Before entering college I never really understood the stress and anxiety that came with it. Both my older siblings and many of my friends warned me about what I was getting myself into, but I never believed them. I always thought that it would be like high school, I could get away with doing my work at the last minute and be okay, or I could quickly review before an exam and pass with flying colors. Sadly, I was in for a rude awakening, but it seems as though I am not the only one. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, “85% of college students have stated that they have felt extremely overwhelmed in college”, and “41.6% have stated that anxiety is a top concern among college students.” As you can see this is becoming too much of a normal occurrence and that something needs to be done. These statistics prove that many young adults are going through extreme amounts of stress that are causing some future problems that need to be addressed. Also, causing the reasoning behind researching the topic and why stress itself affects college students so greatly and the impact it has is substantial.
After various studies were conducted, researchers found that there are both positive and negative effects of stress. As hard as it is to believe sometimes stress can be good. As ULifeline states, “Stress is a burst of energy that helps you meet daily challenges, motivates you, makes you more efficiently, and boosts energy.” Therefore, stress is a way to help you get everything you need to done in a better way and allows you to do it in a more orderly manner. Many people surprisingly, work better under stress and pressure then they do normally. The pressure of a deadline can help increase the work effort and the overall adrenaline alone can help someone meet a deadline regardless of the amount of work and time to complete is faced ahead of them. As well as all these advantages, stress also helps in other whens you are under pressure, not only with work, but in various situations. When you are in an extraneous situation and you encounter an adrenaline rush, “stress helps you fight-or-flight response. It is able to send chemicals like epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol” to the body in order to help you get out of the situation (ULifeline). On top of all this, stress is believed to strengthen your immune system and allow you to fight off illnesses.
Although there are many advantages to stress, there are also numerous disadvantages of stress. If your levels of stress are not measured, the negatives can affect your physical and mental health in many ways. Not only when one is awake is there many experience the negative effects of stress, but quite importantly, when one is sleeping. Sleep is one of the most important facets of a human's physical and mental well being. When one is faced with immense stressed, their dreams can be so vivid that when the subject having these dreams awakens, it's almost like they haven't even slept due to the amount of stress placed on the individual. If a dream is vivid enough, one can wake up with little to no rest given to their brain, which makes them awaken drowsy, stressed out, and anxious. This is a direct correlation to the stress on a human who deals with the average amount of typical stress in the average everyday life of the normal American. Let alone the specificity of the stress directed towards that of college students, which is some of the highest percentage of accumulated stress in the United States. Along with the mental effects of stress there are various physical effects that individuals undergo. Some of which include weakening immune system, heart problems, body aches, and changes in attitude and appetite. Millennials or not, stress can affect anyone and the stress of college can be summed up into one very simple quote passed on by generations of college students; “there’s no college without the ledge”. Not only a popular play on words but also a very vindictive statement based on what the average college student goes through, the “ledge”; representing the hypothetical line that a college student has to go through in order to deal with college in general, and “hypothetically” not be able to succumb the ledge.
Throughout college, many students experience great amounts of stress when having assignments to complete, deadlines, time away from family and other general life stressors are extremely common. But a question everyone has to ask, is why does this occur. Specifically what's happening in our brains when we experience stress and anxiety. As well as why it’s so prevalent in college students. Adam Moeser explains what happens in our brains and bodies when we experience stress in an article for medicalxpress. He begins by explaining an overall threat of stress by telling us, “Exposure to stress in early life can alter the normal development and physiology of many organ systems, resulting in increased sensitivity to stress and lifelong health risks in offspring” (Moeser). This is one prime example as to why stress and anxiety is so bad for us and can have legitimate health risks that college students especially need to be aware of. Stress and anxiety can also have grave consequences. Moeser continues to explain the specific reaction of stress in our bodies, “…This results in continued production and higher levels of these stress chemicals in the body. They bind to target receptors in many organs, which can have profound effects on physiology and function”(Moeser). This is the exact process of how stress can affect the body by directly affecting our brains. Emily Pond mentions in her article for PsychaitryAdvisor, “Stress was strongly associated with risk for suicide attempts and mental health diagnoses in college students, according to survey data published in Depression and Anxiety”(Pond). Pond explains that college students with anxiety are at risk for mental conditions and suicide, making stress and anxiety an extremely real problem that needs to be dealt with early.
Fortunately, for college students and all people in general there are many ways to reduce stress and deal with anxiety. Stress reduction methods can vary from medicinal treatment to things as simple as lighting a candle and exercise or hanging out with close friends and family. Improving sleep quality is another major stress reducer. Healthline sums up ways to relieve stress when saying, “Exercise, mindfulness, music and physical intimacy can all work to relieve anxiety — and they will improve your overall work-life balance as well.” In the quote the author mentions music as a way to relieve stress. Their is actually music specifically curated to reduce stress and anxiety and a company that deals with exactly this. Healthtunes is a company that creates music for stress relief using binaural beats and isochronic tones that the company sums up by “regulate the autonomic nervous system — also known as those bodily functions you don’t consciously control, like breathing, heart rate, and digestion — and accelerate endogenous processes — basically, the ability to rejuvenate and regenerate certain aspects of your neural system” (Hagan). So music can literally help you physically when one is dealing with stress and this company deals with exactly that. There are many ways in which one can reduce stress which is the one positive outcome when discussing anxiety and stress in college students.