Stress Management essay PDF

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Jade Boyd UNIV-110 November 26, 2016

Stress Management !

Stress effects everybody from time to time, but there is a general consensus that college

students tend to have greater stress levels than the rest of the population. I, personally, have been effected by stress many times in my life. My college experience has neither increased the stress nor decreased it. Coping methods are a very helpful way to get through stressful situations. I have learned a few coping methods both over the years and in this course. In this paper, I will discuss how stress has effected me and what I have done to deal with stress. First, I will discuss the main stressors I’ve experienced in my time as a college student. A very consistent stressor in my college career is most definitely grades and course load. While I don't have horrible grades, I am not Einstein either. My ultimate goal is to become a doctor and that means I have to keep up a high grade point average and take on some difficult courses, for the next 6 years of my life. Sometimes just thinking of the long haul ahead of me can be stressful enough. Another large stressor in my life is my poor choice in companions. My freshman year I made friends with a group of pot heads and while they weren't bad people, they were very distracting and unmotivated. After them, it just got worse. Her name was Nina, or Isabel, which just goes to show you should never trust people who use two names. After a few weeks of knowing her she convinced me that it would be a good idea to become roommates and eventually I agreed because it would help me save a lot of money. She ended up being this horrible person

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who I have come to the conclusion has borderline personality disorder. Her wacky antics took over my life, and she made sure they would. Her romance, financial, and educational problems were forced to be my problems. I couldn't even close my bedroom door to block her out because she had her “panic attacks” in my bedroom. I have had panic attacks and they look nothing like hers but I don't want to be one to judge. I finally spoke up that she needed to leave me alone and she began horribly bullying me. This lead to me having poor grades, poor money and eating decisions, and unnecessary stress in my life. Moving out cost me over $1000, which as you guessed caused me more stress. It was a bad idea on my part to move in with her but stress can be caused by mistakes and also by uncontrollable circumstances. Ways to cope with stress are very important even if you aren't as bad as me at picking who you live with. Next, I will discuss stress coping mechanisms. In high school I attempted suicide which lead to being forced to see a counselor. From her I learned a few different coping mechanisms. One of the first and easiest mechanisms she taught me was called rationality triangles. You write all the things that you are thinking that are stressing you out such as; nobody likes me, I am going to fail this test, I am not pretty. You put the irrational thoughts in the triangle and the rational ones outside. You then only focus on the thoughts that are rational. For example, “nobody likes me” can't possibly be true, but “I am going to fail this test,” could change if you focused on studying for the test instead of if other people think you're pretty or not. Another mechanism I learned from her is mindfulness. Mindfulness is focused on the idea that most stress is caused by thinking of and focusing on the future or the past instead of being mindful of whats going on in the present around you. I often forget to use coping method although I think it could be very helpful. Lately I usually only stress over the mistakes I have made in the past, especially

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relationship wise, and how scary and uncertain the future is. My most used coping methods are those I discovered on my own, such as listening to music, painting, and taking bubble baths or long showers. The only problems with these is that there isn't always time to take a bubble bath or work on my paintings but sometimes its important to make time for things that make you feel better. Although a few things taught in this course I already knew, such as college students are stressed and listening to music is relaxing, one thing I did learn was that stress can be good for you. I was really shocked when we watched a TED talk that if you think stress is good for you, then it will be. Lately, with midterms just right behind us and finals practically tomorrow, I have been much more stressed out than my usual stressed self. Normally I would notice how my heart beats excessively when I am stressed and think of how I am going to be the youngest person who has a heart attack in the state of New Mexico. After hearing this news that stress can be helpful for me, I think less about my pounding heart and am overall more calm. In conclusion stress is a part of everyones life at one point or another and some more than others but we all need to know how to deal with it. We all have different ways to cope with stress, and what works for one person, might not work for another. It takes practice to see what fits for you and its important to keep trying things until you find what helps you with your stress.

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