If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health emergency or crisis, please contact campus security at (304) 367-4357, dial 911, or go to the nearest emergency room for immediate help.
According to campus statistics, 25.1% of Fairmont State students report that stress has negatively affected their academic performance, and 18.2% report the same for anxiety. 78% of students had felt overwhelmed by all they had to do within the previous year with 53% reporting feeling overwhelming anxiety.
College life can be very stressful. Sometimes parents, faculty and others tend to idealize their college experience and remember it as that idyllic time when they had few worries or responsibilities. To students currently attending college, however, the process is often stressful and frustrating. The competition for grades, the need to perform, relationships, career choice, and many other aspects of the college environment can cause stress.
Before condemning stress outright, we need to understand that stress is only harmful when it is excessive. Much of the stress that we all experience is helpful and stimulating. The challenges of life tend to be stressful and an attempt to avoid stress completely would lead to a rather boring existence. The problem comes when you experience too much stress.
Although some stress reactions are part of deeper and more serious emotional problems, many are not, and can be handled with relatively simple counseling and stress-management techniques. You can use the following guidelines to help manage your stress:
- Understand your role in stress reactions
- Develop a balanced life-style and effective personal organization
- Learn specific relaxation techniques
- Gain perspective on problems by discussing them, and
- Clarify your values and develop a sense of spirituality