Sara Qarizada | Contributor
Featured image: Students often feel overwhelmed by the obligations related to post-secondary education. | Courtesy of Ulrike Mai
We long for the carefree days when we were graded on creating a unique title page for a book report, or colouring and labelling the map of Canada.
Now, we are confronted with quizzes, tests, midterms, essays, and exams—for not just one, but sometimes five courses.
We have part-time jobs, volunteer work, co-op placements, and on top of all of that, we are worrying about the threat of a strike.
The goal is to graduate on time with a decent GPA, while meeting the daunting requirements of post-graduate and/or job applications.
Factoring in a family or social life and tending to personal regimes seems next to impossible.
Twenty-four hours isn’t enough, but the deadlines continue to roll in, and sleep continues to elude us.
Mental health challenges among university students are more common than many may think. This is due to the high levels of stress caused by school-related obligations. In the past year, 72 per cent of Ontario university students reported having negative experiences with stress related to academics.
This is according to a survey conducted by Good2Talk, a free help hotline that offers professional information on sensitive topics to post-secondary students. According to the survey, the top five stressors in students’ lives are academics, career, body image, finances, and relationships, in that order.
Seventy-two per cent of these students admitted that they would have liked to speak to someone about their problems, as they have tried—unsuccessfully—to deal with their issues on their own.
Stress can be good for the body to a certain extent. When the body feels stressed, it becomes more alert and motivated to perform better—this is why many students find they work better under stress and tend to fall back into untimely routines. The flow of adrenaline also increases with stress, which stimulates our fight-or-flight responses. For this, stress is beneficial when it comes to emergencies.
However, when it comes to university stress, these life-saving bodily responses aren’t helpful, and instead become detrimental to one’s health over time—both physically and mentally; they bring about feelings of anger and anxiety, and can lead to sleep deprivation and depression, due to the chemicals released in the brain that obscure higher cognitive processes.
It is important for students to understand how unhealthy and damaging this is to their mental state, even if they don’t see it yet.
Students who have high level of stress during the school year need to target the source of their stress—for many, it has to do with poor time management skills.
It is crucial for students to reach out for support when feeling stressed, even if they feel it is a natural part of being a student.
Tackling stress alone can be challenging, but it is still possible—the first step is identifying the problem, and understanding that taking a time-out when overwhelmed is necessary.
No matter how important meeting a deadline is, your mental health always takes precedence—no one should compromise their mental state for the sake of handing in a paper on time.
