College Stress and Psychology

Course objectives addressed: 5, 6, 7, 11

As if college weren’t already stressful enough, studies show that psychology plays a huge role in college stress levels in the article Stress in College Students. The article pointed out many obstacles of what usually all college students go through when they’re at school and how it affects them. I learned a lot more information that I didn’t know before. I agree on many points that were made in this article but I also think that further research and tests should be done about how to reduce or get of rid of the long term emotional stress problems.

College is a huge step that some people take in life, and it isn’t easy for everyone. Some learn to cope well with the big move better than others and some not so much. One of the big stressful parts is leaving your friends and family behind as you make your big move.  It does make it easier to have a friend from home or a family member close to you when you need them the most. From my own personal experience my first couple of weeks at school were the hardest ones yet. I had to get used to my surroundings, make new friends, and the homework load started right off the bat. I always wished to be able to just call one of my best friends to come over and vent to but I couldn’t because I was at school and so were they. This made things a little more difficult because I felt alone at times since I didn’t have someone to turn to while I was in school and still making friends, so it made me feel more homesick.

I was able to overcome missing my friends and family by communicating with them every once in a while and going home every couple of weeks to see them. It made me feel better and made the move into college easier because I knew they would still be there once I got back. This made me feel emotionally better and it compares to what the article says about how more stressful it is on a college student to be away from home because once I felt less stressed about it, I realized how stressed I was in the first place. This helped me cope with a lot of other stressful obstacles I faced as the semester went on, and overcome them.

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I agree on all of the points the article made about what stresses out a college students because I experienced every single one of those. It also talks about how in certain scenarios, the stress that students feel differ based on their race, surroundings, the season and whether their gay, bisexual, transgender or straight. This is a big point made in the article because it shows how some people get stressed out in a certain scenarios compared to others. My thoughts on this changed  lot because it showed me how some students really do struggle with something that I never imagined was stressful to someone. For some there is a way for them to overcome this emotional stress over time but for others, it is a long term feeling and causes problems for them down the road.

Most likely all universities have some form of therapy offices opened to student to use if they are in need of it. This helps with them over coming their stress because they get to talk about their problems with someone and can get help on it. Another way for students to seek help are counseling sessions within their community or school. A big way for students to get support from others is reaching out to their friends and family, which is someone they already trust and confide in. As stated in the article, these resources are known to make the emotional stress of the students slowly go away and become stress free which has been proven to be true. However, some still encounter problems down the road from stress and it is hard for them to overcome that, even with the help of these resources. I think that more research should be done to help the students who can’t overcome their stress for their own sanity because there has to be a way to help them. If more time was put into it, more tests and research were done, then it can be a possibility to find a way to treat long term stress for the students that need it. This way, it will be a positive outlook on life for the individual who is cured and no longer has to live a life with severe emotional problems.