ACADEMIC STRESS

         Research and reports have it that around 74 – 79% of people in the world are affected by stress, and some even to the extent of being unable to cope. Stress is the feeling of overwhelmed anxiety about a situation, it has no particular age group for it can affect anyone in one way or the other.

Academic stress is the feeling of pressure due to school work either workloads or deadlines. This stress is an occurrence that is triggered by fatigue related to academic work, on an individual and if not managed can cause anxiety and depression on the affected person.

This type of stress emanates from different sources ,which include ;

 Desire for perfection, well known as the fear of failure.

 Poor time management and procrastination which leads to workload and not meeting the set deadlines.

 Negative peer competition. As peer competition can at times be a factor of motivation to gear yourself up and work towards your target, it can become toxic and affect you when the competition involves unethical behaviours or others wanting to succeed on the expense of the rest of the team.

 Parental pressure. Students get uncomfortable when they receive a lot of pressure from family members, rather they appreciate if motivation and support is given to them.

 Lack of enough focus on class work. This factor will make a student to lag behind and be short of the in class acquired knowledge leading them to be stressed.

However, all hope is not lost, for there is always a solution to everything. Having seen some causes of academic stress there are some ways that can be implemented in order to manage stress and prevent its escalation. These ways include;

 Surrounding oneself with positive peer groups that will encourage and motivate self development and build on awareness.

 Identify a conducive environment, where you can do your studies i.e. a quiet and serene environment will provide you with peace of mind when looking into your academic work, eliminating any form of stress.

 Count your achievements more than your failures. By doing this, an individual will get the motivation that if they were able to achieve that certain thing they can achieve any other. 

 Understand where you went wrong and seek to rectify. This does not include comparison but favourable competition that leads to the benefit of growth.

 Employ organization while doing your work, avoid procrastination and have a good time management so as to avoid having workloads and not meeting set deadlines.

Furthermore, this will instil discipline in the individual.

 Get enough rest, this will boost your concentration when it is time to deal with your academic work as all fatigue will be dealt away with.

  Set realistic goals. When setting your goals ,sketch goals that can be achieved as per your ability to avoid instances where failure to achieve them gets you stressed up.

 Learn the art of expression.One of the most powerful ways of managing stress is learning how to express yourself, whenenever you feel stressed, voice it out, let your immediate  neighbour  know, and if they are the cause, express yourself politely for at times people may not know how they are affecting you. Do not be comfortable or okay in a situation which you are really not okay with.

Stress in its entirety isn’t a bad thing, positively, stress can keep you motivated and pushes you to stay on the right track, that is why it is advisable that it be kept at manageable levels.

 When school work overwhelms you and makes you feel anxious do not remain silent but seek for help and a change of strategy, for we are also minding our mental health.

THE CREATIVE PEN

By;

Valentine Y. Kwegah