[Photo courtesy of Health Care Business Today]
By anonymous
This is not a very discussed issue, but, in my opinion, academic stress is there, it is a reality and many students are having issues getting around it. I believe there are two types of stress positive stress better known as eustress, and negative, known as distress. If you having a eustress moment, this is what you are likely to experience; It is short, one tends to have some type of energy that stimulates them to tackle tasks, and the results are usually positive. It empowers one to grow emotionally, psychologically, and in just about all dimensions of life.
Distress, on the other hand, manifests itself in the exact opposite ways as eustress does. It takes a long time; one tends to feel demotivated leading to being always exhausted and portraying low or no performance in your day-to-day activities. It also causes a lot of anxiety and depression, and at times acts as a gateway to other mental issues. This causes us to ask ourselves the next question, what causes academic stress?
Is it a particular subject or lecturer, Is it one’s own personal issue like time management? Is there just too much on your plate? Or external issues like financial and family issues? All this could cause one to experience distress.
Distress manifests itself in many ways, which I personally have experienced. One may start to socially withdraw, oversleep, over- eating sweet and fatty foods, using medication to relax taking too much of any substance, taking out stress on others, or suddenly being so emotional over just about anything. This is the point where specific things become a trigger.
It is vital that you are self-aware since you will be able to almost immediately know you are not all right and do something about it. There are many ways that one can go about any type of stress. One may seek assistance from a professional like for instance, a therapist, among others. You can venture into other ways, among them being physically active like by doing a sport, working out and many others. I could also recommend a few ways of working on oneself like reading books to develop a skill or a habit or something.
Work on the attitude by thinking and staying positive; stop overthinking. One ought to stop being a perfectionist and set realistic and practical goals. This might sound like a cliché but it is a very sensitive issue in this current day and time to be alive where the “PRESSURE” from society and even from oneself.
I would like to conclude with the words from the good book of Ecclesiastes 9: 11 where the wise man Solomon observed that I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all. Just keep doing what you doing, be disciplined, love yourself, and when your time and chance come, you’ll surely live your dream.
DISCLAIMER: I am not expressly saying that if you are having any or similar issues you are outrightly distressed. Take this as a personal opinion from someone who has previously experienced the same and wishes to talk to someone who might be going through the same.