Stress affects each and every one of us. A healthy amount of stress is required in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Stress induces motivation and willingness to work hard to achieve something. In the past, I struggled with dealing with large amounts of stress. My first year of college was filled with many stressful events and at the time I believed I handled them in a healthy way. After hearing the presentation about mental health and stress in our class, I discovered I was actually handling stress in an unhealthy way.
Last year, I thought the best was to deal with stress was to isolate myself from others and not tell them that I had tremendous amounts of stress. I would sit in my dorm room by myself getting anxious over the next task that I had to complete and worry too much about the future outcome, rather than the problem I had right in front of me. Other things that I did was stay up all night, eat unhealthy, and not partake in much physical activity. At the time, I believed these things would help me deal with my stress. If I hate junk food, I thought it would make me feel better about my stress load. If I didn't sleep, I could catch up on all the things I committed to complete. If I didn't workout, I could have more time to complete my homework or get ahead for the next class. These things not only affect my physical appearance, but my relationships with others. If I was really stressed out, I would be moody around others and have a negative attitude. Obviously after hearing that presentation, I realized my habits I acquired freshman year were not ideal ways to cope with stress.I should have surrounded myself with those who supported me. I should have exercised because I enjoy exercising, and I have learned it helps me release a lot of stress. And I should have slept more because sleep is essential for a healthy brain and energy throughout the day. The start of my sophomore year gave me motivation to change my ways and I started to deal with my stress in a much better way. After the presentation in class, it made me realize that a lot of people cope with stress in the wrong way and I had fallen victim to one of those people in the past. However, my efforts to change have been very effective and after the presentation in class, I was given many tools to further my efforts in coping with stress in a healthy way.
I believe stress is a very important aspect of public health. Stress impacts all aspects of our lives, and those we surround ourselves with. My negative attitude and bad mood affected not only myself, but all those I came into contact with. A majority of Americans have way to much stress and are also unaware of the proper ways to cope with stress. They are also unaware of the types of health problems that are likely to occur if you have high levels of stress and you do not deal with them correctly. Educating those on positive and healthy ways to deal with stress would be a great way to let others know that stress is okay, but too much can cause many health issues.
The only question I have regarding this issue is in relation to my future workplace:
How can you lower the stress level of those working in a high stress environment such as a hospital, when it is easy to be distracted by the workload that is given?
I definitely agree with a few parts of this post. I also experienced a much higher level of stress than I ever had before. My problem was like yours too, I have a habit of trying to bottle up my stress and to not show it. This led to me just getting more and more stressed every time I was presented with more work to do. Eventually I learned how to cope with the added work and stress of college by talking to others about it. This really helped me limit the stress I experienced, which in turn kept me from experiencing the effects of bottling up multiple instances of stress.
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