2008 Woodie Awards
Creatvity, organizational skills can help relieve back-to-school stress
Lori Perkins
Issue date: 9/5/07 Section: Features
The 17 weeks of summer break have ended for students returning back to the main campus of Austin Peay State University. The dreadful experiences of getting tuition paid before the deadline, getting enough cash to pay for expensive textbooks, (if you didn't use online resources), standing in long lines at Studymaster; if you don't have an around the year daycare provider, finding trustworthy people to keep your child/children while you are in class; worries of assignments from professors, and finding parking spaces in a timely manner are baffling the minds of students causing stress levels to increase.
Stress is described as an emotional, mental and physiological response to changes in an individuals life. According to the American Medical Association, "stress was the cause of 80 percent of all human illness and disease or at the very least has detrimental effect on our health." Researchers have done stress studies and rate stress to be considered a top killer among Americans.
According to WebMD, symptoms of stress include: rapid heartbeat, headache, stiff neck and/or tight shoulders, backache; rapid breathing, sweating and sweaty palms, upset stomach, nausea, or diarrhea (http://www.WebMD.com). Symptoms may also manifest themselves through emotions or behaviors. People might become irritable and intolerant of even minor disturbances, feel irritated or frustrated, lose your temper more often, feel jumpy or exhausted all the time, find it hard to concentrate or focus on tasks, worry to much about insignificant things, doubt your ability to do things, imagine negative, worrisome, or terrifying scenes, feel you are missing opportunities because you cannot act quickly.
If you think taking a vacation will reduce your level of stress, think again. A summer 2002 survey of 1,000 people by the Gallup Organization found that most people returning from vacation were more tired arriving home then they were before they left. Why?
Waiting to pack the day before the trip, waking up earlier than normal on mornings of the trip in order to get an early start, and because they report back to work to find more work to accomplish.
Stress is described as an emotional, mental and physiological response to changes in an individuals life. According to the American Medical Association, "stress was the cause of 80 percent of all human illness and disease or at the very least has detrimental effect on our health." Researchers have done stress studies and rate stress to be considered a top killer among Americans.
According to WebMD, symptoms of stress include: rapid heartbeat, headache, stiff neck and/or tight shoulders, backache; rapid breathing, sweating and sweaty palms, upset stomach, nausea, or diarrhea (http://www.WebMD.com). Symptoms may also manifest themselves through emotions or behaviors. People might become irritable and intolerant of even minor disturbances, feel irritated or frustrated, lose your temper more often, feel jumpy or exhausted all the time, find it hard to concentrate or focus on tasks, worry to much about insignificant things, doubt your ability to do things, imagine negative, worrisome, or terrifying scenes, feel you are missing opportunities because you cannot act quickly.
If you think taking a vacation will reduce your level of stress, think again. A summer 2002 survey of 1,000 people by the Gallup Organization found that most people returning from vacation were more tired arriving home then they were before they left. Why?
Waiting to pack the day before the trip, waking up earlier than normal on mornings of the trip in order to get an early start, and because they report back to work to find more work to accomplish.
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