NEWS
EVENTS
Beauty and The Beast
Other | Tuesday 10th September 2013 | Nyasha
University is the one stop shop for the good, the bad and the ugly. You find yourself making friends with people you’d never dream of, planning trips to other universities and countries with your new friends and of course you end up feeling just that bit more independent.
Well as great university is with the endless parties, freedom and that one lovely friend you can always count on for that hearty and delicious grub, there is a downside, the stress.
15% of people will have their stress develop into depression, of that there are twice as many women than there are men. 25% of students will face some sort of stress due to university.
Instead of moaning about stress, this article quite simply going to highlight some of the causes and come up with useful and realistic solutions, regardless of your budget.
- Relationships : An amount of these are not REAL, you need to make friends whilst at university or you won’t enjoy it as much as you should, however some of the friends you make at Freshers (in all the years) will walk past you as if they’ve never known you by Christmas.
Solution: Just accept it and don’t become too attached, you should have extensive experience in dealing with people by the age of 18 so being able to deal with it should be easy. Don’t take anything to heart and just remember you’re there for your degree. Friendships will form but don’t force them, that way you’ll find you gained more friends than you’ve lost. You have friends back in your home town too! - Alcohol: You’ll find that there are hardly any tee-total people at university and when you say “I’m not drinking tonight” somehow you end up downing shots of Sambuca, competing with your friends about who can consume the most alcohol without getting drunk. Yes, it’s fun and very social. However the downside is worse.
Solution: Take regular drinking breaks (nights out without drinking) and try not to drink to or past your limit all the time. Alcohol affects your brain and insides more than you think. Whilst under the influence you have the ability to ignore your stress rather than conquer it. Doing that only makes it worse in time. I’m sure you’ll be happy without the hangover on top of everything else you’ve got to deal with. - Food: Whilst at university people end up falling back into habits that they thought were long gone because it’s convenient. Timing is everything at university and sometimes there’s just not enough time to stand over the stove and cook an amazing meal. It’s understandable.
Solution: Try to at least have one healthy, home-cooked meal a day, the results aren’t instant but altogether you will end up feeling better. Your brain will also work better and reduce your stress levels because you’ll feel better and be able to work better and for longer. Over the weekend you can cook a whole chicken and use that for your daily meals with quick and easy to make accompaniments. It works out a lot cheaper than fast food in the long run. - Sleep: We have all done it, gone out to an ‘event not to be missed’ and had to stomach a long lecture early in the morning. But that isn’t the only problem, do you have a friend that can miss a whole day because they are sleeping and still wake up tired? That’s me by the way. Too little or too much sleep can be bad for you. You’re not giving your brain enough time to work or repair itself.
Solution: Sleep or wake up. Whichever one you are, your solution is pretty simple. Try to get yourself into a better routine and leave yourself enough hours in the day to do the things you need to do. - Sunlight: Or lack of it that is, the last semester/term of the academic year is normally brighter as it nears to summer but that’s also when you find all your deadlines come together and your exams come. Those long shifts in the library might be doing more harm than good. Exposure to the sun produces endorphins that make us happy (admit it you’re surprisingly happy in the sunshine.)
Solution: Breaks, that’s the only solution, take a stroll in that sunshine for a bit, it helps bring down your stress levels. You’ll feel better and able to take in more information. Have lunch in the park and relax for a bit. This should help keep the stress level down because you can see how much is left to do and leave yourself plenty of time to complete the tasks at hand.
On top of these solutions, a good old playlist will always do you wonders. Compile all your favourite tunes and watch your worries soon filter away. Music sometimes helps to come up with creative solutions to your problems, just pick the right artists for your problem, you may find that you're blowing things out of proportion and relaxing will help you find rational solutions to your problems. You'll be bringing down the stress, rather than your household.
