Chapter 41: Stress and Mental Health

Causes of Stress

As a student, you’re probably plenty familiar with the experience of stress—a condition characterized by symptoms of physical or emotional tension. What you may not know is that it’s a natural response of the mind and body to a situation in which a person feels threatened or anxious. Stress can be positive (e.g., preparing for a wedding) or negative (e.g., dealing with a natural disaster).

Stress can hit you when you least expect it—before a test, after losing a job, or during conflict in a relationship. If you’re a college student, it may feel like stress is a persistent fact of life. While everyone experiences stress at times, a prolonged bout of it can affect your health and ability to cope with life. That’s why social support and self-care are important. They can help you see your problems in perspective… and the stressful feelings ease up.

Sometimes stress can be good. For instance, it can help you develop skills needed to manage potentially challenging or threatening situations in life. However, stress can be harmful when it is severe enough to make you feel overwhelmed and out of control.

Strong emotions like fear, sadness, or other symptoms of depression are normal, as long as they are temporary and don’t interfere with daily activities. If these emotions last too long or cause other problems, it’s a different story.

Signs and Effects of Stress

• Disbelief and shock
• Tension and irritability
• Fear and anxiety about the future
• Difficulty making decisions
• Being numb to one’s feelings
• Loss of interest in normal activities
• Loss of appetite (or increased appetite)
• Nightmares and recurring thoughts about the event
• Anger
• Increased use of alcohol and drugs
• Sadness and other symptoms of depression
• Feeling powerless
• Crying
• Sleep problems
• Headaches, back pains, and stomach problems
• Trouble concentrating

It’s not only unpleasant to live with the tension and symptoms of ongoing stress; it’s actually harmful to your body, too. Chronic stress can impair your immune system and disrupt almost all of your body’s processes, leading to increased risk of numerous health problems, including the following: ^[1]

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Digestive problems
• Heart disease
• Sleep problems
• Weight gain
• Memory and concentration impairment

That’s why it’s so important to learn healthy ways of coping with the stressors in your life.

Ways of Managing Stress

The best strategy for managing stress is by taking care of yourself in the following ways:

• Avoid drugs and alcohol. They may seem to be a temporary fix to feel better, but in the long run they can create more problems and add to your stress—instead of taking it away.
• Consider how you are balancing life, work, school, and family. Depending on where you are in your life, one of these may need to take priority. For example, when you have a major deadline, you might not be able to see your family and friends for a few days. When you are done with this school commitment, you can re-balance and let friends and family take priority for a couple days.
• Prioritize and schedule your commitments. These may change week by week, but having a schedule and knowing where your weekly priorities are will help you feel in better control of your life, which, in turn, will mean less stress.
• Find support. Seek help from a friend, family member, partner, counselor, doctor, or clergy person. Having a sympathetic listening ear and talking about your problems and stress really can lighten the burden. Teachers, professors, and advisors can also help you manage your school schedule if you are feeling overwhelmed with coursework.
• Connect socially. When you feel stressed, it’s easy to isolate yourself. Try to resist this impulse and stay connected. Make time to enjoy being with classmates, friends, and family; try to schedule study breaks that you can take with other people.
• Slow down and cut out distractions for a while. Take a break from your phone, email, and social media.
• Take care of your health as best as you can. Here are some things that can help protect your health:
  • Eat a healthy, well-balanced diet
  • Exercise  stretch, or do breathing exercises regularly
  • Get plenty of sleep
  • Try a relaxation technique, such as meditation or yoga. Does your campus have a “mind spa”? Here’s one at Portland State University: https://www.pdx.edu/health-counseling/mind-spa. If your campus has something like this, check out what relaxation support they offer.
  • Maintain a normal routine

Finally, practice self-compassion. You don’t have to be perfect all the time. You don’t have to get everything done all the time. This video offers some suggestions for how to practice self-compassion. If the self-care techniques listed above aren’t enough and stress is seriously interfering with your studies or life, don’t be afraid to get help. The student health center and college counselors are both good resources to help you manage stress in difficult times.

Video: Self-Compassion

This TedxTalk by Shawn Anchor covers happiness related to good health and better work. An important aspect he includes is how our brain performs when under stress.

Video: The Happy Secret to Better Work, Shawn Anchor TED Talk