Top most stressors in life as a student

Most students either teenagers or college age are said to be facing a lot of stress that makes their life in school to become hell.

Causes of stress among students

Various factors have been closely regarded as the main causes of stress among students. Some students have found school life so hard that it can’t accommodate them because of the kind of stress they face. Because of high amounts of stress among the student, their performance has been greatly affected. Some have even been forced to drop out of school simply because they can’t bear the amount of stress they are undergoing through. Some of the common causes of stress among the school students include the following;

Students suffer from stress because of the academic pressure whereby they are involved in tackling very difficult assignment. Also parents and teachers exert a lot of pressure on student to perform better. This makes them to work tirelessly a situation that ends up creating stress. To encounter stress among the students, teachers ought to introduce UK Essays to their students to stress management techniques.

Dating is one of the things that ring in the mind of the high school and college students. They try their luck through dating, failing to date or being damped. The mating process in much involving and is said to be one of the major causes of stress among students.

Some students find it difficult to accept the fact that they are moving to secondary school. They don’t think whether they will leave their home and join high school with a totally different environment. This even causes home sicknesses among the majority of the students.

Schools put more pressure on their students to engage themselves in participating extracurricular activities such as sports, clubs, choirs or volunteer works. This adds up to student stress.

Peer relationships have been considered to cause stress as dating. Peers apply huge amount of pressure on behaviour, dressing code, music choice of friends among other factors.

Students from both high school and colleges receive heavy workloads from their teachers. For instance high school students are forced to work on several subjects. This ends up overloading their schedules creating stress among the students.

Time mismanagement is another factor that causes stress among the high school and college students. For instance, it becomes hard to balance home activities, dating, peer activities among the many activities that they are required to play.

Students experience stress from their parents. For instance parents push their children to study hard in order to succeed. This builds pressure among the students.

Research indicates that those students who don’t have enough sleep or have poor sleeping habits are likely to experience stress. Good sleep allows the recharge of the brain without any stress.

Sometimes the adolescents undergo physical and emotional changes that leave them stressed. Some don’t even understand the body changes that they undergo which causes tension.

Research indicates that students also get stressed because of lack of money. They tend to worry more about raising money for their tuition fee and scholarships.

Children suffer great impacts when dealing with traumatic events such as death of a family member, accidents, and instances of mental or physical abuse. This causes fear, pain and stress among the teenagers.

Teenagers seem to be reluctant in a accepting new changes which may result to stress. For instance, changes such as changing school, additional of new members to the family such as step-sibling or step-parent among others tend to affect them. All these changes make the teenagers to feel uncomfortable thus develop stress.

Teenagers develop different perceptions concerning the emotional and physical changes they undergo. This creates self-doubt which leads to poor self-esteem which may cause stress.

When the healthy competition among students turns unhealthy which raises eyebrow that brings feelings of resentment and jealousy ends up adding stress to the student.

Sometimes differences among siblings may go a notch higher which may result to wars. This might to be very much stressful among the parties that have been involved.

Sometimes teenagers may need to be accepted by their friends by being famous by going out with friends or attending parties. They can even give preferential treatment to friends than the way they do to their families. They become under pressure to dress differently, speak teen language among other aspects. They may create additional stress on teenagers.

Students have different ways in which they view the world. This can be a big source of stress to their life.

About Author

Written by Suzain Lian, an educational specialist working with writing challenged clients for more than four years now. I normally provide ghost writing, coaching and ghost editing services

Everyone experiences stress, but many don’t know how to manage it. When major life stressors come up, it’s important to handle them properly to avoid getting hurt. The top five most stressful life events include:

  • Death of a loved one
  • Divorce
  • Moving
  • Major illness or injury
  • Job loss

It might feel like stress is an emotional issue – something that lives strictly inside your head. But stress can become a physical issue as well, especially when dealing with the most stressful things in life.

Your body instinctively responds to changes and perceived threats, says Francoise Adan, MD, ABIHM, Medical Director, UH Connor Integrative Health Network. Your body reacts by releasing stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol to switch you into fight-or-flight mode.

After experiencing stressful life events, Dr. Adan says stored-up stress can contribute to symptoms and issues related to:

  • Digestive health
  • Inflammation
  • Immune system
  • Bone density
  • Sexual health
  • Sleep
  • Anxiety

“Day-to-day stress takes its toll on everyone,” she says. “We’re constantly bombarded by threats and changes, but because we don’t usually literally fight or run, we stay reactive. We’re bathed and flooded in stress hormones.”

How to Manage the Most Stressful Events in Life

When stress strikes, you can take steps to reduce the impact on your body. To alleviate symptoms and manage even the top stressors in life, Dr. Adan recommends these three steps:

1. Take Action

  • Your body is primed to act, so go ahead and get physically moving.
  • “Contract your muscles, release and shake it out. You can march in place or wring a towel – 30 to 60 seconds will reboot your body and return you to physical stability,” Dr. Adan says.

2. Breathe

  • Hit the pause button and tune into yourself. Consider using guided imagery and mindfulness to engage in the moment. Being present will realign the body.
  • “Think: ‘I am here; it is what it is.’ It’s about acceptance, not control,” she says.

3. Feel Good

  • Take at least 30 seconds to just feel good. It’ll release the same endorphins you get when you exercise.
  • “Think about what you’re grateful for,” Dr. Adan says. “Tap or sing along to a song. I tell my clients to keep Play-Doh at their desks and take a minute to play.”

Research shows that using this type of framework for roughly five to 10 minutes a day will improve your health, longevity and productivity. While this is particularly important following stressful life events, it’s better to make it an everyday habit.

"Not one of us can’t spare five minutes a day,” Dr. Adan says. “It’s a choice for health.”

Check out University Hospitals for More Tips

University Hospitals Connor Integrative Health Network’s S.M.A.R.T.™ (Stress Management and Resilience Training) Program can provide additional tips and practices for managing even the most stressful life events. It’s an eight-week series led by experts on stress resilience.

According to this study, the most common student stressors are related to academia. This highlights that being a student can bring about a range of unforeseen stresses and anxieties unrelated to other areas of your life. According to the study, working for exams, grinding through assessment periods, meeting deadlines, and managing the academic workload were within the top six common stress points. Other stressors included worries about ineffective time management and problems with procrastination.

For students, these stressors are glaringly obvious. However, when you consider the many other factors of university life, such as navigating new social environments, managing finances, and moving away from home – it’s interesting that academic stressors are still the most common. Other stressors related to personal and social expectations, for instance, getting good grades and not wanting to disappoint family, appeared less immediately significant.

Similarly, another study found students experienced ‘self-imposed’ stressors, such as wanting to compete and win or be liked by everyone. Again, this highlights the key role that our own expectations play in the stress we experience. These students also reported ‘pressure’ stressors, for example, because of competing over grades, work or relationships with their friends, and from overloading themselves with too many responsibilities. Have you found yourself experiencing stress for similar reasons? Being a student, trying to meet all these demands and expectations is understandably stressful. But it seems like we might cause ourselves more distress than our studies do.

Here are some tips on how to overcome these stressors!

Addressing the Academic Stressors

Naturally, exams and assignments will cause some stress. But you can control how you respond to and manage this stress. First, it’s best if you can start developing your time management skills. Just like other skills, time management can be learnt and will be a worthwhile investment. There are many ways to organise your time, so take some time to figure out what works for you. For both exams and assignments, preparing in advance can help you to avoid feeling stressed.

However, this doesn’t have to take up too much time if you have deadlines or classes that need prioritising. It can be small bursts of revision using a retrospective revision timetable, or keeping notes of resources that might be useful for the assignment you’ll be writing at the end of your module. If you aim to manage your time and plan ahead, even if you find yourself battling bouts of procrastination, you’ll still be on track!

Managing Expectations

Our own expectations can cause us a great deal of stress. In an academic environment, it’s easy to slip into competitive or unhealthy mindsets. You might feel that you must get good grades, or do a multitude of extracurriculars to keep up with your friends. You can work on having more realistic expectations by trying to live in the moment, taking things day by day. This sets your focus to what you can achieve in that space of time. You’ll feel accomplished more often instead of waiting for big achievements.

Additionally, it’s important to be kind to yourself. Your best is good enough! Take some time to acknowledge your accomplishments, and positive qualities. Or, share your worries with friends you trust. Friends often see you progress and grow in ways that you might forget. Likewise, talking about expectations can help when dealing with the social expectations that are out of your control. Having such conversations with family or colleagues might reveal that they’re not holding you to the high expectations you have in mind. Or, you might realise your friends also feel pressured to achieve in an unrealistic way. You can read more about managing high expectations here.