Introduction
Stress is a part of day to day living. As college students you may experience stress meeting academic demands, adjusting to a new living environment, or developing friendships. The stress you experience is not necessarily harmful. Mild forms of stress can act as a motivator and energizer. However, if your stress level is too high, medical and social problems can result.
What is Stress?
Although we tend to think of stress as caused by external events, events in themselves are not stressful. Rather, it is the way in which we interpret and react to events that makes them stressful. People differ dramatically in the type of events they interpret as stressful and the way in which they respond to such stress. For example, speaking in public can be stressful for some people and relaxing for others.
Symptoms of Stress
There are several signs and symptoms that you may notice when you are experiencing stress. These signs and symptoms fall into four categories: Feelings, Thoughts, Behavior, and Physiology. When you are under stress, you may experience one or more of the following:
BY JENNY COZENS AND ANNE WOODHAM
What is stress?
All animals, including humans, respond to threat by fighting or fleeing. While deciding what to do, your body gears itself up to respond. Extra stress hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol) are secreted, your heart pumps faster, blood pressure rises, breathing quickens, perspiration increases, and digestion slows. Taking physical action exhausts the stress hormones. But when stuck behind a desk or in a car, with one tense situation after another, stress chemicals remain in the bloodstream. This causes headaches, creating further anxiety. Eventually your system is so overloaded that a minor incident can prompt a crisis.
What are some of the physical symptoms of stress?
Aches and pains, palpitations and dizziness, loss of appetite or compulsive eating, digestive problems, grinding your teeth,...