience and hard work if you are in handling both of these together, kudos to you!
Participation in extracurriculars
Just like all students cannot be excellent in all subjects or studying generally, all of them cannot be great at extracurriculars either. Many colleges have made it mandatory for students to take part in these social activities, which leads to students’ stress. Even if they are not mandatory, the pressure to have something valuable added to your CVs pushes students to engage in these. Stressed students who are introverts or not as social find it difficult to push beyond their comfort zones and put in efforts. Others who have a genuine interest in these like sports, debating, concerts, etc., can also find it stressful to manage to get decent grades as well as being active in extracurricular activities.
The social pressure and interpersonal relationships
One of the causes of student stress is when an individual is trying to fit in among their peers. When you are new to an institution, feelings of loneliness and nervousness are not very uncommon. However, the search for a place where you belong can be quite stressful for students. Some students fall victim to social issues like bullying. Statistics about stress in students say that one in ten students has faced intense stress because of being mildly bullied by seniors. Other than this, when you spend a huge chunk of your campus life away from home, relationships start to build. These can take the form of new friendships and romantic relationships. Problems in these types of bonds can be observed from very early on and can increase the stress in a student significantly.
9 Ways to Handle College Stress
Now that you are aware of some of how stress affects college students, some common reasons for stress among students, it is time to learn ways and strategies to deal with stress at college. We will go through nine of them one by one. Let’s get started.
Healthy Eating Habits
Looking for how to cope with stress in college? You need to begin with your dietary habits. Take a look at what type of food you consume in a day. Staying away from home often means living off cheap and unhealthy snacks. Nonetheless, this should never be justifiable. Replace the junk with healthy foods. Ensure you are incorporating foods in your diet that are packed with vitamins and nutrients. The right type of food can effectively boost your brainpower. A healthy diet can be a useful tool for stress management for students. The next time you go for a grocery run, add some veggies and fruits to your cart. Adding fish, poultry and nuts are also an excellent way to improve your health.
Get Sufficient Sleep
Do you ever feel grumpy when you do not get a full night’s sleep? Have you ever noticed yourself zoning out continuously when you are tired? These are some common symptoms of sleep-deprived people. No matter how swamped you are with work, make it your mission to never compromise on your sleep. An adult needs an eight-hour sleep on average to function optimally. How to not stress about school? Start with a well-rested and fresh mind and consider it half the battle won. Everything will become less frustrating, and you will observe how your physical and mental performance starts to improve. Your unhealthy eating habits will also get eliminated once you start to sleep right.
Practice Calming Breath Techniques
Why do people meditate and do yoga? It provides them with a sense of relaxation. Doing breathing exercises can help to avoid stress in college. This is possible because breathing techniques result in an increase in oxygen exchange. This lowers the blood pressure, slows down the heart rate, and also releases muscle tension. Any tension held in the abdomen is released. Not only does this aid in the physical but also mental wellbeing and help to keep stress in school at bay.
Listen to Relaxing Music
Reduce stress in college life by benefiting from music. Listening to songs is often therapeutic for many students and helps them escape the harsh realities of life. Any genre can do the trick but try adding relaxing melodies and tunes to your playlists. A great tip is to find songs without lyrics so that you do not get distracted. Listening to music while performing other tasks like completing your assignments has proven to be effective for many students. Release tension by working alongside with something you enjoy, and you will notice your stress levels going down.
Learn to Say No, Do Not Overload Yourself
If you are swamped with work and assignments, and your friend asks you to go shopping, do not give in the request just for their happiness. Do not agree on giving favors to others. Keep your priorities straight and your well-being at the top. It is okay to postpone plans. Let your close ones know about your commitments from before so that they do not interrupt when you are busy. Managing student stress is easier when you become strong-willed and do not let anything get in the way of your goals and aims.
Understand Your Triggers
No two people are completely similar. What induces stress in you will not be the same in the person next to you. To cope with college stress, first, figure out what triggers you. It can be social anxiety or stage fright. It might also be academic pressure or lack of sleep. Get to know yourself inside out. What makes you stressed about college? Sometimes there are factors that you identify with time and never know were there all along. There are certain tests online that can help you in finding these out.
Eliminate Alcohol From Your Diet
Alcohol consumption often gets out of hand, and mental ability becomes restricted, and negative physical symptoms begin to appear like weight gain. You need to focus on your studies right now. Improve your physical well-being by replacing alcohol with coffee or tea. A moderate intake of coffee can also help in energizing you and reducing stress. With an active and healthy mind, retaining information gets easier and academic pressure is relieved to an extent. University student stress is understandable but does not get involved with unhealthy habits to cope up with it.
Find an Activity That Distracts You
Deal with stress in college by finding an activity that interests you. By taking time off from studies and indulging in something that you love will help you blow off steam. This does not mean you need to go out or spend money. How about catching up on your favorite TV show or spending time with your pet? Engaging in some sort of physical activity is an excellent way to take your mind off things. Handle college stress by temporarily distracting yourself from the troublesome thoughts. Looking at things with a fresh mindset can be quite helpful.
Use Positive Thinking
Half the tensions disappear when you become a glass half full person. Do not underestimate the power of optimism. Think of your weaknesses as opportunities to grow and improve. To be stress-free in college, do not give in to negative thoughts. Look at every obstacle as an interesting challenge. Surrendering should never be an option. Ensure that you are surrounded by people who care about you and encourage you to become the best version of yourself. You need to focus on the present moment and stop stress in college by avoiding micromanaging every aspect of your college life.
How to reduce stress in college? With the tips and tricks mentioned above, minimizing the negative impacts induced by stress becomes a little easier. If you learn to manage stress in college, your mental and physical health will automatically improve. You can enhance the quality of your lifestyle and lead a content life.