I'm a student. And a student's life is stressful. But weirdly enough, school never taught me how to cope with stress! (This is also the story of millions of other students across the world!) We straight up ignore stress or turn to addictions. Eventually our discipline both at home and school/college goes into a tailspin.
It's true. Attention to a student’s psychological development is sometimes at a minimum, they face problems like missing homework or being late in class, a ton of pressure from teachers or parents to score well and peer pressure is a topic for another blog!
Stress in general is a psychological burden and coping with stressful situations can affect a student’s prospects of performing well in exams, limit their career success and may lead to us finding different negative coping mechanisms. It's porobably a good idea then to reconsider what coping mechanism actually work!
What are Unhealthy Coping Strategies? An unhealthy coping strategy has long-term negative consequences but feels soothing for the moment. These can be harmful and include drug or alcohol use, sleeping too much or too little, aggressiveness, distraction and promotes problem avoidance. Here's what some of us to do:
- Isolate ourselves or bunk class to avoid contact with classmates or teachers
- Cling to the past and fantasize about a made-up world
- Overreact to small issues or silly fights
- Loose interest in activities such as sports and irregular attendance
- Keep all our stress to ourselves by not opening up
Yes, it's not easy. So here are a few things that could work for you. I've tried some and they've helped.
- Try to find our rest in God. One of my fav lines goes: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” That's Jesus in Matthew 11:28. It is possible to find strength in God. There's no need to be scared or worried about the hardships that accompany school/college life because God is with us.
- If we think the problem is beyond our control and cannot be changed, don't fight it, learn to adapt what is for now and it's OK to cry about it. A good cry can bring relief to a certain extent.
- Participate and get involved with the people around us, compete in different socio-cultural activities.
- Find a support circle and talk about what's stressing you. FYI, check out THIS LINK in case you need a place to talk!
And as Anton Kurapov PhD, a professor assistant on psychology says 'Students should try to relax at the same pace that they lead the rest of their lives.' For a while, tune out of our worries about time, productivity, marks, studies and “doing it right."' You will find satisfaction in just being.