How to Deal with Stress as a Student
After a year of learning under quarantine restrictions, many students are finding that getting back into the rhythm of studying. Due to this, you may be feeling a significant amount of stress which takes a toll on your mental health, sleep schedule, diet, and grades on top of the stress of your social life. It is important to prioritize mental health in order to avoid burnout and keep yourself healthy.
Types Of Stressors
There are different types of stressors that a student may experience
Primitive Stress: This type of stress involves fear of starvation, exposure to mother nature, and sickness.
Traumatic Stressors: Stress of traumatic events, such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes.
Life Stressors: This type of stress involves personal ones such as the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of job, and academic stress.
Daily Stressors: This involves rush hour traffic, long lines, burnout, job stress, and academic stress.
Causes of Stress for Teenagers
For many students, the curriculum they are learning is not the only stressful thing about school. Many are struggling with the idea of college and as a result of this are getting involved in many extracurriculars, sports, work, and maintaining high grades. Besides this, students may be struggling with relationships, social identity, and personal issues at home. All of this can add up causing a large amount of stress that takes a toll on mental health. Although it may feel like you must continue to work, you must be able to take care of yourself and take a break.
Ways to Relax
Organization and Time Management: It is vital to remain organized in order to avoid cluttering and frustration about not remembering certain due dates. You can do this by keeping a planner and writing down your class times, assignment due dates, and exam times. It psychologically helps you to stay motivated by time blocking your day. You can do this by blocking a few hours to do your homework, then blocking the next few hours to take a break, and then go back to work until you are done.
Social Support: Don’t be afraid to reach out to your friends for help taking a break. It’s likely that they are going through the same amount of stress that you are. Loneliness plays a big part in how you are managing your stress and being with friends, it helps you to feel relaxed, just as long as you don't overdo it and burn out your social battery and avoid your work.
Deep Breathing: Deep breathing when you are stressed, helps to relax you because it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for your rest and digestion. By activating this, it counteracts the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for your flight or fight response, which gets activated when you are stressed.
Do Hobbies You Enjoy: When it’s time to destress from school, it's important to do activities that you enjoy. You could work out, which helps relieve stress through endorphins. You could also paint, listen to music, cook, and meditate. By doing this, it helps you to take your mind off the academic and social stress you may have and do something you enjoy.
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