Feeling STRESSED?
Some people shop at K-mart
By Leah Werier, Staff
Stress seems to be an inevitable part of being a university student and can be induced by a variety of factors, from student loans to exams. The range of mental stress triggers is very broad and so is the way that people respond to these stressors. Take for example the young man who decided to masturbate at his local Kmart in December 2007. The 24-year-old, whose name cannot legally be published, went into the changing room to try on some pants, proceeded to sit down on the floor, and then decided to play with himself.
A substantial gap between the floor and the door in his change room turned his very private act into a public one witnessed by a number of innocent bystanders just out for some shopping. Needless to say, the police were called and he was charged with gross indecency. When asked by the court what caused this irrational behaviour, his lawyer, Steve De Vorms, said, “Stress before my client’s final exams was the most likely explanation for what he did.” Although exam stress may only be one of the factors that caused such gross misconduct, how exactly can stress affect the average university student?
Stressful disruption
When the word “stress” comes to mind one often associates it with a steady stream of essays, labs and papers as well as the constant flow of tests that never seems to slow down. While that may be the university student’s candid definition, the condition is medical and can lead someone to have physical and psychological difficulties with performing regular work duties. “Stress” refers to the disruption of homeostasis in the body through stressful stimuli. Homeostasis is an organism’s ability to adjust its workings in order to maintain an internal equilibrium. Stimuli that can disrupt this internal balance can be mental, physiological, anatomical or physical. In 1956, Hans Selye, an endocrinologist, defined the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), which outlines three stages that he describes as the universal response to stressors.
The first stage is alarm. Alarm occurs when the body identifies the stressful stimuli, and it is during this stage when a fight-or-flight response is enacted. The second stage of resistance is the body’s attempt at coping with the stress in order to achieve homeostasis. The body works to adapt to the stimuli; however, the body can only do this for so long until some of its resources are exhausted. The final stage of exhaustion occurs when these resources have run out and the body cannot maintain homeostasis. This third stage is critical: if extended, long-term damage may result. Though it might seem hard to believe that those anxious moments during exam-time can result in permanent damage to our bodies, the consequences from allowing oneself to fall into stage three of the GAS model can include long-term mental illness, ulcers, as well as cardiovascular problems.
According to Bruce Charlton, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, stressful stimuli are everywhere and defining the stimulus really has more to do with the body’s response to stress. When under stress, the body and mind can demonstrate a wide variety of symptoms; some can be overbearing for those trying to juggle school, a job and a social life. Behavioural symptoms include overeating, undereating, excessive drinking and drug use, increased smoking, social withdrawals and crying spells. When our thoughts and feelings are altered by stress the negative results can include anxiety, irritability, anger, mood swings and an inability to concentrate. The lists don’t end there, either; stressful stimuli can also cause headaches, chest pains, high blood pressure, clenched jaws, tooth grinding and back pain.
Chill out
While perusing one of the various bulletin boards around campus recently, I was intrigued by a small purple flyer push-pinned amongst the clutter of propaganda. The piece of paper described a program run by the student counselling and career centre titled “Chill out at Noon.” While my version of “chilling out” usually includes a remote control and a couch, this group caters to those feeling stressed and under pressure at school and offers students a chance to take part in meditation and visualization as a means of creating balance in one’s life.
To understand the physical and psychological effects of stress on students, I met with Maureen Robinson at the Student Counselling and Career Centre. Robinson holds a master’s in educational psychology and has been running the “Chill Out at Noon” program for at least 10 years. Her idea for the program came from observing how university students can build balance in their lives. Robinson is a veteran when it comes to the area of dealing with issues such as stress management — she said that stress is one of the top five issues the Student Counselling and Career Centre deals with.
Too much stress can even lead to physical disease, she said. “I think that we are killing ourselves with stress in society. We still are homo sapiens, but look at the world we are living in now. It is so much different that in the past, this isn’t the world that was there, life is stressful, part of it is how to live healthily and adapt to the environment.”
Robinson related this example to animals in a zoo; in order for an animal to be happy it is critical that the environment is suitable. If the animal is not able to adapt to this environment, obvious signs of stress will show. A good example of animals under stress due to their environment was at the Haifa Zoo in 2006. After spending 34 days inside indoor bomb shelters, the animals began exhibiting symptoms that worried zoologists; they even feared that the antelopes may have heart attacks. Zoologists were able to pick up on these signs of stress in the animals because it’s their job to do so. I wondered whether signs like these are as visible in humans.
“The definite signs of stress include not sleeping, not eating, always being tired or being overly emotional — for what is normal. But normal means what is normal for you,” she explained.
When it comes to stress from school, a job or any other complications in your life, it takes initiative to sort the problem out. Robinson explained to me about the negative effects of stress, but also opened my eyes about what can be done to manage it.
“You need to look at what you can let go of, probably there is too much in someone’s life, too long hours, too many courses and demands. You need to judge — most people are not just coming to school nowadays; they have family commitments and school. People are running around all of the time; think, how can I reduce this? Most people will stop the social stuff, but you shouldn’t do that, it adds to the imbalance, social stuff is important as we are social creatures,” said Robinson.
“What can you do to achieve balance in your life?” I asked.
“Look at food and what you are eating, no one eats perfectly but you cannot live only on junk food or only on lettuce. You need balance in what you eat; you also need to get enough sleep. This is also different for everybody, as some people need eight hours, some need six and some need 10 hours. You also need social contacts and exercise. When it comes to exercise, a lot of people say “I am too tired.” Well, go for a walk. We know that if we exercise we will have more energy, it is counter-intuitive.
“You can also come into talk to somebody [at the student counseling and career center]. Social activity is important, but we are isolated with things in life. For example, on Facebook.com, we feel connected but this is at a very superficial level. We are losing real connection, we are so busy and we do not have a lot of face-to-face in-depth conversations. Sitting down to talk can put things into perspective and help to create balance. Many people know if they have a specific problem such as depression or anxiety and if they know this there are group therapies which we started last year. Many students are suffering and learning coping skills,” Robinson said.
Learn to deal
Learning effective coping skills is incredibly important for university students, as stress encompasses nearly every aspect of our lives. Learning how to cope with stress does not happen overnight, and many people may turn to less effective means of blanketing their stress and not dealing with the issue at hand. I know that if I feel I have had a stressful week I cannot wait for the weekend to roll around so that I can go out to a party or perhaps the bar. Sylvia Plath, author and poet, said, “There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.” This seems like an effective way of dealing with excess tension, but Plath did not take these words to heart — she killed herself by sticking her head in the oven while the gas was on. Not everyone copes with stress effectively.
When stressed, “People tend to cut themselves off, they think that everyone around them is fine and think that they can deal with their problems if they work longer, if they work harder and try to be better. This is the opposite of what you should do. People under stress should not add more of what they are currently doing; that is not beneficial.”
“Have you found that many students use alcohol and drugs as a form of coping mechanism?” I asked.
“Some do it as a coping mechanism, as it can make you more at ease or laid back, but is it a good coping skill? Does it solve the problem? Drinking and drugs temporarily work — if they didn’t work people wouldn’t do it. But it doesn’t make stress go away or deal with the stress, and then on top of it, you may have developed a problem,” revealed Robinson.
I guess my health insurance won’t start covering a six-pack as a stress reliever any time soon. The temptation is there to cover up our stress and go for a quick-fix solution. A recent study published in the Globe and Mail on Jan. 29 caught my eye. It was titled “One in Six Teens Inflict Self-Harm.”
According to the study, self-harm includes injuring oneself by cutting, burning, and with minor overdoses of drugs and alcohol. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, self-harm is actually a coping mechanism. It is a way for those suffering from immense mental stress to translate their feelings and emotions into physical pain and release. Poor stress management techniques can result in some pretty extreme behaviour.
Robinson told me about some of the ways that a person can try to achieve balance in their life. The U of M Student Counselling and Career Centre offers several complementary services that students are welcome to take advantage of. Besides Robinson’s “Chill out at Noon” program, she runs a seminar on managing exam anxiety.
In certain situations, due to stress, some students might draw a blank on an exam, while in another, more relaxed situation they would have answered the questions correctly. This kind of anxiety is caused by our inability to cope with stress in an exam setting. Bill Clinton once said, “Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it’s the time when they most need to think,” and it seems that this is exactly what happens to some students during exams.
As a first-year student, the thought of a final exam being worth 40 per cent is terrifying and stressful. “Stressful environments can lead to effects on the immune system, that’s why people get sick around exams . . . If we are healthy and balanced we are not vulnerable to these environmental things and can manage the transition into school or exams. Adaptation causes stress whether it is helpful or whether it will hurt us.” Robinson’s seminar teaches coping techniques so that a student can go into an exam setting and talk their way through the physiological responses to stress that they may experience with things such as time constraints.
Scream it out
Seminars are not the only way that students can learn to cope with exam stress. The Associated Press published an article in December 2007 that outlined several unique rituals that college students partake in to ease exam tension. One of the more peculiar is the “primal scream,” which students of Stanford, Harvard, Northland College and Northwestern University all take part in. On the day before exams the students at Northwestern University meet at exactly 9 p.m. to yell their hearts out for one minute. What comes to my mind is the mildly romantic and/or pathetic scene in Garden State when Natalie Portman and Zach Braff’s characters yell in the pouring rain, releasing all of their pent-up emotions. This “primal scream” apparently helps relieve the anxiety and tension that builds up for students around exam time. However, after Northwestern’s minute elapses, all the students run back to their studies.
It seems that university students have soaring rates of stress and anxiety, but surely stress also affects those not enrolled in a college or university program. Stress levels and sources change throughout life, Robinson said. “It is not only bad events that can cause stress. School is a positive thing, but when you are starting school you’re both eager and scared to death. Having a baby is a wonderful thing, a wonderful event but it makes your life change — which is stressful.”
Robinson explained that stress is an issue that will always be a part of our lives. “Imagine a caveman seeing a saber-tooth tiger. That would be a very stressful situation.”
If I walked out of my cave and saw a saber-tooth tiger I am sure my stress levels would be through the roof.
Decisions that pertain to future careers are also a major stress inducer among university students. Luckily there are also services that can aid students dealing with those struggles. Learning successful coping mechanisms for dealing with stress during the early stages of a person’s adult life can help later in the workplace. The Canadian Mental Heath Survey conducted in 2002 showed that 50 per cent of workers felt that their workplace was a major contributor to their stress; this was up from 39 per cent in 1997. I am sure that in the past six years the changes in technology alone have caused this number to rise even higher. Learning to deal with stress by managing it effectively is a life skill that will play a key role in everybody’s future.
Before our interview was done, Robinson even found an example of good social stress — yes, amazingly, it does exist — which is especially relevant with Valentine’s Day just around the corner: the first date. “An example of good stress is a first date with the guy you have been ogling forever. It is hellishly stressful,” said Robinson.
Nonetheless, it’s the kind of nervous tension and stress that university students could use a little more of.
