One undeniable statement is that college brings up a lot of stress to students. Balancing exams, projects and different activities both in and out of the classroom can be overwhelming. More often than not, students spend more time being stressed than anything else.
College life involves a lot of adjustments in many aspects of a student’s life such as sleeping habits, eating lifestyle, outdoor activities, and many others.
Getting to immediately alter one’s routine can sometimes be difficult and those who cannot cope instantly are prone to experience stress.
What Causes Stress in College?
These are the common causes of stress during the college years:
- Academic Growth: The pressure to do well in class and earn high grades.
- Financial Needs: For a student already struggling with money, covering the costs of tuition, food, personal needs and others can be really stressful, and lead to bouts of uncommon anger.
- Peer Pressure: Pressure in terms of experimenting with things students may or may not want to do can result to unwanted behaviour. Peer pressure has often been cited as a precursor to drugs, gambling, excessive alcohol intake, and general bad behaviour.
- Responsibility: Going to college brings changes and one of which is being responsible in a lot of things and being able to make important decisions in an instant.
- The Future: It has been cited as a great source of stress by many students. Not everyone has a clear image of what they want to be after college and the anxiety of not knowing can be really stressful.
- Family: Most students want to please their parents with high grades and good behaviour. Not being able to do so will mark them as a disappointment to some parents.
Change is a major thing in college. It could give a person much excitement, but with it comes a number of stressors. To be able to cope with stress is very important and doing so will prevent stress from affecting too much of one’s life.
Just like in academics, being able to cope academically is just as important as coping with stress in college. Coping with stress effectively easily makes college life a breeze to handle.
How to Deal with College Stress?
To help college goers’ deal with their stress, here are some effective pointers:
Get enough sleep: Sleep refreshes and rejuvenates both mind and body. Adequate rest helps students focus in their everyday studies.
Eat healthy: Proper dietary intake provides enough fuel for daily activities. A healthy body is more able to deal with stress than an unhealthy one.
Exercise: It doesn’t mean hitting the gym, but jogging or just a 20 minute walk will do the job.
Have fun: Go out with friends or do something enjoyable. Doing so can keep the body relaxed.
Ask for help: Dealing with stress is not always easy. Learn to ask for help when needed. Guidance counsellors are there to aid students with stressful problems.