How to Manage College Stress for Students

Updated: 17 Jun 2023

How to Manage College Stress for Students

Is it normal to be stressed in college? If there is one thing that we all experience is stress, and no one is an exception, even college students. A close analysis of these students shows that they deal with varying degrees of stress throughout their college life. Stress impacts them differently; for instance, the causes of stress and students’ responses to it differ from one student to another. Luckily, stress should not block you from achieving your objectives.

What you should know is that getting a degree needs to be an exciting process. Moreover, college life needs to be one of your best years. Overcoming stress is a must for this to happen. So, how do you pull off such a stunt? A stress-free college life. Just hold on tight; we’ll give you all the secrets.

This article focuses on how to manage college stress for students. To become a master at stress management, you need to know the type of stress you face in college, their causes and symptoms, then the stress management strategies you can apply to simplify life and make it comfortable. On top of these strategies, the article will touch briefly on these other aspects to make it easy for you to assess yourself and resolve the stress. You can also place an order with us if you want us to handle your coursework so you can get top grades.

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What Are the Types of Stress?

Several types of stress exist. Understanding the different types will play a huge role in knowing the one that can hurt you. The three broad types, according to the American Psychological Association, are:

Acute stress: this is the most widespread form of stress. You get acute stress from day-to-day stressors, like running late to class, waking up late, or scoring poorly in coursework. Luckily, this stress lasts a short time and has little impact on our health.
Episodic stress: acute stress that frequently comes back is termed as episodic.
Chronic stress: this kind of stress happens when individuals have long-term stressful conditions. It is typical when students struggle in a specific course for an extended period. Students may develop severe health conditions such as sleep deprivation, weight gain, and anxiety.

How Should College Students Manage Stress?

As noted above, long-term stress is detrimental to your life in almost all aspects. It negatively affects your grades as well as your health and relationships. Below we have explained the causes and symptoms to watch out for: we hope these details will help you quickly notice when you have bad stress. Remember, not all stress is bad.

So, how do college students handle stress? Below is a list of some of the most efficient stress management strategies that are easy to understand and implement. We guarantee that your college life will be full of bliss once you apply these techniques. To add icing to the cake, you can place an order with us to get academic help services from us. We have been helping students for over a decade with their assignments, quizzes, and exams, and all have excelled in their studies.

Without any delay, let’s delve into the stress management strategies for college students.

1. Get Enough Rest

A good night's sleep can do wonders in your life. Your cognitive functioning and mental health will be outstanding, making you pay attention and concentrate on your studies. Another aspect to note from this point is that you should avoid pulling an all-nighter. This mainly happens when studying for exams. Your mind may not function well, and you may perform poorly.

2. Eat Well

Take a balanced diet to be able to fight off stress easily. Junk food will not offer optimum energy levels; thus, you will be more vulnerable to stress. A healthy diet is rich in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

3. Exercise

Being active has been proven by countless studies to help the body in all domains. Regular exercise makes our bodies immune to tens of diseases and improves our mental clarity and cognitive functioning. After physical activity, the brain largely produces feel-good hormones that neutralize stress.

If you are not an exercise person, you should start to be one from today.

4. Practice Mindfulness

What is mind fullness? It is the state of being fully aware or conscious of something. The highly prevalent form of mindfulness is meditation. This form produces a plethora of health benefits, such as:

It reduces anxiety
It curbs the feeling of hopelessness
It improves concentration

All these benefits help in fighting stress.

5. Manage Time Efficiently

You can cause significant stress to yourself when you don’t manage your time effectively. One of the most efficient time management strategies is writing your upcoming homework and tests in a planner, notes, or something of the sort.

6. Journal

Journaling is therapeutic. It assists you in discovering stressors quickly. Note down your daily feelings and thoughts, or you could even create a stress journal. Having a journal will help you to self-reflect appropriately. You will have everything in perspective, hence better at identifying the stressors (you will find common stressors among college students below).

7. Find Support

The support of family, friends, and professionals can go a mile when we are under stress. Try to be honest when seeking emotional support. Explain to someone you trust what you’re truly going through.

8. Be A Positive Thinker

Positive thoughts have been proven to enhance physical well-being and offer a clear mind. When practiced daily, it reduces the risk of developing chronic stress. Thus, you must remove all negative thoughts from your mind by replacing them with positive ones.

9. Find A Recreational Activity

Find a healthy activity that will help you to let stress out. These activities include a hobby, physical exercise, and joining a social club.

10. Seek Help When You Need It

Reach out for help when you notice you are developing bad stress. Do not let this kind of stress set in, and then you start looking for a solution. It might be too late. Try to find the solution as soon as you spot the symptoms (which we have discussed below in detail). An excellent choice is seeking help from the mental health resources of your college. The professionals in these facilities will assist you in determining the stress triggers, creating a mental health plan, and finding ways to cope.

Now you are set to go to live a happy life in college. You are well-equipped with all you need to handle just about any stress. In case you want to take your life skills a notch higher, mainly in virtual learning, read How to Overcome Challenges of Online Learning.

How Does Stress Affect Students?

There is bad and good stress. Small doses of stress are generally good and healthy. Good stress may keep us motivated; for instance, to make positive changes in our lives, like preparing for an exam.

Stress is categorized as bad when it happens for a lengthy period, as in the case of chronic stress. Bad or extremely chronic stress negatively affects our bodies and brain. The impacts include:

Disrupting our class attendance and studying
Disrupting our cognitive processes like concentration
Contributing to dire health issues like high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease, and depression

What Are the Stress Symptoms Among College Students?

Students experience an array of changes in them when they are exposed to stressors. These changes range from physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. Keep in mind that a single stressor may cause different symptoms in two students.

The following list explains how stress manifests itself.

Physical symptoms: headache, fatigue, trouble sleeping, chest pain, etc
Emotional symptoms: anxiety, irritability, depression (sadness), restlessness, etc
Cognitive symptoms: feeling constant worry, inability to focus, losing a sense of organization, etc
Behavioral symptoms: eating too little or too much, drug addiction problems, reduced social activity, emotional outbursts, etc

What Are the Most Common Stressors for College Students?

College students react differently to stressors. However, specific events lead to excess stress for practically everyone. A list of these universal stresses is provided below.

Coursework: students may become overwhelmed by the increased workloads as time progresses. This is primarily the case with exams, as this coursework carries a huge percentage of students' grades. Fortunately, you can come to us for online exam help if you need to ace the test.
Homesickness: some students find it hard to stay away from their families. Mainly those doing it for the first time or are out-of-state students.
Family tragedies: one of the most significant stressful events is death in a family. It leads to trauma among students, mainly when they school very far from home and can’t travel back home.
Living with strangers and cohabitation: most students travel to new locations and are expected to befriend strangers. To add salt to the wound, they cohabitate with strangers. This is stressful, mainly for introverted and shy students.
Romantic relationships: students also try to form romantic relationships while juggling school work. Many relationships don’t work out, making students stressed.
Finance and working: some students may look for part-time jobs to make ends meet. Struggling economically and balancing work and school may make students' life stressful.

If the stress is too much to bear and you have no time to work on your assignments, you can place an order with us to get academic assistance. Our motto is to see students excel. Give us even your most delicate coursework task, and we’ll help you get your dream grade.

Which Health Conditions Can College Stress Lead to?

This section touches on the health conditions students develop when they cannot manage bad stress. One of the objectives of discussing these health conditions is to show you the importance of managing stress.

Some of the rampant and severe health conditions resulting from stress are:

Anxiety: typical symptoms of this condition are excess worry, fear, muscle shaking and tension, and irritability. (Speaking of anxiety, some students have anxiety when speaking in front of a crowd. Go through the How to Deal with Speaking Anxiety in Online Classes article to understand some tips for managing this anxiety.)
Depression: the key symptom of depression is excessive sadness. Individuals with it shut themselves off from others and the world. They start to hate things they previously liked.
Chronic muscle pain: common areas you feel pain are in the stomach, back, neck, and head.
Panic attacks: this health condition occurs suddenly and includes other symptoms such as chest pain, feeling of terror, nausea, and dizziness.
Sleep disorders: excessive or lack of sleep indicates a sleeping disorder.
Substance misuse: you know the symptoms of substance abuse from the top of your head. But allow us to jog your memory. The main one is binge drinking or smoking.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why Is College So Hard for Me?

There may be many reasons why college may be hard for you. The most common reason may be stress. Various aspects, such as coursework, financial issues, and family problems, can cause stress. Go through the strategies above to understand how to get rid of stress. Place an order with us if you want someone to assist you with your coursework.

2. How Do You Calm College Anxiety?

Anxiety is one of the symptoms of stress. So, applying the above strategies for stress management will assist you in calming your college anxiety.

3. Why Is It Crucial for Me to Manage My College Stress?

Unmanaged stress leads to grave consequences such as poor academic performance and life-threatening health conditions such as depression and panic attacks.

4. Why Do College Students Have High-Stress Levels?

One of the reasons that may cause high-stress levels among college students is the high number of stressors they are exposed to, such as work-school balance, overwhelming coursework, and complicated romantic relationships.

In Brief

Wondering how to manage college stress for students? Wonder no more. This guide deeply delves into this topic. In addition, it looks at other topics revolving around stress, such as the types of stress, their causes, symptoms, and health complications brought about by stress. Understanding these aspects will make it easy for you not to get stressed and to discover if you have bad stress and what to do to make it end. You can hire us to remove your coursework stress. Our experts will do your coursework tasks and deliver good grades.

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How to Manage College Stress for Students - Homeworkmarket

author Melaine

Meet the author

By Melanie

Melanie is a seasoned writer with more than 8 years of experience. She is passionate about academia and works off the clock to ensure she write the topnotch content for her readers.

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