In the world today, humans deal with many problems, either individually or within a group. Most of the time, individuals lump these problems together and slap a label on these burdens. The more popular word that is commonly used to describe this combination of overwhelmed emotions is stress. In an article written by, The American Institute of Stress, Hans Selye, a endocrinologist, defines stress to be “ the nonspecific response of the body to any demand for change.” Everyone goes through drastic changes at some point in their life, so this stress is inevitable.
A couple weeks ago, my body and mind went through some rough changes due to the different environments I was involving myself in. To say the least, my life had become a complete mess. Different factors and aspects of my everyday life were becoming more demanding and time consuming. From being a part time worker back home to commuting to college each day, I was unsure of what my priorities were and how to organize the different factors of my life. The demand for organization and management of my life made my body both physically and mentally exhausted from the overload of stress. Most of us would see this as a negative adjustment because no one has ever adapted well to change.
In fact, most of us have the general idea of stress being a terrible condition, and when it comes down to being stressed, only negative results can come out of it. Though there are valid arguments in support of this claim, it has been proven multiple times that stress can have both negative and positive effects. Unfortunately, the underlying problem we can all relate to is feeling overly worked and stressed out, causing us to be blindsided to the positive outcomes of stress. This problem has been evident for decades amongst students and workers, and some of us may not be acknowledging the fact that this problem could potentially be caused by the faults and actions we make for ourselves.
There have been formal and informal debates arguing the impact of schools and how great of a role it plays in adding to the stress of students. Most of us can relate to the stress we receive from school related issues, such as an overload of homework or societal pressures that can easily push us over the edge. Many students may argue this for different purposes, but it is in fact true that this overload of homework can negatively affect our stress level. This stress level easily surpasses what we are mentally and physically capable of tolerating, which in turn can leads to conditions such as depression and anxiety disorder. Within only a short period of time attending San Francisco State University, I have already experienced a handful of stressful encounters. It is especially prominent when I have an overwhelming amount of homework to complete in only a small window of time. Taking five classes while holding a part time job and participating in school events really pushed me to my limits last years.. On top of these demands came immense amounts of homework that needed to be finished every night. Each day it felt as if I woke up stressed and uneasy already worrying about the pressures that would come about during the day ahead. Later onto into the year I realized that I had developed an anxiety issue from constantly running through this stress cycle on a daily basis. Although homework can be beneficial towards learning, overwhelming amounts has the power to raise the stress levels of individuals. In order to prevent any more of an increase in my own stress levels, I found ways to decrease them. Through exercise, a new diet and spending time with friends, the levels began to slowly diminish into something that I was more capable of handling.
The topic of stress is important to both myself and the others around me. We have all experienced change and immense amounts of pressure a multitude of times within our lives, and it is crucial to acknowledge these demands and recognize the impact they make on our world. Using what we know, we must open up our mindsets to our own stress levels so we can work towards a healthier lifestyle that is physically and mentally beneficial to our future.
Coping with Stress, College Style 