Stress and anxiety students can do without

University students are bound to feel stressed and anxious. However, at times, some of them experience more extreme forms of fear, worry and even panic and these may be signs of an anxiety disorder. The symptoms could include excessive (and often irrational) worry, tension and irritability, unreasonable fear in certain situations, headaches, digestive problems and muscle tension, difficulty in concentrating or making decisions and an increase in avoidant behaviours, such as drinking, drug use or social withdrawal.

A study being carried out with the collaboration of the Pro-Rector’s office into the mental health of students has shown that half of first-year University students feel some degree of anxiety or depression. Before one goes any further, it should be borne in mind that only a small proportion of these need therapy or medication. However, the respondents did feel that they experience significant coping problems. Yet another 31 per cent of students reported that they had some form of eating disorder but this was not necessarily as extreme as anorexia or bulimia.

These findings are the result of an exercise that was carried out last year in the form of a questionnaire to 1,333 first-year students from various courses. These students will be followed for the next five years.

A staggering 17 per cent of students felt that their alcohol habit was affecting their lives and four per cent said they also had an issue with drugs.

The results are unsurprising because a pilot study carried out on first-year medical students two years ago indicated that 11.4 per cent felt bullied, 14.6 per cent were lonely and 7.4 per cent sought help. Mental health will not be improved by the stress of a new and daunting University environment. The authorities have rightly urged students to learn to ask for help if they felt they need it, possibly through the University counselling service, because seeking such aid should not be felt to be a rupture with some unspoken taboo.

Students are also urged to learn how to cope early by searching for their best personal study method, by not comparing themselves to others, by accepting that all have their limitations and that pushing beyond the edge of one’s envelope is useless as this will only affect performance and lead to a deterioration, not only in their mental health, but also in their academic efforts.

They are encouraged to appreciate the importance of leisure time and adequate rest, not only for their mental health but also for the sake of their performance because these activities promote better learning and retention of what is learned.

Even more importantly, students must realise that only consistent effort will lead to success. The brain is designed to process information incrementally and to increase learning in an accretive manner. If studying is left to the end, the attempt to assimilate large amounts of material in short periods of time will lead to confusion, which shuts down the part of the brain that problem-solves and generates novel ideas, a disastrous consequence at a time when thought and retrieval of information is absolutely critical to academic success. As the level of anxiety escalates, students assume that they are experiencing anxiety about exams. However, this anxiety is the natural outcome of trying to assimilate too much information in too short a period of time.

Students must, therefore, learn how to make the best use of class, study and/or tutorial time. That would, in turn, help to ease unnecessary stress and anxiety.