‘Academic stress’, students often use this term in their day-to-day lives. Before we move on with the blog, I invite the readers to reflect on some questions about academic stress listed below.
It is seen as a common concerns that students face, but do they approach anyone for help for this concern?
What stops a student from seeking mental health assistance for this concern?
Around two-third of students report stress due to academic pressure (Sibnath, 2015). Though academic stress is not considered as a mental disorder, research suggests that it is a contributing factor to psychiatric disorders (Sibnath, 2015). A psychiatric disorder is a serious concern which affects the individual’s ability to perform day-to-day activities such as social interactions, physical health, sleep schedule, food intake, and academic activities, etc. The previous blog post about stress explained the effects of stress on physical health. Similarly, academic stress has an impact on both mental and physical health.
Despite this documented widespread experience of academic stress, few students reach out for support. One might not be aware that ‘academic stress’ is a problem for which help can be sought. Others are unsure of whom to approach. Some might feel anxious about approaching a stranger/teacher to seek help. Others might be worried about how they might be perceived if they do seek help. Oftentimes they expect to be labelled “weak”, “lazy” or “incompetent”. This brings up feelings of guilt and embarrassment that may act as a barrier to help-seeking. These are valid emotions and experiences, but students should also consider the continued detriments of not seeking help.
As mentioned previously, when one doesn’t seek help, the situation can escalate not only impacting their academic performance but having a profound effect on all dimensions of functioning. Academics is for the welfare of self and society but, if it impacts an individual mentally and physically, one should seek help. Remember, the good old school days when certain Mathematics problems seemed impossible to solve until we finally understood that every problem has an answer if approached with the right formula. Unless we approach the problem, we will never be able to solve it. Similarly, the right formula may mean seeking mental health support. Help seeking, according to me, is an initiative towards self-development where we step out to deal with our concerns and seek guidance from a professional.
How would therapy help students with academic stress?
Academic stress contributes to psychological distress (Zhong et.al, 2009). Psychological distress affects our day-to-day activities as an individual at a social, physical and emotional level. Psychological capital is a factor that influences how an individual copes with academic stress. For example, when you undergo therapy, you might develop the skill of checking for evidence if your thought is true or not. If we check for evidence of a thought such as ‘I am a stupid person because I couldn’t answer in the class today’, we may not find it. Not answering one question doesn't make us ‘stupid’. Therapy helps in developing healthy, flexible thinking through certain techniques including checking for evidence for our thoughts. This ultimately contributes to bouncing back in difficult situations. In this way, therapy helps a person develop psychological capital.
Just the way we need money (financial capital) to buy things we like, psychological capital is the positive state of an individual which helps in self development and deal with stress (Zhong et.al, 2009). Therapy helps a person learn problem-solving skills, have the comfort of sharing one’s own feelings with others, and improves their relationship quality, communication and social skills (Vidourek RA, 2014). Further, it helps a student in identifying one's own learning style, identify the barriers to concentration issues and understand one’s own strengths and weaknesses. This would help the student work towards coping with academic stress. It is important to note that one can also learn similar strategies through informal sources of support, yet therapy provides the same in a judgement free zone!
Common cold is a common problem but we do take in medicine and reach out to the doctor when it hampers our daily activities. Similarly, ‘academic stress’ can be a common problem too and reaching out to a mental health professional for help when it affects our daily functioning can be normalised too!
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Here are some links if you wish to read more about this topic. Happy reading!
References
Deb, Sibnath & Strodl, Esben & Sun, Jiandong. (2015). Academic Stress, Parental Pressure, Anxiety and Mental Health among Indian High School Students. International Journal of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences. 5. 26-34. 10.5923/j.ijpbs.20150501.04. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289193341_Academic_Stress_Parental_Pressure_Anxiety_and_Mental_Health_among_Indian_High_School_Students#:~:text=Data%20collection%20involved%20using%20a,and%20several%20other%20personal%20factors
L. -f. Zhong and H. -l. Ren, "The relationship between academic stress and psychological distress: The moderating effects of psychological capital," 2009 International Conference on Management Science and Engineering, 2009, pp. 1087-1091, doi: 10.1109/ICMSE.2009.5318122. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5318122
Vidourek RA, King KA, Nabors LA, Merianos AL. Students' benefits and barriers to mental health help-seeking. Health Psychol Behav Med. 2014 Jan 1;2(1):1009-1022. doi: 10.1080/21642850.2014.963586. Epub 2014 Oct 24. PMID: 25750831; PMCID: PMC4346065. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4346065/
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