Stress....What is it?

Have you ever felt like you were lost and trapped in your own world that sooner or later becomes inescapable? Have the feelings of doubt, anger and emotional distress come upon you as you try to complete tasks? All these unwanted and negative characteristics revolve around the physical and mental factors that everyone experiences in their daily lives, stress. Stress is essentially the various feelings of helplessness, tension, paranoia and confinement. As formally defined, stress is "a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension. Stress can be external (environment, psychological) or internal (illness, cognitive/behavioural)" (Definition of Stress, 2015). In the long-run, stress will always be there, it is just a matter of how strong and overwhelming it is. Every individual will experience stress differently and the effects will not always be consistent with one another. Stress influences our lives in many ways and in some severe cases it can cause short-term or even long-term side effects/illnesses such as depression or anxiety.

Stress can cause a various amount of physical and mental effects. Common physical problems of stress include: muscle or general body pains, fatigue, frequent sicknesses, and irregular or distressed sleeping patterns. People under stress can also have unusual behavioural patterns, such as, gaining irregular eating habits or obtaining negative/unhealthy routines like alcoholism or drug abuse. On the other hand, some regular symptoms of mental effects of stress are, problems in concentration, experiences of anxiety, fear, depression, anger or basic emotional difficulties. From personal experience and first-hand knowledge, it can be more or less said that young adolescents come across stress more often than others, mainly due to the fact that there is a greater demand of life from them. Student stress, more specifically, can arise from multiple stressors and can be the most influential. Students of post-secondary schools can suffer from stress caused by, academic failure, numerous assignments, increase in workload, poor relationships with other students, and family or personal problems at home.

Other possible situations where students can experience and be impacted by stress are: completing homework or assignments, studying, writing exams and maintaining a social status. Stress can be seen as the inevitable, and it may be something that never actually goes away, but, there are solutions to reduce and conquer stress in your life. These solutions are called relievers. Discussed throughout this personalized blog are five unique ways to relieve yourself of stress.