Stress and Coping

According to Brougham (2009), “College women reported higher overall level of stress and greater use of emotion-focused coping strategies than college men” (Brougham, 2009, pg 85). Recent avoidance of my problems is not helping to solve them. As a college student, my two main stressors are family problems and night-eating. Considering that the old coping methods are not working, a new method needs to be taken into effect.

College is a new setting for most students, especially the ones no longer living at home. The transition can be easy and worry-free, or a challenging and stressful time. Brougham states, “Growth and change were often accompanied by the experience of stress. The cause of stress varies from person to person. Overall there can be similarities such as ’academics, social relationships, finances, daily hassles and family relationships’ (Brougham, 2009, pg 86). As student, academics is the reason why we are in school; we are aiming to get educated and to learn. Family relationships vary from student to student depending on how close the family is. My immediate family and extended family have such a close bond that when I am needed at home, I drop everything for them. Social relationships are smaller support systems individuals can count on. Finances all come down to economic status and a person’s unique financial aid package. Daily hassles range from what I should wear today to not having enough time in a day.

The one that affects me the most since I have been growing up is family relationships. I was always taught to put family first and being in college has challenged me to the extreme because not being able to be there for my family when they need me most hurts. It was not until last year that I realized that my ...

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...nd keep reminding myself that I cannot eat past a certain time usually around seven o’clock.

There are many more stressors in my life but currently these are the two I struggle most during college. Being a college student in the nursing program makes me more nervous and afraid of not having time with my family as well as my emotional need to eat all the time. Consider that we are so active all the time it feels that there are never enough hours in a day it makes it that much harder. A quote I was fond of was, “…stress is balancing multiple demands and roles at work, at school, and in their personal life” (Giancola, 2009, pg 246). These basically generalize everything I cannot do. I cannot balance things when I have something higher on my list of prioritizing. Hopefully using these new coping mechanisms I can better myself as a person, student and even daughter.