What is Stress

Stress is your body’s reaction to overwhelming emotional or physical demands. These demands also known as “stressors” could be related to a specific situation such as death of loved one, loss of job, or even moving to a new city. College students face a great deal of stress on daily bases. A deadline on a class project, pop quizzes by your teacher, or preparation for your exams could all make stressful situations for you. Stress can affect both mind and the body. You can tolerate only so much stress before it leads to permanent damage to your body. On the other hand, when you get sick, it can lead to stress. Stress can negatively affect one’s experience. Without the ability to handle it appropriately it can lead to disturbances in your body. Stress is a personal experience. Everybody has a different point of view about what is stressful. You might find an experience very stressfull today, but the next day it might not seem as stressful to you. Men and women react to stress differently. When faced with stressful situation, a man might become angry, whereas a woman might become sad or depressed.


Types of Stress:

Stress can be experienced in several ways, with some positive and some negative. Eustress is referred to a type of stress that is exciting and could be fun. If you ever felt excited when when you were skiing, or when you rode a roller-coaster ride; you have experienced Eustress. ”Acute Stress” is referred to a very short-term type of stress.Our day to day stressors in life, are often referred to as Acute Stress. “Chronic stress” is type of stress that exist for a long time. Chronic stress can have many harmful affects on your body including: heart disease, depression, and possibly cancer.

“Fight-or-Flight Response"
When you are faced with stressful situation, your body goes through changes also known as the “fight-or-flight response system.” During this reaction, your body reacts by producing chemicals known as “Adrenaline” and “Cortisol” to speed up your heart rate, and slow the breakdown of food, to redirect your energy and strength toward facing the stressor. This system has been designed so that you can fight or runaway from a dangerous situation. When you are no longer faced with the dangerous situation, your body is designed to return to it normal way of functioning. When people are faced with long term stress, the “fight-or-flight response” can have very negative and harmful affects on your body.

In the long run stress can affect your body in the ways as listed below:

Cardiovascular System

• Heart attacks
• Increased blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Allergies
• Skin rash
• Headache
• Backache
• Arthritis
• Ulcers
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Stroke
• Cancer

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College Student Statistics in Regards to Stress

A Survey from CSU-LA College Students

The target population of our blog is undergraduate college students. College students are faced with role changes, life adjustments, and stressful situations. Studies have shown that unmanaged stress can lead to mental illnesses and suicide.

According to the National Health Ministries:
- One third of college students report high amounts of stress
- One tenth of students suffer from depression
- 7% of college students have anxiety
- In comparison to the general female population, college women struggle the most with eating disorders.


According to Hirsch’s study on suicide:
- Suicide is the third leading cause of death with late adolescents and early adults
- Suicide is the fifth leading cause of potential years of life lost before age 65
- Suicidal thoughts and behavior are greatly increased in individuals with stressful, negative, or traumatic events in their lives


Common stressors for college students include:
- Academic success places stress on college students who struggle to meet expectations of others, as well as expectations placed by the student
- Being on your own for the first time is a difficult transition for college students who are used to living at home with their parents
- Change in relationships is complicated because college students often become distant from friends from home, significant others, and family
- Financial struggles are placed on college students who do not have support from their parents to pay for college. Some students are dependent on grants, scholarships, and financial aid and still struggle to pay for expenses
- Experience with new friends, ideas, and environments clashes with what the college student was taught to value.
- Becoming the decision-maker in one’s life is a transition that college students encounter and often causes stress
- Drugs and alcohol are prevalent in the college environment and places peer pressure on students to engage in dangerous behavior
- Discovering one’s sexual identity is a life changing process that college students go through as they discover their identities
- Life choices after graduation are hard to make when college students prepare for their careers and life after college


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Chronic Stress Effects: Body image, self-esteem, and isolation

Having decreased body image, decreased self-esteem, and falling into isolation appear to put college students in a difficult state of adapting to stress. We all know that a lot of stress can cause you to have a different view of yourself. Body image or self concept, as we will use interchangeably, may be changed when dealing with stress related to schoolwork. According to Shepard, Nicpon, & Doobay (2009), generally, some students experience a decrease in their body image or self concept during their first semester of college. One study indicates that some students first entering college may feel intimidated by peers and professors, and they may not feel satisfied with their academic performance; moreover, they might even feel they should not exhibit an academic performance that is “too excellent”, in other words, “nerdiness”, in order to stay in the “norm” (Shepard et al., 2009). From this article, it looks like new college student’s self concept and body image really do go down as they feel intimidated and worried in the new environment. It sounds like students who experience body image problems related to stress can benefit from taking a few seconds to deep breathe, relax, and even meditate. It helps to focus on the positives in life and rationalize anxious thoughts: “Is it worth worrying and trying to impress other people and jeopardize my academic performance?” “What can I do to feel less intimidated in this new environment?” It was pretty difficult dealing with dramatic peers and tough classes in high school but hey, if you can be resilient through that journey and make it to where you are now then it sounds like you have a lot of strength and knowledge to be able to deal with the stressors in college.


In addition to the possibility of experiencing a decrease in body image, some college students may also experience a decrease in self-esteem. Spirituality is actually shown to help improve self-esteem as well as body image (Kurpius et al., 2007). If you are not spiritual or religious, you can engage in something else that boosts your mood and self-esteem such as a favorite sport or hobby. Other things that help build self-esteem are also focusing on the positives and perhaps making a plan of your week to lessen academic stress on yourself.


Remember Erik Erikson, the American psychoanalyst who created the Eight Stages of Development? His theory spans the full life cycle and the stage “Intimacy vs. Isolation" relates well with us college students, which a majority of us fall under. If intimacy is established in the stage of Intimacy versus Isolation, a person will be able to love deeply and become committed; however, if a person falls into isolation they will experience emotional isolation and selfishness as stated by the “Foundations of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing” book (Varcarolis, Carson, & Shoemaker, 2006).If students experience prolonged stress and are unable to handle too much stress, they may develop a personal identity issue and not be able to engage in intimate relationships and therefore fall into isolation. To avoid falling into “isolation”, you can first build your self concept and self esteem using various coping strategies as listed above as well as looking at the “How to Manage Stress” section. Staying up to date and informed with information regarding school, work, and your social life will also help you out on the long run.


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How to Manage Stress

Being a college student is not easy. There are many things we need to balance in our lives such as family, friends, work, and school. At times those things in our lives are spaced out accordingly and run smoothly; however, most of the time everything seems to clash and we find ourselves not knowing what to do. When this happens it causes us to stress, and when we are stress we react in a certain way.


According to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC), some of the ways that people react to stress includes:


     • Feeling scared and anxious
     • Feeling sad and depressed
     • Feeling angry
     • Feeling shocked
     • Feeling emotionally numb and not caring
     • Feeling helpless
     • Not wanting to eat
     • Having difficulty sleeping
     • Having a hard time concentrating
     • Having a hard time making decisions
     • Having nightmares
     • Constantly thinking about the incident
     • Using alcohol and drugs
     • Crying
     • Getting headaches, back pains, and stomach problems


What are some stress management techniques we can use?
There are many different ways people handle stress. There are healthy ways and unhealthy ways.


The unhealthy ways in managing stress includes:
     • lashing out
     • drinking
     • smoking
     • abusing drugs
     • violence
     • overeating/under-eating


These are ineffective ways of managing stress. Although it may seem effective at the current time of stress, it is quite the contrary. Engaging in such behavior may bring more stress due to the consequences it results in.  More healthy and effective ways of managing stress can be done by doing things in a different way or looking at things in a different perspective.


According to the book, The Foundation of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, some behavioral ways to help you relax includes:
     • Meditation
     • Guided imagery
               o Having a mental image of something that is calming (e.g. 
                  Walking on a secluded beach while the sun is setting
                  with the feeling of warm sand under your feet).
     • Breathing exercise
               o e.g. Counting from 1-10 or taking deep breaths
     • Muscle relaxation and exercise
               o e.g. Yoga, Pilates, walking, tai chi, dancing, aerobics, 
                  swimming


NOTE: These activities can be done at home, at the gym, or through taking classes that are offered at school.


The book also states ways to help decrease your stress by looking at things in a different way. These includes:
     • Writing in a journal
               o This can be a helpful way to organize your feelings and 
                  to help you identify the cause of your stress. It is also a 
                  great way to vent.
     • Reframing your thoughts
               o Replacing your negative thoughts with positive thoughts 
                  (e.g. “I studied so hard and I still did not get the grade 
                  that I want.” Change your thoughts to “If I didn't receive 
                  the grade that I expected, I will need to change how I 
                  study and learn what are my areas of weakness are.” Or 
                  “I may not have received that grade that I wanted, but I 
                  still passed the test”).
     • Priority restructuring
              o Managing your time by using a planner or calendar. Make 
                 sure to leave time to engage in activities that reduce your 
                 stress (e.g. watching funny videos on YouTube).
     • Using humor
              o Make something funny out of the things that are causing 
                 you stress.
     • Being more assertive
              o Speak your mind about how you feel without sounding 
                 rude or accusing (e.g. Saying “No” if you can not do 
                 something; starting with “I” statements instead of “You”).
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Advocacy and Support

What resources are being made available for your access to help manage your stress? Unfortunately, most college campuses are having a hard time keeping up with the demands of students to support their mental health issues (Drum, Brownson, Denmark, & Smith, 2009). This is mostly due to the decreased knowledge about student crises and how they are caused. Eventually, this leads to funding that may not be used in the proper areas to effectively meet the student’s mental health needs (Drum et al., 2009). However, this does not mean that colleges are leaving their students to fend for themselves when it comes to stress. Most college campuses provide students with counselors and educators that could be seen at the student health center. At that point, intervention will take place to provide the help a student needs. There are even such cases in which devices are obtained and put to use to teach methods of reducing stress (Ratanasiripong, Sverduk, Hayashino, & Prince, 2010). In one college, easy-to-use biofeedback programs were ordered at a low cost and were checked-out by students to take home. The program was a success as students reported learning techniques like breathing exercises and imagery that effectively reduced their own anxiety (Ratanasiripong et al., 2010). This type of research is one more way in which aid for the stressed student is being advocated.
But if one-on-one counseling doesn’t help you enough, you may want to try support groups as well. It is often helpful to talk or listen to others that are in similar situations to yourself. It could provide insight as to how to better cope with stress as well as eliminate some feelings of isolation (Varicolis, Carson, & Shoemaker, 2006). Below are a few links that could be useful on your search for the right support group for you:

• http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/support-groups/MH00002 - This site explains the benefits of a support group and how to go about finding a good one.

• http://www.dailystrength.org/c/College-Stress/support-group - This site is an example of an online support group in which you could leave comments, ask questions, and even talk to some experts.

• http://www.supportgroups.com/support-groups/stress-support-groups - This site is also an example of an online support group for stress.

However, you must remember that advice received from support groups is not the equivalent of medical treatment and you should consult with a health care professional, especially before committing to any actions.

My Counselor Experience

To provide an example of how a college campus health center could be useful to you, I’ve set up an appointment at my own college with a counselor to see how they would help out a student under excessive stress. It began by filling out some basic contact information, reason for the appointment, and signing a consent form that allows treatment to take place if the situation calls for it. I was then walked in by the friendly doctor to her office, which in itself was a calm and quiet place. Once she closed the door, it was easy to imagine anxiety levels to start to decrease since everything was so clean, neat, and comfortable. She sat across from the couch I was at and we started to discuss how she would help a stressed-out student. She said that the first session would be devoted to assessing what could be the causes of stress, including influences from outside of school like family, social groups, and drug-use. The next session would be focused on issues agreed upon by both the counselor and student. The average length of each session is about 50 minutes and my college is a short-term counseling service, which means a student could only be seen about 10 times. If a student needs help beyond ten sessions, referrals could be made to other facilities or psychiatrists from the “Rainbow” book, which has a listing of almost every mental health contact in the Los Angeles area. The sessions are made to fit the needs of the student, but other than having the student try to understand him or herself and communicate feelings more clearly, the sessions are usually comprised of enacting stress-reduction techniques such as: muscle relaxation and breathing exercises, learning to take time-outs or walks, visualization, learning to reward oneself, journaling, role-playing, and problem-solving like time management. Even if you just need to vent, counselors are there to listen. In addition to counseling, the doctor mentioned that there are literature and pamphlets available for signs of stress and quick tips to reduce it, workshops and presentations are held every few weeks on balancing responsibilities, and at any time a psychiatrist could be seen and medications prescribed if necessary. My health center also provides walk-in triage in the afternoon, where you could be seen immediately for any troubles you may have at that time. In general, the doctor claims that most students who comply with the recommended sessions, leave the office happier and more able to cope with stress.

The doctor’s soft voice and kind demeanor convinced me to trust in my college campus health center if any mental health issue arose in me. I am confident that I would be able to find the help I would need from the services provided at my school. So I’m recommending to you, that if your stress is starting to get out of control and even affects your school work, don’t hesitate to give your campus health center a chance. The help you need could be just outside your classroom.

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