Too many arguments with a roommate or a disappointing grade on an exam could be the breaking point for some college students who are stressed out.
"Everyone has stress," Jay Zimmerman, counseling center psychologist, said. "It all depends on how you handle it."
Students experience problems with relationships, course load and everyday decision-making about their future. He said not all stress is bad. Sometimes stress can be a motivation, but it should not interfere with a person's everyday functioning. The way a person handles stress determines whether it is helpful or harmful.
Chronic unrelieved stress can have physical manifestations, Dr. Kent Bullis, medical director of the Amelia T. Wood Student Health Center, said. The mental and physical aspects of stress are closely intertwined and difficult to separate. Stress can cause headaches, chest pains and fatigue and potentially more dangerous problems. He said all of this is going on while students are asking "who am I?"
"When students first get to college they are learning about themselves and pushing their limits everyday," Bullis said.
An survey of counseling center directors published in Psychology Today found that anxiety is a college student's biggest concern. A 2003 survey of 382 Ball State students conducted by the American College Health Association reported that 32.5 percent students said stress affects their academic performance.
Seniors in the digital media minor capstone class recognize the affects of stress on college students and plan to develop a documentary chronicling the problem.
"I think they have correctly identified a major health concern for students that is at the base of many other problems," Larry Dailey, journalism professor and the capstone class's instructor, said.
The class has spoken with experts about stress and its relationship to physical and mental health. The group hopes to talk with students willing to share their stress-related experiences.
"Everybody I know is stressed about one thing or another," senior Stacey Borden, who is enrolled in the capstone class, said. "No one has time to deal with it, and we have a tendency to blow it off."
The course's main goal is for students to learn about stress and seek assistance if they suffer from it, Borden said.
But there is a social stigma about asking for help when comes to mental health, Zimmerman said.
"The attitude in our culture is to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and handle whatever is going on," he said.
This kind of thinking could leave countless students untreated, which could develop into larger problems, Zimmerman said.
Students should take advantage of the resources available to them as well, whether it is counseling or the health center, Zimmerman said.
The best way to cope with stress is to exercise and to get enough sleep, Bullis said. This allows the body to rest from the mental and emotional strain by reducing physical tension. He also said to avoid heavy alcohol and drug use.
If healthy habits or counseling does not work, medication is also available for chronic problems, Bullis said. Benzodiazepines, such as Valium and Xanax, take about one hour to take effect but can become addictive. Medications such as Prozac, a serotonin inhibitor that affects mood, emotion, sleep and appetite, take one to three weeks to take effect.
"Most importantly, students should rearrange their priorities by considering their mental health," Bullis said. "Recognize situations that may cause stress, develop effective ways to manage stress and seek help if you need it."
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