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Stress can be defined as emotional or psychological strain from situations that are either demanding or harmful. Stressors can come from any interactions an individual encounters, whether that be from social interactions to an upcoming or past important events in one’s life. These psychological strains have major influences on various aspects of our lives, which include: physical, emotional, and mental health.

Usually, acute stress is relatively harmless and adaptive in situations in healthy people, if in manageable amounts. However, if this acute stress is prolonged and severe enough, it can affect individuals’ health in different ways ranging from heart issues, to lower immune systems, to mental health disorders, such as depression. For students in college, stress can arise from a variety of sources associated with college and can be there for a prolonged period.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF STRESS:

Hans Seyle introduced the concept of there being different kinds of stress.There is either good (eustress) or bad stress (distress). Balancing the amount of stress one has is important in leading a healthy life. Having a healthy amount of eustress is also beneficial in healthy adults. So some stress is good for the body. Too much stress can lead to harmful effects in one’s health. There are external and internal kinds of stress. For example, external stressors can be being in a frightening situation, while internal can be thinking about something that causes anxiety, such as an upcoming test.

SOURCES OF STRESS IN COLLEGE:

College is typically for students of a wide variety of backgrounds to go and further their education after high school. During this time, students usually go out and try new things, meet new people, and experience many different stressors from a variety of sources. According to Ross, Niebling, and Heckert, in their study concerning sources of distress in college students, results showed that the top five stressors in college students lives resulted from: work load, vacation/breaks, change in sleep schedules, eating habits, and new responsibilities. Other reported stressors were financial difficulties and chance in social activities.

Although there is a lot of sources of stressors in college, the magnitude of how the stress impacts individuals is dependent on how they perceive it. External and internal stress can vary based on the situation. Internal perceptions of the source of stress can be very important as well. If an individual is susceptible to stress, they may take situations as more stressful than those that perceive it as manageable stress. Since every student is unique in their own way, they all may not perceive stress the same ways as other students, and some may react more to situations that do not affect other people.

STRESS AND HEALTH:

Stress has a major influence on peoples’ health. After one experiences stress, changes in the nervous system, endocrine system, cardiovascular system, and the immune system can be noticed. Acute stress release stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) in the body, which essentially puts the body into a state of "fight or flight" mode. Fight or flight is where the body either gets the body ready to fight back or flee in a situation. Higher blood pressure, increased heart rates, release of other hormones that effect the body are activated, along with other reactions in the body.

Prolonged periods of being on “edge” is not good for the body and can lead to issues in body systems being overworked, especially the heart and immune system. The heart goes through a lot anyways to keep the body healthy and when stress is there for a long period of time, it does not perform as efficient as it did before. This under performance of the heart can lead to issues such as high blood pressure and increased chances of acquiring cardiovascular disease.

The same goes for the immune system. When in situations of stress, the immune system is in a state of overdrive in attempt to help defend the body against harmful foreign objects. With the system being overworked, it can face deficiencies in the future. The immune system may lack proper responses to what it should normally do or could not be efficient in dealing with future infections and inflammatory responses critical to keeping people healthy.

STRESS AND MENTAL HEALTH:

Not only does stress have an effect on physical health, it also affects mental health. Mental health has a variety of causes and stress is a major influence on this. Stressors can be the onset of mental disorders or can make mental disorders worse. Disorders such as depression and anxiety are known to be associated with stress.[6] Stressful life events are one of the major precursors to depression and anxiety.

In addition to stress being a factor in mental disorders, mental disorders can lead to stress in individuals. This can be seen as a cycle: Stress influences mental disorders and vice versa. Same can be said for physical symptoms too in how they also are a cycle of sorts.

TREATMENT OF STRESS IN COLLEGE AND ITS IMPORTANCE:

There are resources available to many college students when it comes to mental health. Universities may have counseling centers that deal with a variety of mental disorders. If need be, the campus can always referral you to a mental health center that can properly handle an individuals certain situation. In most cases though, campus counseling services should be capable of dealing with the main mental disorders such as depression or anxiety. These services are not only important, they should also be utilized by students. Even if a student is feeling a small amount of stress, it never hurts the student to go to counseling services to help them out because these services are equipped to deal with anything ranging from roommate conflicts to depression to academic stress.

Not only are there counseling services on campus, there are also services available in the city your college is located. Some college towns have mental health behavioral centers that may be able to assist in whatever situation is needed. Others may be close enough to another city that has the available resources if able to travel a bit. If a college campus is not able to appropriately deal with someone's mental health, there are other readily available options. One will have to research for that specific area, which many of it can be found online or by talking to counseling services on campus and they may be able to assist.