The article that overuses the word “stress”
Illustration by Dalton Davidson
National Stress Awareness day was last month, and as college students, it’s compelling to argue that the day itself should become a week. Rather than falling on Nov. 5, it should instead take up the entirety of finals. Mental breakdowns, anxiety and stress have become synonymous with the college experience and much of life as everyone knows it. In order to bring attention to the issue and present readers with ways to possibly contain it, AlterNet columnist Scott Timberg wrote an article discussing the study on stress conducted by the Pew Research Center.
In retrospect, it is difficult to come to terms with the fact that the privileged American demographic feels stress or anxiety in the first place. More often than not, we wake up in warm beds, get dressed in name-brand clothing, eat a fortifying breakfast and head to class or work in cars. There are people who love us, money in our pockets and classes we have the opportunities to take. Yet, that final for math class no one has studied for seems to eat away at your contentment.
The studies conducted by the Pew Research Center show that this feeling of tension and pressure comes from the motivational systems in the brain and whether or not those partaking in whatever act are succeeding or failing at it. Thus, those awful sensations we experience when a due-date nears are coming from the motivational system telling the brain it is in distress, just as the human body would fight a virus.
However, similar to the flu, stress can only be cured by taking action both inside and outside the body. Much like the reactionary theory of “fight or flight,” the positive facet of human motivational systems is engaged when feelings of joy or desirability are experienced. This is why it is so easy to procrastinate studying for finals by going out or playing video games.
In contrast, the negative side of the motivational system is stimulated when unpleasant emotions enter the environment, resulting in a desire to avoid it. It is when avoiding it and procrastinating for too long becomes an issue, stress arises.
Upon reading the AlterNet article, I felt this should have been more obvious. Do what you enjoy, and stresses will gradually dissipate. In spite of the seemingly obvious connections, feeling stressed about exams that go toward a degree students have personally chosen to base their lives around did not add up. If it is something to be passionate about, then why does the passion not outweigh the stress?
After further investigating the study, I found that stress is almost hereditary. Middle-class children born in the United States are raised in subtly stressful atmospheres with daily, mundane issues like getting to school on time or knowing what to make for dinner.
Through this understanding, it is evident that passion and dedication really have no effect on whether or not stress can come from it. Stress and anxiety still arise because contemporary life makes enjoying the things people love to do without financial, emotional or timely repercussions almost impossible.
Just about anything that college students are currently facing can be categorized as either something they are fighting to achieve or something they are desperately hoping will disappear. Fight or flight. The bigger picture is that without a war going on at your doorstep, there being clothes on your back, not having enough food or having a cardboard box for a home, all of the things that result in stress for most of us are purely imagined; we are choosing to be stressed when we don’t have to.
With all of the horrific things going on in the world today, it is only expected for us to get anxious about some of them. Be that as it may, a majority of the things people must deal with come with a good amount of choice in the matter. Mindset is everything. This finals week, I challenge students to look at the daunting tests they have to take as ways to avoid negative outcomes rather than as ways to approach desirable ones — because without the bad, we would now know the good.
Read on jackcentral.org