If you walk around a college campus, you hear the same things over and over:

“I’m stressed.”

“This is so stressful.”

“This is making me anxious.”

“I have so much anxiety over this.”

The list could go on and on.

College students are inherently a stressed-out bunch of people. From papers, to exams, research, friends, clubs, and post-graduate plans, there is a lot on the typical college student’s plate. It is normal to feel stress and anxiety in college and in life, however many people experience stress that goes a little too far. This is the kind of stress that overwhelms and distracts a person from daily activities, is only thing on their mind, day in and day out, and makes their body tense and knotted. No one enjoys this type of high stress and anxiety, yet everyone can admit, at some point in their life, they too experienced this overwhelming, all-encompassing stress. Stress, unfortunately, is one of those things, if not properly addressed, can spiral out of control, and manifest itself in many facets of life.

Take for example, the dreaded “Freshman 15”.  More times than people realize, eating has a strong link to emotions, both positive and negative. Studies have proven much of this freshman weight gain is due to stress and anxiety related overeating. Sleep, another important aspect to overall health, can also be attacked by the stress of college. Stressed college students stay up for hours on end and get significantly less sleep than they should. Research shows that two weeks of nights with six or less hours of sleep has compatible effects of staying up for 48 hours straight. While these are just two elements of life affected by stress, the reality is: intense stress affects nearly all aspects of life and can create consequences ranging from illness to poor grades and everything in between.

It is important for college students to understand and address the high levels of stress, know that it is normal, and know there are ways to manage stress. People can take proactive steps to limit that overwhelming feeling of stress and anxiety. From mediation, to journaling, it can seem like there are a lot of options, many of which simply would not fit in a college student’s busy agenda. This is quite false as there are, in fact, many resources, strategies, and options out there. This blog will introduce and explain them in an attempt to provide some semblance of relief for the stressed college student.

https://www.drugwatch.com/health/students/