Stress Management
Stress Management Among Students In Universities
At what age do students have the greatest stress? Young parents might say preschoolers have the greatest stress. They are leaving their parents for the first time, and have many reasons to be afraid. Older parents say middle school students have the most stress, having just entered adolescence. Still others will cite secondary school as the time of greatest stress. Most agree, however, that the stresses of university life are very great.
Stress Management among students in universities is a hit-or-miss matter. Some universities schedule optional stress management classes, but students often lack the time to attend. If they have the time, they lack interest.
Stress Management Keys
Specific keys will open the door to better stress management among students in universities. Some of those keys are being used, but others are lost or neglected. Without them, Stress Management is limited for the students. We will not attempt to list here every key, or to put them in any given order. Rather, we would like to suggest stress management keys that may be lost in the rubble of today's society.
1. Clear definitions: Effective stress management among students requires clear definitions of words such as "stressor, " "stress, " "eustress, " and "distress."
Students who do not understand clearly what stress is cannot be expected to succeed at stress management. They may be trying to manage stressors, thinking they are managing stress. The outcome may very well be increased stress rather than stress management.
Stress management among students in universities can begin only after they understand that the extra demands made upon them are stressors, not stress. They then must understand that their response to those demands constitutes stress. Finally, if they are to get a grasp on practical stress management, they will need to know that there are two kinds of stress. One, eustress, is beneficial. The other, distress, is detrimental.
Students who understand these concepts, and embrace them, have unlocked the first door leading to stress management.
2. Action Plan: With a firm understanding of the definitions, students are ready to formulate a stress management action plan. They are ready for the proverbial locking of the barn door to prevent the horse's escape.
Armed with the knowledge that stress is the response to stressors, students can learn to control that response. They can determine to take specific, proactive steps to prepare for stressors. They can, in a sense, ambush the stressors as a step of stress management.
3. Stressor Identification: An important part of the stress management ambush is to learn to identify the enemy. A focused tertiary student will see stressors and know them for what they are. Every university student has stressors. All of us have unusual demands made on us. The key to stress management is to identify those demands as stressors.
In universities and colleges, stressors take the form of unaccustomed activities. Sharing a room with a stranger makes demands on a student. A new form of study is demanding. Financial resources and potentially new dating standards can be stressors.
Whether students are in Italy or Iowa, they are free of the constraints of home, and that freedom is a stressor. Freedom makes unusual demands on one who has not had it in fullness.
All of these and about 2000 more are stressors that a student must identify in order to engage in stress management.
4. Turning Distress into Eustress: Another key that helps unlock the doors to stress management is that of turning distress into eustress. Students often act as victims of their stressors. They believe they can do nothing but suffer. Stress management requires that they learn to turn a potentially negative response to stressors into a positive response.
Eustress, the beneficial stress, is what carries an excited, happy couple through the whirlwind of preparation for a large wedding. From the moment of the proposal, the couple may be surrounded by stressors. Extra demands, unusual demands are being made on them. Yet they are not depressed. The demands do not weigh heavily on them. They embrace them, and respond with smiles. They accept the challenge of getting everything done well and on time because they choose to accept it that way.
The same type of response can be enlisted on other occasions that call for stress management. Much of what students view as negative stress can be turned around, energizing them to excel.
Is this a false, rosy-tinted view of stress management? Not at all. Does this negate principles such as deep breathing, exercise, healthy diet, and regular sleep? No. As we said, this is not an attempt to provide every key to stress management. It is an effort to look at keys that are being neglected.
Stress management among students in universities can be stripped of many programs, drugs, and therapies if these keys are used well.
What Will Happen If I Drop Out Of College Now? ASAP?
I am a freshman at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I don't know why I get accepted by this school. I am come from a high school which has really low education standards in Chicago, and I only got a damn 20 on my ACT. Now it is my first year in college, I feel too overwhelming and I did not do well as what I expect to be, and I feel stressful about my grades, and I do not want to let them know about me because it will cause them to worry about me. I spends almost a lot time study for my classes but I still did not do well enough on them. I am wondering that I might make the wrong decisions by come to UIUC, because I also got accepted by University of Illinois at Chicago and DePaul University. Again, may be I make the wrong choice and decision when I start to choose which college I will go. My parents give me a lot pressures which cause me feel more stressful besides worring about myself in college. Now I am really stressed out and I am very painful about college. I am pretty sure I am a failurer and a loser in the eyes of my parents, and I feel sorry for them. I don't even know what happens to me if I continue to stay in college, or drop out from college in my life. I really hope some one can give me suggestions about life in college, I try to talk to my advisor, counselor, stress management coordinator, it seems not work out any way in my life. Their response are not work out for me. My GPA in college will not pass over 3.00 in the first semester for sure. I am a really hard working person, study over night, forget about eat and drink, forget about sleep because I almost spend all the time to study. I am really tired every day. I really hope any one can give me the best advice and options I can use here.
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Health Issues or Hypochondria?
Hello all, this is somewhat long but please brace yourself as I am in need of some serious opinions and educated advice. As of late I have been experiencing a severe fear of medical issues that vary from cardiac fears to gastrointestinal and liver problems. I would like to give you a brief summary of myself and my medical history in hopes that someone out there may be able to relate or offer genuine advice.
On Valentine's Day in 2006 I lost my sister and roommate to Ovarian Cancer. I was around 20 years old at the time, and employed as a security officer/supervisor at a very high crime stressful location. It took many months for me to recover but after being hired at a police department in dispatch I was able to recover as I kept moving on with my life. I started to gain weight due to physical inactivity and started experiencing heart burn and was treated at one point for testing positive for H-Pylori- a bacteria in the blood which can cause Ulcers. Bloodwork following the treatment from a Gastroenterologist was effective. Aside from that I had never had any other medical problems in my life.
I was married by the age of 23 and became a father before I was 24 years old. Throughout this time period I had start noticing a temper problem as well as worrying about things irrationally. I told my doctor about this and he prescribed me the anti-depressant medication Celexa in its generic form-Citalopram. I took it once before bed every night and the doses increased with increasing levels of stress at my doctor's order. Eventually, approximately 6-12 months later I was off of it or taking it situationally-missing doses and taking every few days, then once I felt stable I came off of it completely. This was around 2009. I was terminated from a job shortly thereafter for circumstantial reasons including temper shown towards a supervisor a month before my son was to be born. I was extremely stressed and depressed following this termination and my doctor put me back on Celexa at an increased dose for stress management. I began to notice that I felt better and got another job and eased off of the Celexa which I was not taking appropriately. I did not notice any side effects. In 2010, I started noticing a change in bowel habits. The bowel movements were more than usual and for the most part since have had an tint of an orange-clay color that would tint the toilet water slightly and also stain the sides of the toilet bowl. In bringing this to my doctors attention he asked if I had ever had bright red stools, dark tarry colored stools, if I had lost weight unexplainably, or if I had vomited or felt nauseated or looked jaundice in appearance. The answer to all thw questions was no so he in turn diagnosed it as IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome which he said could be exascerbated by stress or emotional upsets-something I experience a great deal of. Through 2010 my father also became very ill with congestive heart failure and kidney failure and unfortunately passed away in 2010. I began to suffer from intense anxiety. On Halloween in 2010 I had my first panic attack- I felt as though I was having a heart attack. In January, I was rushed out of my job as a customer service representative for a cell phone company for having a panic attack to the hospital. My doctor reattempted Celexa and I woke up with a bout of rapid heart rate for a period of 3 days consecutively. After trying several other antidepressants he finally prescribed me Valium in February and switched me to Ativan and then back to Valium. I had 30 plus panic attack cardiac work-ups and feared heart attack. I am now 25 years old at this point, had many EKG tests which were all normal, a normal heart MRI which revealed no plaque build-up, and a normal Echocardiogram. Other than being slightly overweight and having borderline higher levels of cholesterol for my age, I have no other cardiac risk factors. My doctor whom is also a cardiologist is persistent that there are no heart problems. Gastrointestinal discomfort continues but my doctor perfesses that its simply the effects of anxiety and stress against Irritable Bowel Syndrome. As of late, I have had several cardiac workups which EKG's revealed as normal, but my panic attacks have reduced. I am seeing a psychiatrist, medical doctor, and a therapist for cognitive behavioral therapy. My major concern is that I am still fearing heart problems as I tend to psychologically manifest symptoms of heart attack, I've been having ongoing bowel movement changes suh as diarreah or rapid gastric emptying(which I believe to be a side effect of Valium) however my bowel movements have gone back to normal timeframes rather than increased but the consistency of color and greasy foul smelling staining the toilet factor remains. I also have been experiencing left shoulder pain intermittently upon wake up every few days. EKGs during shoulder pain are normal and X-Rays are normal. Why am I feeling all this? Wha
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