Today's college students face a multitude of stressors. Grades, finances, extracurriculars and relationships all weigh heavily on the shoulders of young people across the nation.
For sophomore Jacob Maish, a combination of these burdens reached a breaking point last semester.
Maish was the stage director of theatre department's production, "A New Brain." He was also taking a full class load and was going through a "tough time" with his ex-girlfriend.
"I had rehearsal from 7 through 11 p.m., and I was already working in the theatre until 5 p.m.," Maish said. "So I was getting up early, working all day, and then staying up late."
Maish's busy schedule gave him little time to sleep, and when he did have time, the anxiety he experienced as a result of his responsibilities often kept him awake.
"I felt like crap all the time, so I was really irritable," he said. "I wasn't trying hard in my classes, and I started skipping a lot trying to get rest and feel better. I spent what little money I had on NyQuil and Sudafed."
His body worn down and fatigued, and Maish became ill.
"I just started getting really sick," he said. "Kind of like a basic cold or flu, and I was really tired and weak all of the time."
Statistics show that Maish is not alone. In a 2003 survey conducted by the Ball State University Health Center, 94.3 percent of students indicated that they felt overwhelmed by all that they had to do and 89.7 percent reported feeling physically exhausted by factors other than physical activity at some point in the 12 months prior to taking the survey.
"Stress is often linked to students getting sick, which happens a lot because stress really pulls down the immune system," Ball State Counseling Center Psychologist Kim Gorman said.
"When you perceive stress, your body releases a lot of different hormones," physical education professor Debra Powers said. "These hormones help us if it's a fight or flight situation, but if they're in the body ongoing as a result of too much to do in too little time, they wear on the body.
Powers said that exercise is key in managing stress and dealing with unwanted stress-induced hormones both before and after college.
"Rarely do you hear about college student having a heart attack, but the wear and tear over years and years can result in a heart attack at 40 if you don't get those hormones under control," she added.
Health Center Director Kent Bullis estimated that between 20 to 25 percent of Health Center patients express having anxiety problems.
"We see a lot of people with chest pain, headache, fatigue and difficulty sleeping," Bullis said.
Bullis said that he attributes many stress-related illnesses to a lack of sleep.
"It's common for people to feel like they'll just make more hours in the day and cut back on sleep," he said. "A big thing is learning where your limits are. A lack of sleep harms the immune system."
"Getting enough sleep and exercise should be on everyone's daily list," Powers said. "If you do those things, the other things that you need to get done that day are a lot easier."
Gorman, Bullis and Powers all emphasize prioritizing as a key to managing stress.
"It's important for them to try to be reasonable about commitments and expectations," Bullis said of students. "It's important to prioritize and try not to fit too many things in," he said.
"Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is to be able to say no to something," Gorman said.
Since completing his work on "A New Brain," Maish has been able to slow down the pace of his life and take better care of himself.
"Right now it's not as bad because I've got more free time, and I'm not responsible for so much," he said. "I'm not going out drinking to deal with stress."
Though Maish realizes that stress is unavoidable, he said that he'll be careful to not take on too much in the future.
"Someone asked me if I wanted to do the stage manager thing again and I said no," he said "I didn't want to deal with all the stress and hassle of that again," he said. "I'm sure in the future I'll probably do something big like that again--maybe being in charge of the design aspect--but not stage manager."
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