Stress. To define it, it is nothing but a normal physiological response of the body to situations or stimulus which are perceived as 'dangerous' to the body. Stress can affect anyone at anytime in some point of life. When stress occurs regularly it causes harm to body.
There are various causes of stress. Amongst them, the three main ones are threat, fear and cognitive dissonance.
A perceived threat will lead a person to feel stressed. This can include physical threats, social threats, financial threat, and so on. In particular it will be worse when the person feels they have no response that can reduce the threat, as this affects the need for a sense of control. Helplessness elaborated a little later with an example is not only a cause but also an effect of stress.
Generally speaking, any threat to needs is likely to lead to stress being experienced. Needs can be defined through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Physiological needs being right at the bottom, and also being the most important, and the pyramid progressing to the need for Self Actualization. At this stage in my life, thankfully, my physiological needs are all met with. Thankful for the health I have been blessed with; financial dependence on my parents which leaves things like clothing, shelter, food, as things I take for granted. The rest of the hierarchy is applicable in various situations.
Threats generally lead to fear, which again leads to stress. Fear leads to imagined outcomes, which are the real source of stress. One of my worst fears is being robbed. Generally the term refers to being robbed on a material level, but unfortunately the thief not only takes away your belonging but also your sense of security. Thus ridding you of possibly a physiological need and a need for safety. Just a simple example from my day to day life to prove my point: I was sitting in my car, waiting for the college bus to come pick me up when a man came and stole my cell phone, and my mother’s gold bangles on gunpoint. Ever since, that particular stop, which is the closest to my house, has started holding a very different meaning for me. Standing there waiting, alone is enough to cause anxiety. And god forbid any motorcyclist passes by, my heart starts beating at double the rate. Peace of mind is an important thing that one must have, I think, to reduce the feeling of stress.
The third cause of experiencing stress is Cognitive Dissonance. When there is a gap between what we do and what we think, then we experience cognitive dissonance, which is felt as stress. Thus, if I think I am a nice person then doing something that hurts someone else, will make me experience dissonance and stress. Human relations mean a lot to me. Being someone who is dependent on them, maintaining them is a huge concern of mine – and ends up being stressful at times. Relationships are not easy, whether they are personal or work related.
Dissonance also occurs when we cannot meet our commitments. We believe we are honest and committed, but when circumstances prevent us from meeting our promises we are faced with the possibility of being perceived as dishonest or incapable (i.e. a social threat).
Being a college student I will dissect the topic a little further and talk about the sort of stress people in this age bracket generally face.
As distinguished psychoanalyst. Dr. Robert Foss from the research laboratories in UCLA has cited, “anxiety is the core termite of the human system and in the younger generation it is finding a common victim. Starting from high school and college.”
It is obvious from this comment that stress related anxiety is a prime parasite of stress. At college level it has been seen to affect students with memory loss and in extreme cases, especially in students away from home, mental break down.
Negative stress is one which does not seem to leave. If a person is experiencing stress intermittently then often another dire psychological consequence of it is the loss of self confidence. This proves to be very traumatic for people in any stage of their lives.
The American Institute of Stress Management states, “College related stress leads to the extreme deterioration in the level to ego and self confidence. If occurring often, this leads to the complete shutdown of the brain cells which are necessary to simulate such confidence. At times this leads to the sadly, suicidal cases.”
A report by BBC news network covering stress in college students stated that universities like Oxford and MIT have the highest rates of suicide than anywhere else in the world. Examples closer to home are of instances we have heard of students from Aga Khan, not being able to cope with the stress the top notch medical university expects off them. And even LUMS, where just a year back, a friend’s older brother committed suicide because the stress of his falling GPA was just too much for him to cope with. The frustration of helplessness in situations like these causes people to turn bitter and thus lose friends - which is something that causes even more stress.
It has been noted that extreme and often stressful exposure without a break can lead to the numbness of attitude towards work and pressure. Indifference isn’t an effective way of management, in fact many outstanding individuals have been seen to deteriorate in their fields due to the “I don’t care” factor.
However a certain amount of stress is expected off us as students so as to take our tasks at hand seriously. It is generally the stress of exams that get us to start studying and do our very best to ensure good grades. As long as this stress stays within a healthy limit, it does students good. As Damien Gred, psychologist says, “without the little bit of end minute stress students wouldn’t get much work done, the lax in mindsets would never allow them to manage time and the last surge of adrenalin would never exist.”
To conclude I would say, that a certain amount of stress should be experienced at least in academic scenarios. Though the advantages of stress exist they are seldom seen. It is more common in the existing generation to see adverse affects of stress and extreme psychological effects.
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