Stress is a natural response to challenging scenarios that is often referred to as acute stress and is a short-term sometimes beneficial stress. However, if one is in a persistent state of stress and doesn’t properly relieve or recover from that stress is when they become chronically stressed. Chronic stress can occur from the constant upcoming tests throughout the school year for students or the long hours with high demands at a job for the office worker. Responding to stress can be difficult and many factors can influence how you respond to stress. When you are in crisis the brain releases the hormone cortisol which spikes your heart rate, makes your muscles tense, and profuse sweating. Does this sound familiar to you?
Today, students constantly deal with the bombardment of assignments and deadlines exposing them to excessive amounts of stress. Chronic stress that students are experiencing can cause detrimental effects to their health. In the article “Coping with stress at work”, it explains how stress affects a workplace environment. “Common sources of work stress include excessive workload, few opportunities for growth or advancement, work that isn’t engaging or challenging, lack of social support, and conflicting demands/unclear performance expectations.” However, there are steps to manage the stress. “Track your stressors. Develop healthy responses, establish boundaries, take time to recharge, and learn how to relax” are the first steps one should take to combat stress.
When you deal with perceived threats for long periods of time makes the body respond to minor threats as if you were in critical danger. Trauma and stress can go hand and hand, where trauma can affect how we handle stress which is why it’s important we learn healthy coping skills. Trauma can have a lasting impact on the brain, changing how your body responds to stress which can affect your social, emotional, and physical developments. Traumatic experiences can subject your body to harmful amounts of stress that hinder your ability to respond to new forms of stress in healthy ways. According to the American Psychological Association (APA) titled “Stress effects on the body” states that “Our bodies are well equipped to handle stress in small doses, but when that stress becomes long-term or chronic, it can have serious effects on your body.”
When interviewing Mrs.Ryan, an adjustment counselor at Ipswich High School, she said “when students are stressed, especially those who are chronically stressed, it has a big impact on their performance on tests, quizzes, and homework. You can’t perform at the level you want when you’re stressed all the time.” Unfortunately, students’ reports share the same sentiment. An anonymous student at Ipswich High School, was also interviewed to talk about how stress has an effect on your mental health and work ethic. “School, college, and future responsibilities are my biggest stressors. Stress can make me shut down and procrastinate. Sometimes it puts me into a super hyper productive phase that comes at the weirdest times, like in the middle of the night sometimes.” Sometimes we all push things off and then get randomly motivated to get it done at the weirdest times, but there are healthier ways to deal with stress.
Mrs.Ryan is a great resource for students to go to for when they are feeling stressed because she has some great resources to manage stress. When asked about how to prevent stress she replied “I think it takes time to understand yourself and know your body, finding where you feel the stress, and recognizing that by yourself you may need help. Another ‘go to’ of mine is to take three deep breaths, make a list, then make an outline to craft a plan to deal with whatever is stressing you out at the time.”
Overall consistent stress can become chronic causing many issues in your daily life. By using healthy coping skills our lives can become better as we become more resilient. Therefore keep reminding yourself and those around you of healthy ways of handling stress to not let it get out of hand. Always remember that help and resources are available if/when you recognize you need help. We may not be able to control every stressful factor in our lives but we can control our reactions to them and how we handle them and ourselves.
