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Uni Is Stressing Me Out
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Uni Is Stressing Me Out

Written by Sam | May 12, 2020

Unfortunately, a common phrase which is now becoming more and more searched on the internet, which is how we came across it! We then thought we would write an article to help students combat stress they can be feeling! If you need a quick check-in to make sure you are keeping on top of your stress then this the article for you!

Please note I am not a mental health advisor, these are more based on my personal experience and what I have found to work for me!

Stress

The definition of stress: a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.

As the Mental Health Foundation have on their website, this is what stress is in more detail: At the most basic level, stress is our body’s response to pressures from a situation or life event. What contributes to stress can vary hugely from person to person and differs according to our social and economic circumstances, the environment we live in and our genetic makeup. Some common features of things that can make us feel stress include experiencing something new or unexpected, something that threatens your feeling of self, or feeling you have little control over a situation.

When might we become stressed as a student:

  • Starting University
  • Finding a house
  • Assignments
  • Leaving home
  • Money troubles
  • Health issues
  • Peer pressure or troubles
  • Social events
  • Personal situations
  • Family problems

There is no right answer here because everything is individual to the person. I presume most stress is heightened when there is a lot of work in a short space of time.

How To Spot If You Are Getting or Becoming Stressed?

Emotional changes

When you are stressed you may experience many different feelings, including anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, or frustration. These feelings can sometimes feed on each other and produce physical symptoms. You can spend a lot of time in your own mind, going round and round feeling like you aren’t achieving anything!

Behavioural changes

When stressed you may behave differently. For example, you can become withdrawn, indecisive, or inflexible. You may not be able to sleep properly. You may be irritable or tearful. Some people may resort to smoking, consuming more alcohol, or taking drugs. Stress can make you feel angrier or more aggressive than normal. Stress may also affect the way we interact with our close family and friends.

Bodily changes

When stressed, some people start to experience headaches, nausea, and indigestion. You may breathe faster, perspire more, have palpitations, or suffer from various aches and pains. You will quickly return to normal without any negative effects if what is stressing you is short-lived, and many people are able to deal with a certain level of stress without any lasting adverse effects.

What Can Students Do If University Is Stressing?

Here are 10 options you can do to help you reduce your stress levels at university and on a budget.

Realise when you are becoming stressed and get to the root cause

Knowing when you are feeling stressed is a good point to know, like anything, if you can see it earlier, the easier it should be to revert back to ‘normal’. For example, I can tell when I get stressed because I achieve less and become tense in my shoulders. I then work back on a bit of paper to see what is out of place and what is causing the untoward tension.

Review current lifestyle

Look at how you are living, give yourself the best chance of thriving at university and smashing life. If you are getting stressed a lot, see what changes you can make to put you in the right frame of mind.

Have and//or build a support network

Start small, most have their family as their support network, this network should be people you trust completely to judge you without making any assumptions. They will listen and be truthful about anything to help you improve your life. At university, there might only be 1 or 2 friends like this and that is absolutely fine!

Eat Healthily

Make sure you get the right nutrition to give you the best chance, bad foods make you feel slow and sluggish and they affect your thinking, eating the right food will help you feel clean, bright and positive. You honestly don’t really trust this until you have done the first few weeks of good clean eating, after you will never go back as every time you indulge on something you feel horrible!

Reduce smoking and drinking

When stressed you can do these activities more, make sure that you keep these in check and try and reduce them if anything from normal life. Smoking has bad effects on your respiratory system and alcohol is a depressant and neither of these will fix the situation they will only give you a temporary feeling of relief before the situation you were in comes back again.

Exercise

The hardest about this is taking the first step, whether it is a walk, run, gym class, gym, home workout, it can be anything, however, go and raise your heart rate and your head will feel much clearer. If you make this a regular occurrence, it is a great way to cap stress levels, I exercise every other day usually for around 30 mins and after my head is much clearer than what it was before I went out!

Take time out

Allocate time in your day to completely rewind and relax, this means no work, no distractions and nothing that will stress you out, there are no time limits in this period. This gives you and your brain to just relax switch off and get your thoughts back together.

Have a routine

I find a routine keeps me in some sort of check, I know what is happening and when, you will have to be flexible with this because often it can change, there might even be a pandemic. You can plan a time to do everything, where as if you haven’t it seems like everything must be done now and then the you try to do more than 1 task at once and it takes longer, it becomes a mess and it works you up! Routine!

Don’t be too hard on yourself

Everyone is guilty of this, we are too hard and critical on ourselves, even when we have done something we should be massively proud of. We should learn to congratulate and reward ourselves for our achievements. You are doing so much better than you think, you just don’t see it because you are you and you are comparing yourself to others!

To help you manage with stress, student housing and accommodation can be a good or bad base to help you overcome it, it is a place you should be able to feel safe and secure and call home for the 3 years you are university, let us help you find somewhere that will give you a good experience and support you through university. Find a house

How To spot a Good Student House – a quick YouTube video to help students find a place for them.

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