Managing and Dealing With Stress

By Elizabeth Asamoah on October 7, 2019

Due to the high demands on us because of our contemporary lifestyle, stress has unfortunately become a norm, an inevitable in our daily life. Each individual is bound to go through some form of stress one way or the other occasionally. Several factors or situations we go through during our daily activities may serve as triggers of stress in our lives. Though it is claimed stress can have positive implications on our lives like alerting and preparing us to an impending danger as well as handling difficult situations, however, if it is not handled well or appropriately, stress can instead tend to impact the health negatively.

via Pixabay

Some of the ways that stress can impact our health may include increasing the blood pressure, affecting our mental health, induce fear and depression, cause headaches, heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, and influence our behavior and attitude. Stress is very target-friendly, and thus everybody is prone to experience stress at any point, and it can happen at any time and any place, it does not discriminate when it comes to its targets and location to operate. College campuses can be one of the locations that the incidences of stress can be very high.

Causes of Stress among College Students

  • Change
    • For example, first-year students transitioning from high school to college find it to be a very stressful experience as many young students have never been away from home for longer durations or been independent
  • Financial constraints
  • Peer pressure
  • Coursework and demands: information overload, poor performance or grades
  • Parents expectation
  • Other social responsibilities and expectations: fashion, what to eat/cook, self-image
  • Relationships
  • Traffic, especially for commuters
  • Roommates
  • Difficult or obstinate instructors
  • Technology
  • Meeting deadlines

Strategies for Coping with Stress

Several strategies can be employed to combat stress. First and foremost, we should always remember that whatever situations or conditions we are dealing with it is temporary. We must, therefore, adopt this attitude of “this too would pass” and not allow whatever the issue is put us down or work us too much.

Learn to take situations “one day at a time.” We are finite beings and thus are only capable of doing “that much” meaning we are restricted by how much we can do within a certain time “T”. We must, therefore, avoid huddling everything together. Multitasking is good but if it is not making you productive as expected and creating unnecessary stress in your life, then you must definitely avoid it. Learn to prioritize and handle the most urgent issues first.

Also, learn how to manage your time very well to meet all deadlines as much as possible. Where feasible, take a break from the situation for a short period say an hour and whilst on break take the opportunity to reflect and brainstorm for possible solutions and even reach out for help where necessary if it is, say, an assignment. Break information to pieces and tackle them as such if you begin to feel overwhelmed by too much information to deal with at a time. Seek for help in any areas possible such as tutoring services, counseling, writing centers, from other course mates, etc. when having challenges with your studies and not making the good grades you are expecting. Form study groups, they help a lot.

Build on your failures and do not allow them to beat you down. If at first, you do not succeed, try again as the adage goes. For roommate challenges, it is recommended to look for one that has a similar background and share your belief systems even though that is not a guarantee that everything is going to work out well between you. To avoid unnecessary tension, you would have to learn to compromise in several ways to promote peace and walk out and stay away with friends if you perceive any impending tensions and arguments. Avoid any unnecessary relationships that do not contribute to your success or purpose.

The Academic Skills Center of Walden University proposed these three strategies for managing stress which include:

  1. Setting realistic expectations helps a lot in managing your stress levels.
  2. Dealing with perfectionism: thus avoid putting too much pressure on yourself. Make room for mistakes and how to resolve them. Know that you cannot always get it right all the time.
  3. Dealing with “imposter syndrome”: believe in yourself, build your confidence, talk to others about your fears, make more positive confessions about yourself, etc.

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