As college students, we are all familiar with stress. It’s also no secret that stress affects our mental health. According to a recent survey by the American College Health Association-2017 National College Health Assessment, 87% of college students reported feeling “overwhelmed” in the past year, and stress has been referred to as an “epidemic” among college students.
In response to the increased awareness surrounding stress, there has been a lot of focus on what we can do to reduce stress. I’m sure we’ve all heard the standard advice of eating well, spending time with friends and family, limiting social media and sticking to a consistent sleep schedule.
While all of these are extremely important, the common perception of stress as something we need to avoid is only a small part of the picture. In a society which is so obsessed with reducing and even eliminating stress, there is another component of stress that is not often talked about: Stress can actually be a good thing.
There are two different types of stress: eustress and distress. Distress includes symptoms we commonly associate with stress—the feeling of tension or fear, as well as physical manifestations of stress like shaking hands or a racing heartbeat. On the other hand, eustress refers to the kind of stress that feels like an adrenaline rush, like when you only have a few hours to finish a paper. This type of stress is usually short term and can actually make us feel motivated and increase our performance.
My eighth grade algebra teacher liked to say “it builds character” whenever someone complained about something like a tough homework assignment or a test with lots of short-answer questions. While I am not suggesting that we need to tolerate stress regardless of the circumstances — I think there are many instances where stress can be harmful or even dangerous, and it makes sense to try to mitigate or remove the stress — it’s still important to recognize that, in some situations, experiencing and learning to tolerate stress can actually lead to benefits like grit and resilience.
Yet, it’s hard to reap the benefits of something when we are avoiding the thing itself. This doesn’t mean we need to add classes to our schedules or take another job. When I think of “good” stress, I think of how I can approach a stressful situation with a different mindset. For example, exam week is a very stress-inducing experience for many of us. But what if, in addition to finding ways to temporarily relieve anxiety and tension, we could also focus on the benefits of studying for multiple exams at once, whether they are increased capacity for focus after pulling all-nighters or the ability to think quickly on your feet and discover new ways to process and remember a lot of information simultaneously.
The ability to manage stress is invaluable not only in the working world but in everyday life. As college students, we are constantly feeling the weight of multiple deadlines, as well as the responsibility of juggling school, work and extracurricular activities. Instead of turning stress into something negative, which can actually contribute to increased cortisol levels that can be disruptive to your health, we can shift our mindset surrounding stress to something positive and use it as an opportunity to expand our horizons. Increasing our ability to overcome challenges and persevere through difficult situations will ultimately benefit us personally, professionally and academically.
