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What is stress?

Stress is an extended version of your body’s emergency mode, intended to protect you in the face of extreme physical danger. When you’re in danger, your body goes into "fight, flight or freeze" mode, ready to react to save you. However, your nervous system may struggle to distinguish between a physical and an emotional threat. So, an exam might trigger the same "fight, flight or freeze" response that a motor vehicle accident would cause. When this emergency response lasts for a continued amount of time, it becomes stress. Exams and stress are an inevitable part of university life, however, understanding the causes and the impact of stress can help you manage daily stressors more effectively. 

Causes of stress:

The causes of stress are quite varied and can include family issues, exams, social activities, habits and behaviours like; perfectionism, time management, procrastination, managing deadlines and experiences like trauma or loneliness. We can essentially distinguish the causes into two specific categories, i.e.  Internal and external.

Internal:

  • Pessimism
  • Poor coping
  • Unrealistic expectations
  • All-or-nothing attitude

External:

  • Life circumstances
  • Life changes
  • Financial
  • University work
  • Family or relationships

Stress symptoms:

One’s ability to cope and manage a stressful event is quite unique to each person and is based on the individual’s capacity to cope. Despite individuals experiencing the same event, like a specific exam, the way in which they experience the stress or show symptoms are equally unique. Stress symptoms usually appear within the categories below. However this is not an extensive list and may also be symptoms related to other concerns or illnesses. Therefore, should you feel that you are experiencing extreme stress and are finding it difficult to cope with the experiences that you may be facing, please connect with support services which may be available.

 Physical

  • Headaches
  • Nausea
  • Tiredness or fainting
  • Weight gain/loss
  • Frequent illness
  • Skin irritation

Emotional

  • Tearful
  • Emotional, irritable or anger
  • Feeling tense,
  • Low self-esteem or feeling demotivated
  • Feel down

Mental

  • Indecision
  • Hasty or poor decision making
  • Memory failure
  • Overthinking and worrying
  • Nightmares

Behavioural

  • Restlessness, insomnia
  • Changed eating habits 
  • Substance abuse and addiction
  • Lying
  • Withdrawal
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