You have an exam in two days and have yet to open the book for the class, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just confessed they want to see other people and there’s $3.26 in your bank account.
Sound familiar? If so, you are just one of the thousands of college students nationwide coping with exceedingly high stress levels.
About 25 percent of college students have reported that they have felt like dropping out of school because of too much stress, according to the Pittsburgh Health Education’s website, and in the year following 9/11, students’ stress levels have shot through the roof.
A study performed in January by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, discovered the number of college freshmen who admitted to having emotional and physical health problems had reached an all-time high. Of more than 400,000 freshmen surveyed, only half of them rated their physical health to be above average, which is a decrease since the study was performed in 2000.
Similarly, the number of college freshmen who rated their emotional health as above average fell a quarter of a percent this year. The decline in emotional health dropped more than ten percent in the last 17 years.
Rob Sepich, a stress management counselor at University Health Services, was not surprised to hear the results of the UCLA study.
“At this point in our history, students not only have to deal with the classic stressors of college life — leaving home, finances, relationships — but they also have concerns about 9/11, come from less-stable homes and have to deal with the fact that there are more bright and dedicated students to compete with,” Sepich said.
Dr. Paul Grayson, Director of University Counseling Services at New York University, agrees with Sepich on many of these triggers for stress.
“We have had a huge surge in the number of students utilizing the university’s counseling services since last September,” Grayson said. “I believe a lot of this surge is not only 9/11, but also is due to the fact that many more students come from broken homes nowadays, and there are more students in general going to college that never would have in the past.”
Although stress levels are about the same for male and female students, it is more often the female students that will try to seek help.
Bob McGrath, the director of Counseling and Consultation Services in Madison, reported, “In general, women are more open to counseling and are more apt to use the services available on campus.”
McGrath believes the ratio of female to male patients seen is about 60 to 40.
UW sophomore Dana Piorunski believes female students have more stress than males.
“I think girls have more stress because of pregnancy, rape and sexual assault concerns,” Piorunski said.
As for the post-9/11 stress increase, Piorunski is not as concerned.
“I am sure in New York people are probably more affected still, but I don’t really think about it.”
UW sophomore Mike Marietta cites technological advances as a cause for added stress as opposed to 9/11 concerns.
“I am not too concerned about the world’s political situation right now, because it does not really affect me in Madison,” Marietta said. “I think students are more stressed because there have been so many advances in technology. Students are expected to check their email all the time, we have to obtain a lot of our class requirements off the web and life is so much more complex now because of that independence the technology creates.”
Students also need to watch out for added triggers in their daily lives that can decrease their ability to deal with stress.
“Coffee is counter-productive, as is smoking cigarettes,” McGrath said. “Students often don’t realize the adverse affects these things can have on their daily lives. You may think coffee and cigarettes are releases, but they only harm you in the long run.”
Students looking for tips on dealing with stress throughout the year can look online at the UHS homepage, www.campusblues.com or www.stresstips.com.
— compiled from staff reports