What does Academic Stress Mean?
Academic stress is defined as a student’s psychological state emerging from continuous self-imposed stress for academic growth. This stems from the student’s need to fulfill his academic goals and his trying his best to cope with those goals. This depletes a student’s psychological mindset and ends up leaving him further away from his goals. Academic stress creates a mental block for the students to the point they can’t even keep their focus for a second. This also leads to physical problems down the road for the student, as it can mean that the student has to spend more time studying rather than focusing on his well-being. This problem has a bigger impact on a student’s grades than people think and is a growing problem in our increasingly competitive world.
How does it affect your life?
Academic stress leads to a person being obsessed with his grades and increases the anxiety and depression of a student. This continuous stress leads to the student being overly invested in his studies and more stressed if they don’t reach their goals or achieve the desired grades. A person can cope with academic stress in a lot of ways. One of them is to use campus resources and join campus groups. A variety of different groups are available, like the time management center and study skills group. These groups are helpful to recharge your social energy and learn how to study better while being socially active, which reduces your stress because you’re having fun while learning. A lot of students tend to blame themselves and belittle themselves for not achieving their desired grades. This inner critique can increase your anxiety and make you believe all that.
How to cope with Academic Stress?
Try changing these negative thoughts for positive ones and being kind to yourself, like telling yourself, “It’s okay, and I’ll try better next time”. These types of thoughts can help you cope with academic stress. Another good way is to focus on what you can control. If you have a roommate who’s doing something that distracts you, just leave and go to a library to study. Sometimes, a family emergency comes up and you have to pause your studies. This kind of distraction happens often and is stressful. The best way is to accept it as a part of life and make the best of the situation. You need to accept the fact that studying is good for your future, but ignoring your present because of it can later lead to regret. When you have academic stress, you are forced to study more, which results in ignoring your family and friends. This creates a wall and expands the emotional distance between you and them. Anxiety also kills your creativity and your personality and makes you feel unsocial with them. Another great way to fix academic stress is to find a good hobby like reading books, learning a new instrument, cooking etc. These are all great ways to cope with your stress and, in the end, boost you towards your goals.