By AMANDA SAOUD

Staff Intern

College students are notoriously busy and trying to balance school, jobs and relationships can lead to a great deal of stress.

Samantha Boyke, a freshman international studies major, is one of those students.

“My biggest stress [comes from] trying to juggle between work, friends and homework,” said Boyke.

Many people just regard stress as an uncontrollable side effect of being in college, not realizing that being stressed out for extended periods of time can cause health problems.

“I don’t try and deal with stress,” said Kristen Koehn, a senior business major. “Deep breathing and things like that aren’t going to fix my problems, so I don’t bother.”

Stress’ health affects

Even if stress reduction techniques can’t solve the problems causing the stress in your life, they can still be good for you.

According to Mayo Clinic’s Web site, chronic stress causes an array of symptoms that can be harmful to your body and mind. Stress has been linked to problems ranging from chronic headaches, stomach problems, weight gain and high blood pressure to sleep disorders, depression and trouble with personal relationships. Taking the proper steps to deal with stress can help reduce and eliminate these problems.

Some students see the benefit in stress reduction, but simply can’t find the time to fit it into their already overbooked schedules.    

“I know how important it is not to be stressed, but I can’t really avoid it,” said Laurel Kriebel, a freshman finance major, “I need to cut things out of my life because I’m so stressed that it’s started to affect my health.”

Many students don’t know that there are a number of free resources available to them right here on campus that can help them deal with the stresses in their lives.

The Graham Health Center offers six free counseling appointments to students, and can help them deal with any issues that are affecting their mental health, from stress relief strategies and coping skills to more serious issues like depression. After the free sessions expire, people can still attend for a fee of $12 per session.

‘Working out’ a solution

In addition to being a part of an overall healthy lifestyle, exercise provides a number of benefits to stress reduction and relief. According to helpguide.org, an organization that promotes healthy lifestyles, exercise allows the body to release tension and pent-up frustration, raises the output of endorphins, (the “feel-good” brain chemicals that ward off depression), decreases the output of stress hormones, and helps you get better sleep.

The Oakland University Recre-ation and Athletic Center is a state-of-the-art fitness facility whose fee is included in every student’s tuition each semester and offers all the benefits of other local fitness centers, including cardio and weight machines, free group fitness classes and an aquatics center equipped with a pool and spa.

“I love going to the Rec and working out when I’m stressed,” said Michael Heunickx, a junior integrative studies major. “It’s a great place to work out because it’s convenient and the people there are really nice.”

The Rec Center also offers what are known as specialty fitness classes for a small fee. For $25 a semester, you can attend as many of these specialty classes as you want. These classes are some of the best for stress reduction and include Pilates, tai chi, and numerous types of yoga. These are all excellent for stress reduction because they focus on relaxation and breathing techniques.

Another quick technique to reduce stress is deep breathing. This exercise (see sidebar), from helpguide.org, can be done practically anywhere and only takes a few minutes.

Finding your own way

Some students, however, have been able to find ways to deal with the stress in their life, even if the relief is only temporary.

Kaitlin Jones is a junior psycology student and says one of the ways that she relieves tension is by giving herself a clean space to work with.

“One of the best ways I’ve found to deal with stress is to try and create a good environment for myself,” said Jones. “I clean my house and make it smell good, I also open up the curtains and try to let light in.”  

Students who learn to deal with the stresses in their lives through counseling, time management and study skills, exercise and relaxation techniques seem to enjoy their college experiences more.  

“When I’m stressed, I’m angry and unhappy,” said Kriebel. “But when I deal with it, I feel better about everything in my life.”

SIDEBAR:

JUST BREATHE

Helpguide.org provides these steps to the “deep breathing” technique to help achieve relaxation:

1) Sit comfortably with your back straight. Put one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.

2) Breathe in through your nose. The hand on your stomach should rise. The hand on your chest should move little.

3) Exhale through your mouth, pushing out as much air as you can while contracting your abdominal muscles. The hand on your stomach should move in as you exhale, but your other hand should move very little.

4) Continue to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Try to inhale enough so that your lower abdomen rises and falls. Count slowly as you exhale.