Managing stress is a factor in maintaining health and achieving success in college. It is common for students to arrive on campus without good stress management skills. Many simply do not have the experience to have developed these skills or have not been taught them. In some cases, dealing with stress can be complex, and underlying issues can mean medical professionals might need to be involved. However, in many other cases, reducing stress is simply a matter of having the right tools and resources available and knowing how to use them. The tips below are all ways to manage stress of varying degrees.
Campus Health Care
There is a growing concern on campuses regarding mental health in college students. Fortunately, on-campus resources for dealing with it continue to improve as well. These include campaigns aimed at raising awareness regarding mental health, offering peer counseling workshops and increasing access to treatment, including with telehealth. Telehealth can remove a number of the barriers that some students might experience. It makes it easy for them to seek help without going into a clinic. Students should feel free to take advantage of these and any other resources their college offers.
Maintain And Build Support Systems
One challenge that students may face is that they are far away from their usual support system of family and friends. While it is important for them to become more independent, there’s also nothing wrong with talking to family or friends back home when things get tough. On top of that, however, they should work to build new support systems in college. Professors can also be sources of support. Students may want to consider visiting them during office hours to get advice on study strategies.
Make a Plan
Learning how to set goals and manage their time can be a big help in relieving stress for many students. In contrast to high school, when their lives were fairly regimented, college offers both a lot of flexible time and a lot of temptation. Students can work on setting short, medium and long-term goals, but at the same time, they should not be pressured into making decisions too early.
In other words, a freshman who is uncertain about their major or future career does not need to decide on a path right away. Even seniors should be reassured that the subject they study or the first job that they take does not lock them into a certain career path. With this in mind, creating lists of goals and the steps necessary to meet those goals can actually relieve a lot of stress because it creates a concrete road map. Similarly, using apps to better manage time or simply blocking out time for class, study, work and other activities on a calendar can also be helpful.
Lifestyle Changes
Although it might sound boring to them, students often need reminding that getting enough sleep, eating nutritious food and getting some exercise can go a long way toward relieving stress. These simple measures may actually solve what sometimes seem to be much more complex problems.
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