Stress is a major factor that affect great deal of people most especially students. Stress,when not properly managed, affects people’s psychological and mental health.
As a student, stress is inevitable as almost every day of our lives is coupled with one stress or the other. Students often encounter stress while going through the hustle and bustle of school activities ranging from struggling to get transportation to school everyday, battling with loads of assignments, projects, EED "palava", stress of trekking a long distance to school due to lack of vehicles and so on. This stress often culminates or poses lots of dangers to students health.
Stress, when not properly managed, often leads to the following:
1. Inability to concentrate in class: Quite a number of students find it difficult to comprehend what lecturers are teaching due to the mental imbalance being experienced by those students as a result of stress encountered by them and this often have a negative impact on their academic performance.
2. Distractions and lack of focus: Stress,when not managed well, reduces the ability of students to be focused.
3. Causes Mental Imbalance: Students who undergo stress often experience mental instability and this sometimes affects their lives.
4. Lack of Sleep: When one is overstressed, the person finds it difficult to sleep and lack of sleep causes quite a number of illness ranging from high blood pressure, severe headaches etc which can damage one’s health.
5. Stress, when not properly treated, leads to death at times.
6. It also makes one temperamental and become aggressive unnecessarily.
7. Too much stress can also lead to some terminal diseases like heart attack, cardiac arrest etc.
8. Stress retards growth physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically.
9. Stress often prevents students from participating effectively in class discussion; hence leading to failure in examinations.
10. Stress also makes students find it difficult to read and pass examinations; hence leading to examination malpractice in exams as students often get too tired to read and comprehend.
Stress is not something we can do away with totally but there are ways it can be controlled and managed without having a negative effect on one’s health.
There is a great need to educate students on how to manage stress in their day-to-day activities in order to enhance their academic performance and productivity because stress has its psychological and mental effect in their level of assimilation and relationships with their fellow students.
Ways of preventing or managing stress as students.
1. Avoid being overstressed with school activities.
2. Exercise regularly: Exercise is a way of burning stress. It enhances one’s physical fitness, boost vitality, reduces tension, depression and anxiety.
3. Drink enough water.
4. Take lots of fruit: An apple a day,they say, keeps the doctor away. Fruits, when taken in large quantities, supply necessary nutrients to the body, thereby fighting against infections and diseases.
5. Eat balanced diet: Taking balance diet meal is very essential for the body as it helps revitalize the body and supply energy when being stressed.
6. Sleep early and regularly: Sleep is a means of recovery from stress.
7. Avoid overstressing the brain by thinking too much.
8. Be easy on yourself; take things one at a time.
9. Schedule and plan your activities: Avoid being hard on yourself. Do not jampack way too many tasks for yourself in a day. Do it at a step to avoid being overloaded with work.
10. Avoid strenuous works that cause undue stress for you: With the ability to imbibe and do all these things, be sure to have a stress-free ad productive life ahead.
Qowiyat Adepoju is an HND1 student of the department of Mass Communication
