It’s no secret that college students today face an immense amount of stress and pressure from anything ranging from college coursework to financial burdens to even health issues. The interesting part about it all is how college students deal with these stresses and are they in a constructive or destructive way?
“I deal with stress by partying,” said Casey Knuth, a Junior Business major, “I’m a very live life by the moment kind of guy.”
Knuth, age 21 from Tualatin, also added “My number one stressor is waking up in the morning and all I wanna do is get drunk but I can’t because I know I have to go to class.”
On the other hand, Natalie Swartzendruber, a Sophomore Political Science major, said “I take “me” time, where I’ll go and do something I enjoy, watch a movie, get a chai, go for a drive, read my Bible, or call my mom.”
Both students deal with their stress in two completely different ways but it seems as though, according to a poll from the Associated Press, “Stress Pains Many in College,” by Alan Fram and Trevor Tompson, that many students are tending to resort to drugs and alcohol rather than seeking less damaging options, “More than a quarter of the students sometimes think they should cut down on drinking or going out. A third say they sometimes want to use drugs or alcohol to relax.”
Many students attribute stress as a leading cause to the amount of alcohol ingested by college students today. Shelby Johnson, a Sophomore getting an International Degree in Spanish, said “That’s [stress] half the reason I think people drink as much as they do, like Tuesday nights, most people look ahead at all the stuff they have to do the rest of the week and get drunk.”
Students also talked about how social situations can act as a stressor causing them to consume alcohol or consume more alcohol than they intended to. “If you know your going into a stressful situation you drink more,” said Johnson, age 20 from Portland.
Yet still darker, although just as important are the instances of suicide that occur among college students due to stress. “About one in six say they have friends who in the past year have discussed committing suicide, and about one in 10 say they have seriously considered it themselves. Friends have actually tried to end their lives in that time, one in 10 say,” said Fram and Tompson.
What has caused this push toward such a huge extreme? “I think we have a lot more pressure put on our generation to be so much smarter and to make a good living,” said Courtney Schild, a Freshman Art major.
“Our society has higher expectations on what you should be able to do and your accomplishments,” said Johnson.
Schild, age 19 from Portland said “We hear so much from the media that everyone has nice things so we think that’s the norm so that’s what we strive to achieve.”
