Every college student knows that final exam week sparks unavoidable stress. Even as students look around their college campus during this time of the semester, you can see that stress taking place in the form of anxiety and sleep deprivation.
Although stress is an inevitable component of life, it can easily take a toll on all aspects of your health- including physical, emotional, and mental health. It can also interfere with your academic success. The stress that college students typically deal with involves alterations in one’s lifestyle, an enlarging workload, new duties, and interpersonal relationships. Finals week can add extra pressure onto this already-stressful situation.
Anchor Therapy is a counseling center in Hoboken, NJ with mental health therapists specialized in helping children, teens, adults, couples, and families with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, trauma, life transitions, and more. Anchor Therapy is accepting new clients and is now providing in-person sessions and teletherapy sessions to residents of New Jersey, New York, and Florida.
Some stress is healthy, and it can even be motivating for some. However, chronic and unhealthy levels of stress have increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic. Stress can help you mobilize, but it is equally as important to take time to relax. When you do not take those breaks, it can lead to chronic stress which has serious long-term health and social consequences.
While the symptoms of stress may vary from person to person, some of the most common symptoms of stress in college students are:
Changes in appetite
Irritability and loss of patience
Withdrawing from previously enjoyable activities and friends
Difficulty sleeping
Stomach aches and digestive issues
Excessive worrying
Continuous negative thoughts
Decrease in grades
Many students regard the final exam period as the most stressful time of the school year. Ironically, stress can negatively impact your academic performance, resulting in you getting lower grades. Luckily, there are ways to manage your stress, and use it to your benefit.
Try to unwind and calm your stress this finals season by employing our five effective tips.
Identify Your Stress
Ask yourself: “What is causing me the most stress?”. Before you begin to worry about managing your stress, it is important to get to the root cause. Therefore, you have to comprehend and pinpoint the problem at its core. For instance, the source of one person’s stress may be the fact that their entire grade for the semester is based on one final exam. For another individual, it may be that this grade will determine whether or not they get into a graduate school of their choice. Once you understand the problem, you are prepared to construct an action plan to remove or lessen the severity of your stress.
2. Accept Your Stress
While many colleges and universities try to voice the importance of good mental health to their students, it may set unrealistic expectations for students. The truth is that finals week is an understandably stressful time. You may even begin to stress over the fact that you are stressed. This may cause you to want to avoid stressful situations which can make matters worse. For instance, you may procrastinate studying to reduce your stress. If you feel that you are falling behind on school work and/or do not have the motivation to complete your school tasks, read our blog, “How to Get Students Back on Track After Getting Behind in School Work.”
It may be instinctive to try to avoid your problems, but it will only cause more stress in the long term. The actual difficult situation does not go away. Trying to stay completely “stress-free” during this period may not be the best move. When you finally accept your stress, you may even notice that you are not experiencing negative emotions as intensely as you previously were.
3. Practice Self-Care Habits
Practicing self-care during a stressful time may sound cliché or even feel impossible at points where your schedule is overwhelmed with other responsibilities. It can be easy to prioritize external needs instead of focusing on yourself. However, in reality, practicing self-care will help you accomplish your goals. If you are having difficulty breaking away from your schedule, begin by just taking a five-minute break to practice some form of self-care. A quick breath of fresh air outside or some gentle stretching can do wonders for your mind.
While these quick breaks can be helpful, it is important to make sure that we are giving ourselves what we need whenever possible. In addition to these self-care breaks, it is useful to stay hydrated, eat whole foods, and at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night. You may want to pull all-nighters, but it is not beneficial to your health or your grades. Many pieces of research have shown that well-rested students have an advanced sense of concentration and a better ability to recall memories.
4. Create a To-Do List
As a college student, you know that you often have a laundry list of tasks that you need to complete. When you write everything down, you are placing all of the ideas burdening you onto a piece of paper for you to see clearly and concisely. When you see everything written down individually, you are better equipped to manage your responsibilities. It provides you with the incentive to actively work towards achieving your goals. You also receive the satisfaction of crossing a task off of your to-do list. To provide even more motivation, you can reward yourself after completing each task.
5. Use Your Support Network
During times of stress, you must reach out to your social support network. When you speak to the people that you trust most, you can share what you are going through. When you connect with another person socially, you can manage and cope with your stress.
When you reach out to another individual, you may find that it is easier to effectively cope with your stress. It may even alter the way you recognize and evaluate your stress. Therefore, your stress may seem less demanding and pessimistic. When you use the social resources that are available to you, you can promote your physical and mental health, and provide yourself with a greater sense of control.
Overall, stress during college is normal, but it can be taken to a serious level during final exam week. If you feel like your stress is continuing past the time of final exams, it may be helpful to look into or attend stress management therapy. If you are interested in stress management therapy, read our blog post “Everything You Need to Know About Stress Management Therapy.”
Victoria Scala
is the Social Media Manager at Anchor Therapy in Hoboken, New Jersey. She is currently an undergraduate student at the Honors College of Rutgers University-Newark, looking to study Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the graduate level. As a Social Media Manager at Anchor Therapy, Victoria is committed to producing content for and managing the office’s social media presence and blog.
