The cause of stress in College Students
It would be very hard for me to describe what the word stress means yet I am sure that all of you have experienced it. Life has different stages, and if we want to grow we need to move from one stage to the other. With the passing of time we are exposed to various changes in life this is why we have the power to accommodate to situations and adapt to different environments. Nobody says that changes are supposed to be easy; all the contraire changes are hard. There are many factors that cause stress in college students, but most of them are legated one to the other, and the main factor is this huge change of lifestyle that students are exposed to.
The concept of responsibility in high school and college is different. For high school students the concept of responsibility is just respected because the school gives you consequences, while in college you are responsible for yourself and the way you behave reflects the kind of student you are. High school teachers constantly tell students what to do, so in case they don not do work, or you come late to class etc the student will get admonished. Although in college teachers give a syllabus explaining the course with all the assignments for the semester from readings, to tests, quizzes and papers. There is nobody reminding you what you have to do for the next class, and if you miss class it is your responsibility to catch up with the class material regardless of your excuse. This is one of the many reasons college students tend to stress, since all their life they have been receiving everything on a golden platter when students experience this radical change in/on the education system they freak out.
Workload is another factor that causes stress among college students because students are not used to do this quantity of work neither to the intensity level/ level of intensity?. Usually this anguish of hard work increases tense and creates a stress chain that later on reflects bad habits. Most college students do not know how to manage their time, and the result of this is that they end up staying doing work after midnight. This lack of sleep causes different physical reactions on their body and brain system as well. When students do not have a good amount of sleep per night they are more prone to have mood changes and getting eating disorders.
The responsibilities in college are not only in the school. When you are home your parents take care of your financial and living expenses, but in college you are responsible of your money and the way you spend it. There is a great load of stress in students' shoulders if their parents do not have enough money to sustain them. (is this a fragment? ). Students have to struggle with financial situations therefore, get a job and also be limited of going out that leads to social life stress. But wait responsibilities do not end here! There are some chores as cleaning, doing laundry, folding your clothes, buying food etc that may sound easy to an adult because they are used to do them, but for a teenage that is not used to do it routinely could be stressful. Is not only the fact of doing these new and tedious responsibilities, but to learn how to have time to do work without using dirty clothes the whole year.
Considering that having a social life is one of the top priorities in college student's/ students' minds, friendship is a very critical cause of stress. But how this could be bound to stress? When you are in high school the whole social scene is a drama, but once you had your own "group" it did not matter what others may think or say, or at least you did not feel it because of the company. When you get to college you have the task to find a new group. *fragment? This is not always an easy task because you used to have a group that/ with you could share everything that happened no matter how embarrassing or crazy it was, and now all out of the sudden they are gone. Now you have to start from scratch to build a relationship with a complete stranger, and get used to things you may like or not about people.
I would be lying if I tell you that there is a way to go through college without having stress because college and stress are bounded concepts. Many people gets really stressed for a lot of things that are not worth to be stressed for, and a couple of years after they regret the fact that they were thinking and were being stuck on the stress rather than to figure out how to solve the problem itself. To overcome this stress you have to find an activity that would help you liberate the stress, for every person is different. For example: some people like to liberated threw exercising going out for a walk, running, dancing would help you clear your mind, others just listen to some music and chill out, hang out with people.
The key to control this stress and not let it get all over your head is to have your priorities in order, to concentrate in solving the problem not repeating what the problem is a hundred times, and to find an activity that would help you liberate stress. If you do this you will find your college experience much more satisfactory and you will achieve success and earn your graduating gown with a smile on your face and a healthy relaxed heart.
