How to Manage Stress as a College Student

A college student sits anxiously in a college classroom as the professor hands out the college exam. The professor finally makes it to his or her chair. The professor slips the exam paper on the table in front of student. The student begins looking over the test and suddenly his or her heart sinks. Everything the student has learned from the night before for the exam slowly slips away. The student looks around the room at other college students whizzing through their test. From that moment on the student realizes that the stress of college has constricted around his or her body like a python on its prey. Academic overload, financial burdens, culture shock and social anxiety is some of the stressors that college students face daily. Although college students are faced with many of these stress related issues, there is still a question “How to manage stress as a student?”, so this essay shares some common techniques such as getting involved in sports, eating and drinking well and using time management skills that will help one overcome these stress related hardships.

First, one can manage college stress by playing a sport. Playing sports provides an escape from everyday college stresses by providing a distraction. For instance, it provides a distraction by creating an environment where one can interact with other teammates instead of focusing on his or her workload of assignments. Sports also provides a way for his or her to relieve stress by allowing the induvial to detox mentally. One can take his or her frustrations out by hitting a tennis ball or kicking a ball at a game of soccer. Furthermore, Michael Babyak found that “students who participated in sports were mentally healthier than individuals who didn't. 'Another way sports can help college students with stress is by providing great confidence. When college students play sports, their physical strength as well as endurance uplifts their endurance. This alone can provide the first day of anxiety to fall at the waist when walking into a new class.

Next what will be meintioned in the essay on how to manage stress at the college is changing eating and drinking habits. For instance, one can consume fewer caffeine to better his or her sleep. According to Helfron, “consuming caffeine 6 hours before bedtime reduced total sleep time by 1 hour.” Thus, he or she could create a substantial gap between caffeine consumptions and bedtime in order to be alert during one’s classes. College students can also consume more fruits and vegetables to counteract stress. For example, many citrus fruits and leafy vegetables contain the vitamin folate, which impacts the body with serotonin and dopamine. Serotonin and dopamine then suppress both adrenaline and cortisol. As a result, the body is then sent into a relaxing bliss. Another way a college student can battle stress is by consuming less alcohol. To illustrate, college students who consume excessive amounts of alcohol increase the risk of passing out and missing class the following day.

Finally, one can subsides college stress by using time management skills. One way to help with the stress of being overwhelmed is by using a daily planner. For instance, college students are thrown with many assignments at once. One day he or she might have a math problem due for math class and a big project due for History Class. By having a planner, the college student can become more organized during his or her busy schedule. Also, stress will come to college students who procrastinate. To illustrate, by eliminating the habit of pushing assignments back, it would help he or she to overcome rushing to get it done in time for the deadline. Another way would be to abstain away from Multitasking. Researchers from the American Psychological Association discovered that “shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40 percent of someone's productive time.”

Also, these methods can be used for writing “How to manage stress at work essay” as they work the same as for college students. However here we have emphasized on stress response for college students as they are constantly dealing with financial, academic and social stress. Perhaps college students are not taught well how to cope with certain college challenges. Either way one must take on his or her challenges head on in order to overcome and be successful. As Lou Holtz once stated 'It’s not how much load you have, it’s how you carry it”.