Here’s the situation: you’re entering your classroom the day of a major test, feeling a little less than prepared. 

You should have studied longer, better, earlier. 

You wipe the sweat off your palms for the third time before you reach your desk. As the blue scantron is passed to you, your heart begins to race.  

When you reach to mark your first answer, you begin to visualize the “X” beside it. 

You have now become another victim of the often-called “little monster,”  stress.

While it’s true a little bit of stress is usually needed to get students motivated, too much stress can give the opposite of the desired effect.

Stress, defined by Wellness Center Program Coordinator Kit Olson, is “a person’s response to any kind of change.”  The human body responds to these changes with physiological, cognitive and emotional reactions.

According to Olson, it has recently been proven that when a person is under increased stress, their body produces not just adrenaline, but cortizol, which impairs the memory. (This is definitely something to keep in mind the next time your parents ask you about your GPA.)

Along with the recent discovery of the release of cortizol and its effects, is the long-standing idea of the self-fulfilling prophesy. 

Olson describes it as self-talk.  It goes like this: if a person thinks they are going to do horribly on a test, they probably will.

Academic effects of stress are coupled with physical effects, as well. 

Some of those effects, given by Olson, are increased heart rate, faster or shallower breathing, increased blood pressure, headaches, nausea, stomach cramps and even a full-blown panic attack.

So what can students do to keep their stress levels at bay?  

Olson suggests finding the cause of the stress, which can “reduce the monster to a puppy dog.” 

Exercise also can help do two really important things.  

First, it burns up the cortizol and the energy produced during a stress response. 

Secondly, it gets more oxygen into a person’s body, which can help a person think more clearly.  Exercise can be as simple as taking a short brisk walk.

Off-campus SGA Senator Mark Harrison has found one way to deal with the stress of student government duties coupled with the demands of being an English Secondary Education major.  

“I change a lot when I’m doing something stressful. I go hang out with friends or get something to eat. I change venue and then come back to it,” Harrison said.

Fred Broome, a sophomore Secondary English major, keeps stress at a minimum by remembering to relax.  

“I stop doing everything that stresses me out and relax . . . I’m very goal-oriented. I take one thing at a time, and after I’m done with one thing, I go into relax mode,” Broome said.

Take breaks.  Do anything, says Olson, that will get a person thinking about something other than their worries. 

Color a picture.  Take a swim.  Call a friend.

How does a person know when their stress is out of hand and they need help?  Olson says there are many ways of telling this.  

If a person’s physical symptoms become worse, they become increasingly irritable or are putting forth their best effort and are still doing poorly, a person’s stress could be out of hand. 

For any student who feels like they need some assistance, ASU offers a variety of options from tutoring to meditation training (led by Olson and will be offered again next semester) to biofeedback.

Whatever it takes, students should make sure to keep their stress levels in check.  

Letting stress levels accumulate can lead to increased health problems further on down the road.   
Prevention is the best way to avoid having problems.