What Stress Does to Your Health

Many students, especially at such a rigorous school as Prep, feel high levels of stress from school in their life. It may surprise you, but stress is actually a normal response in your body. It is a reaction that your body produces when you feel threatened or your everyday routine is disrupted. Stress can be good because it helps keep you motivated and can even protect you in certain situations. However, feeling too much stress is not healthy. Feeling stressed regularly could lead to greater health issues later and could negatively interfere with your everyday life, which is not good news for many of us Prep students to hear.

According to the director of Affective Disorders Research Program at Silver Hill Hospital, 75- 90% of all doctor’s office visits are for stress related issues. Coach Deino Scott also added in on the matter by informing me that “stress creates chemicals in the brain which can lead to other more harmful conditions such as depression. It can be very emotionally and physically draining.”

Stress can play a role in many physical problems that you may experience, such as asthma, anxiety, depression, headaches, skin conditions, and much more. Because stress can cause these health problems, I decided to investigate what we can do to try and prevent or deal with stress as well, as learn all the facts on why stress is especially impactful on students.

There are many aspects in a school that can be stressors in a student’s life. Coach Scott observed some of the biggest stressors in his students and indicated that they were “academic pressures” such as tests, “time management,” and “social pressure such as ‘fitting in.’”

During stressful times, it’s important to take care of your body by exercising, eating healthy foods, and limiting sugar and caffeine intake. Another especially important part of preventing stress is getting lots of sleep, which can be hard for Prep students with lots of homework every night. It’s going to be hard, but use your time wisely during class, lit-study, and after school to try and get eight hours of sleep each night. Different remedies and tactics help different people, so it’s important to find what works for you when dealing with stress. You can choose to talk to friends, go on a run or exercise, draw, or write in a journal. Coach Scott recommends “finding those things that make you happy and do them.”

Ironically, stress that comes from school can affect students learning. It has been found through many tests and The Yerkes-Dodson law that students in low and high stress environments learn the least and students under moderate stress environments learn the most. There are many other tests as well that support this notion that excessive stress is harmful to performance in school. Stress can specifically affect students by causing them to over study for an exam or even rush through an exam. Although some stress is necessary for personal growth to occur, an excessive amount of stress can overwhelm a student and affect his or her ability to cope with school work.

Remember that some stress in your life is natural and even helpful, but make sure you are also taking time out of your busy schedule to take care of yourself and de-stress.