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THE LANCE
May 5,1988
Stress from page 1
Co., Inc.. defines stress as: “the way your
mind and body react to any situation that’s
new, threatening or exciting. Stress pre
pares you to act. The way you handle stress
determines whether it is helpful or harm
ful” . ....
During a recent mterview m his
office at the Career and Personal Counsel
ing Center, which operates on a service
exchange with St. Andrews, Director Dr.
Robert Patton explained stress situations
that college students face. He cited the
freshman dilemma: they are away from
home, some for the first time. They are in
a different environment and have to make
the adjusunent process which includes the
handling of freedom and financial respon
sibility.” These once-sheltered freshmen,
he said, have to learn a new role.
Freshmen are not alone in their
periods of stress. Sophomores at their
year’s end must choose a required major
and seniors graduating without definite
plans go through a high stress time, he
added.
Dr. Patton noted that incom
pleted work and professors “piling it on”,
make spring the most stressful time for
students.
According to Dr. Patton, in the
past two years the counseling load has
increased one and a half times from 400 to
700 hours of counseling time. Students are
seeking more outside help than ever before.
Late nights are not uncommon
among most students at St. Andrews.
Those who partake in this ritual usually
gather together at one point in the evening
and procrastinate.
One of these student groups re-
centiy discussed how tiiey cope witii stress.
One junior, facing financial difficulties
said, “I don’t. I just pack up my room and
attempt to leave.” Her roommate also re
sponded negatively, “I become intro
verted. I don’t want to be bothered by
anybody,” she said.
A graduating senior said that his
first attempt at coping is usually sleep, but
in the end, he finds himself relying on drugs
for relief. “It builds up so much that I turn
to drugs. This is the easiest possible way to
get away from it all, instantaneous relief,”
he said.
Another student during ‘Ganza
weekend, picked up tiie habit of smoking to
deal with his academic sti-ess. “I’ve got a
lot to do in alittietime. Sometimes I work
all night and I need something to keep me
awake when I take a break,’ the sophomore
said.
A number of students noticed a
pattern of sleeping more frequently while
underpressure. “The more stress, the more
sleep I get. I try to work harder to get rid of
the problem so I won’t sleep it off. I read
a lot, too,” said one student typing a pos
sible stress potential, the dreaded term
paper.
Some professors are aware of the
effects that stress has on the schoolwork of
students. Professor of history. Dr. Skip
Clark, has noticed the change due to sti-ess
in some of his students. “I would say, in
some cases, I can observe obvious stress by
lack of attendance, missing deadlines, and
when inclass, by a student’s closed posture
or inward, body-pulling expressions,” he
said.
Test anxiety seems to be a major
problem for most students. Tom Cox, in his
book, Sirgss says students react to final ex
ams as a “preparation against harm” be
cause after months of study, the conse
quence of possible failure approaches. Cox
lists three main negative coping tech
niques he has observed in students. The
first is the student’s denial of the impor
tance of the exam, therefore reducing the
impact of failure. Those students also like
to find the company of other “deniers” and
avoid their realistic friends. The second
self-protection technique is to avoid the
test by becoming physically ill, which
would transfer the responsibility to the
sickness or the prescribing doctor. If they
can’tget sick, thetiiirdoptionis introduced:
tiie walk-out and-leave-the-test syndrome.
One student noted that test anxi
ety hinders her fi-om doing as well as she
feels she is capable of. “You study so much
to do your best, and if not, you did all you
could. When test anxiety sets in, my nerves
get the best of me and I do worse,” she said.
Anotiier student recognized her
use of procrastination as away of dealing
with tiie inevitable papers and tests. I
procrastinate. When I realize that I can’t get
out of it, I panic awhile, and then sit down
and do it,” she admits.
Others triedto ignore the stress. “I
blow everything off. I can’t make myself
get stressed out about things. It gives me a
headache. It’s not worth it,” said one
student.
Students aren’t the only ones fac
ing difficulties. Faculty and staff members
also have tiieir share of problems. June
Milby, director of communications and
marketing, went tiirough a 10-year high
stress period working for the Democratic
Party and state government before arriving
at St. Andrews. “Compared to other times
in my life, I do not feel much anxiety.
There are aspects of the job that are
stressful, such as deadline pressures, per
fection sacrificed for speed, and some
inconsideration by other people,” she said.
While some students admit to
consuming alcohol to release tension, Ms.
Milby feels it hinders more tiian it helps
the problem. “When under stress one time,
I tried having a drink to relax, but it made
it worse. I found new things to be stressed
about.”
Her assistant, Mark Powell, also
agrees that deadline pressure constitutes
stress. He says his stress comes out in the
form of headaches, elevated blood
pressure and tiredness. “Different things
get different responses. I try to balance
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18
myself,” he said.
A July, ’83 issue of Science News
reported tiian tiie level of tiie bacteria-
fighting antibody found in saliva,
secretory immunoglobin A, is lower
during periods of stress. Dental students
were tested around final exams for the
antibody. The levels were lower than
when they were in less stressful
situations. Researchers claim that this
proves the age-old tiieory that stress
lowers tiie ability to fight infection by
“temporarily inhibiting some facets of the
immune system.”
Dr. Patton confirmed tiie fact that
stress affects the person physically, as well
as psychologically. ‘There is a definite
correlation between tiie two. When you
go tiirough a lot of stress, it affects you
physically. You must take tiie wellness
approach as a balance to life,” he said.
Thai wellness approach to life he
sees as a square, with each side consisting
of work, play, physical well-being, and
spiritual well-being.
With all this stress affecting our
lives, how are we supposed to cope? Dr.
Patton suggested a few helpful outlets for
relief. “You get so close to the trees but
can’t see the forest. You need a support
base consisting of a close or objective
friend or faculty member. Those in a
depressed state focus internally To over
come this, you need to focus outside
yourself. This requires expending energy
in the form of jogging, racquetball, or
something similar,” he said.
“When you do nothing, depres
sion deepens. It turns into apathy and lack
of energy. A way to get out of this is with
aesthetics. Music and emotions are so
closely related. Try painting or watching
a sunset,” he added.
Ms. Milby suggets prayer as an
other alternative. “Now that I do it, I feel
more in touch with human beings as well as
God. I let Him handle if.”
Dr. Clark finds reading escape
fiction, such as science fiction and
spy novels, helps him deal with pressures.
“Or I look through my telescope. I find the
stars soothing,” he joked.
On the positive side of stress that
can be helpful, June Milby comments, “A
certain degree of stress can be helpful, if
you make it positive. By coping gracefully
and making it a lesson in life, you can find
the key to dealing with it The more you
do to run from stress, the more stress you
create, and are less likely to learn from it.