Student Survival: Dealing With Stress

Those of you who have known me for a while will no that I NEVER get stressed and I'm always completely "happy-go-lucky". Oh how I wish that were true... In reality, about 90% of the time, I look exactly like this picture. And I'm very aware of the fact that I'm not alone. In fact, the UK statistics for work-related illnesses say that 428 000 (40%) out of a total of 1 073 000 cases were put down to stress (Labour Force Survey 2011/12). However, I think some people seriously downplay the influences of stress and those who haven't experienced the full force of it can simply dismiss people having problems with the "get yourself together" mentality. Sometimes this just isn't the case. If you get in too deep, it becomes far harder to climb back up to normality. 

As an English student, I don't have a large number of deadlines, and this has two distinct implications: One is that people assume I have a lot of extra time on my hands, and the second (the one people tend to forget) is that the lack of assessed material in my degree means that everything I DO produce has to be absolutely perfect, which can be very trying at times. My own priorities also include other major things like helping on committees and attending societies. In addition to this, I tend to put my friends, colleagues, family and boyfriend before my own interests. It's not a recent realisation that this is a serious health risk, as I was taken out of both school and college at times in order to rest and regain my strength and general ability to function. But when you end up in hospital and having a friend being concerned that you have Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), then "getting yourself together" is a necessity, despite how difficult it is. It looks like this post is turning into an advice article, so here are some warning signs and preventative methods for the more serious forms of stress.

The Symptoms

1. Difficulties/Incapability to sleep. This can be if you can't switch your brain off, leading to the "tossing and turning" problem.
2. This can then lead to nausea caused by exhaustion, which in extremis can be almost debilitating. It will often be noticed by others as paleness and dark circles under the eyes.
3. Finding yourself feeling miserable, irritated or angry at all or most times. I myself only noticed increased anger after my housemates and boyfriend commented on an increase in swearing in conversation.
4. Hysteria. This is probably the biggest sign of needing to talk to someone. Laughing or crying uncontrollably with potentially no reason can be exhausting and occasionally painful. If it happens more than once, I would recommend making either a doctor's or counselling appointment to talk about it as soon as possible, just to get things off your chest and see if it helps.
5. Panic attacks. By this point, I would hope that you'd already taken action towards recovery. In my case, I didn't, then found myself waking up unable to breathe properly and with a hot, stinging rash all over my body. You don't want paramedics in your living room at 6am, do you? It will be the lowest point if this happens, but it's also the problem that you want to avoid.

The coping mechanisms

1. The friendship network: I had three people in particular who became integral in my recovery. Two of them were my best friends and the third was my boyfriend. One thing you MUST remember about these networks is that most people WILL help you if you're in need. My problem was that I didn't feel like I should have been loading off on the people I cared about, but in order to get better, you need to allow yourself to rely upon those who are willing to help. 
2. The professional network: This tends to be really scary for most people to think about, as the word "counselling" or "therapy" means admitting to yourself and to others that something is wrong. My advice here is to seek help in whatever form you feel comfortable with. Sometimes just going to talk to a neutral party for an hour or two to keep your head above ground can be really advantageous. 
3. Identifying your worries: Sometimes just writing down all of the things that are bothering you can be really beneficial. This gives you a list that you can work through methodically in order to clean out your schedule and give your brain a rest. It will also gradually improve your sleeping problems.
4. Personal Structuring: This tends to be the broken link that causes stress to arise. Losing track of time for work, personal health and socialising means the balance is skewed and one or more things in that structure suffer because of it. Whether on your own or with someone else, try to re-allocate your time for these things with equal weighting, as they are all important for prosperous development. It is possibly the most difficult strand on the route to recovery, but is nonetheless the most crucial. 

There are many other things that can be caused by stress and there are many other methods of recovery which you can talk to a professional about, but these are some of the core techniques I learned during my brief but nasty bout with debilitating stress (this year... it'll probably happen again but I'll stand a better chance now). Hopefully it's helpful to everyone dealing with degrees, school or work. There's help out there if you know where to look.