LinkedIn Live Recap: Coping with Stress as a Student
Stress is common during college and university years. It may be a helpful coping mechanism for difficult circumstances and is a natural reaction to what you're experiencing. Both thrilling and unpleasant experiences may come with attending college and university. You might experience stress related to starting school,?exams?and midterms, meeting coursework deadlines, living with strangers, or planning for the future. However, stress may quickly develop into a completely new issue if it is not dealt with through good coping strategies
Last month,?HosTalky ?hosted a panel with our very own team members Ellaine Nonesa and Kaela Rossi to chat about their experiences in university and their personal encounters with stress.?
If you missed it, don’t worry! We have a recording ready for you to watch on demand.?
Want a quick summary? Read on to learn about student stress, its causes, symptoms, coping mechanisms, and more.
What is stress?
Both Kaela and Ellaine define stress as pressure on yourself that can come from internal and external factors. This includes academics, family, relationships, friendships, and more. For Ellaine, the stress was noticed in symptoms like headaches, not eating at all, eating too much, and then also not really sleeping well. One thing she emphasized was the inability to sleep due to having dreams about unfinished assignments and waking up in the middle of the night just to finish them. Kaela, interestingly had a similar experience where she also had dreams of tasks that needed to be completed. Stress for Kaela felt like “everything that's like piled up and then like suppressed until it turns into something worse than just the initial episodes of stress.” For these two students, being away from home, away from their main support system was difficult, which contributed to the stress they were experiencing from other factors.
What were some of your coping mechanisms in earlier years compared to now?
In Kaela’s first year when I was like overwhelmed with schoolwork, she quickly learned that organization and planning were helpful tools to combat stress. She would create to-do lists and detailed plans for each day. This allowed her to space out her schoolwork and take necessary breaks without feeling overwhelmed. During these breaks, she would listen to music, take walks, or simply lay down and rest. Chatting with friends about non-school-related topics also seemed to be a great stress-relieving technique.
For Ellaine, it took a little longer to figure out what worked best for her. She described being in cycles of procrastination and not feeling motivated to necessarily change this pattern as it didn’t affect her academic grades. However, other effects caught up to her and she realized she needed to change her habits quickly — she wanted balance, she wanted a more calm university experience with less stress. She found that using calendars and planners were extensively beneficial. She especially enjoyed using her iPad to organize her thoughts, tasks, and goals. Checking things off her physical lists allowed her to feel more productive and her productivity had a sort of snowball effect.?
Both Kaela and Ellaine continue to use these organizational methods to counter stress and stay focused on their goals both academically and professionally.
What would you recommend for students with stress or students going through a stressful time?
?Kaela would recommend that students talk to people they trust. She understands from personal experience that it can be easy to keep everything hidden and to yourself. But, just talking to friends or family about things that are stressing you out can be so helpful. Bottling in emotions, Kaela says, can be more detrimental to your health rather than expressing them. She also wants to push students to take meaningful breaks that contribute to their well-being.?
Ellaine agreed, and to go further, she recommends seeking out professional help if students don’t feel comfortable speaking with friends and family. In her personal experience, she has reached out to an on-campus counsellor as well as her academic advisor to chat with them about her academic and personal struggles. Ellaine understands that not every approach with be helpful to different students, so trying a plethora of techniques and sticking to what works is a great strategy to deal with stress.
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If stress is ignored what problems can arise for students?
Both Kaela and Ellaine agree that stress can be a short-term issue if addressed right away, however, if it is ignored it can turn into a larger problem quite quickly. Symptoms can be exacerbated and clearly reflect in the physical and mental health of the student. In long-term circumstances, stress can turn into depression, anxiety, eating problems, and more. It is important to adopt healthy coping mechanisms as soon as possible to avoid these outcomes. Ellaine emphasizes that the stress will continue to snowball and get worse if not taken into account.?
How do you think universities and colleges should help students with stress?
Kaela wants universities and colleges to help students with finances through scholarships — making them more available and accessible. She recognizes that a key form of stress students feel is paying for tuition, living expenses, and more. As well, she wants to push professors to be more lenient with students in terms of coursework and deadlines. This means providing more resources for students to thrive in classrooms. Moreover, she wants counselling or therapy services on campus to be more widely advertised and easier to access. She believes students may feel less inclined to use them because they may not know how to use them or even know that they exist. To these recommendations, Ellaine also added that introducing more on-campus events for students to interact, engage, and have fun. It boosts overall morale for students to be able to be with their peers in non-classroom environments.?
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How do you counteract or respond to the “naysayers” who say it’s not an actual problem or there are bigger issues?????
Kaela and Ellaine were again on the same page, expounding not he fact that stress can be experienced in so many different ways for various reasons. It’s not helpful to be negative or belittling to anyone’s personal encounters. When things like these are ignored, they turn into bigger issues that people want to avoid. As well, for students who feel like their issues don’t matter, that is simply not true. It is okay to validate yourself and your experience and to manage it how you see fit.?
?If there was only ONE thing you hope the people in the audience today do or LEARN as a result of our conversation, what would it be?
Kaela hopes that people understand that students are not alone in their journeys and that is totally normal to feel all of these things. There are so many resources out there to help yourself, whether that is finding a healthy coping mechanism or talking to a therapist. ?
Ellaine emphasizes breaking the cycle of procrastination now. She knows how it feels to be in it, and urges students to find the willpower to get one thing done and keep pushing after. Finding the right routine and schedule is so important in staying on track and accomplishing your goals.?
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