thegazette Friday April 4th, 2014
THIS IS YOUR
BRAIN ON
Issue 96
STRESS
BY CAITLIN MARTIN NEWNHAM
T
he little red rectangle appeared above my Facebook message box within minutes. I had posted a status looking for individuals willing to share their firsthand experience with the stress of university causing mental or physical illness. Hoping to find one volunteer, I instead discovered seven people who wanted their story told. All participants had three things in common: They had all experienced illness caused from the stress of school, they all wanted to share their experiences, and they all believed that the stress of university reaches more students than most realize because it is not talked about. “For me it started after Christmas [of first year]. The first semester was exciting and new so it was almost like a high. Then coming back to school after being home again was hard for many reasons,” Shayna Stratford, a former Social Science student at Western, explains. Stratford came to London from a town of 8,000 people, so culture shock was the first contributor to her stress. Upon returning to Western for her second semester she became homesick, and was anxious about the results from her first university exams. “It wasn’t such a high anymore — more of a constant routine of classes, homework, studying, stress [and] almost no free time,” Stratford says. “I was having anxiety attacks, I was exhausted all the time and was eventually diagnosed with depression, an anxiety disorder, headaches and migraines.” But academics weren’t Stratford’s only stressor. She had personal problems with the only soph on her floor in first year, which deteriorated to the point that Stratford had to report that person. In addition, her roommates in Delaware Hall bullied her. In the middle of her second year, the psychology major had to leave Western because of her mental and physical ailments. Stratford could no longer stand to be in public places, and found that when she returned home, her family of five was even too large of a group to be around. “It triggered my anxiety and I don’t know why still.
It was almost like I needed to learn how to live all over [again],” Stratford recalls. “I knew in my mental state, I couldn’t give my education the concentration and effort I needed to do my best. If I couldn’t do my best, I didn’t want to spend the money on a half-assed education.” Kristina Martinsons, a second-year student of biochemistry at Western, has also been affected by the stress of university. However, Martinsons’ stress manifested physically rather than mentally. During the midterm exam season of her first year, Martinsons’ sensitive stomach developed into a serious gastrointestinal problem. “I couldn’t eat any foods without throwing up and getting really bad stomach pain,” Martinsons says. “[I] went to the doctor and they thought it was just a ‘budding’ ulcer because I drink a lot of coffee. They gave me [medication], it went away after a month and I didn’t think about it.” Despite her recovery, Martinsons’ stomach problems returned in her second semester, and the medication that previously worked no longer made the pain subside. Martinsons visited Student Health Services where they ran tests to search for an underlying illness to no avail. Martinsons had a stressful summer after her first year, which led to a four-day spell in which she could not eat at all. Her mom dragged her to the emergency room, and the attending doctor referred her to a stomach specialist. “[The specialist] diagnosed me as gluten sensitive and dairy sensitive — essentially any nonorganic food I can’t eat. And my sensitivity goes through the roof when I’m stressed,” Martinsons explains. “Good news is that it’s apparently pretty common with university students, according to this stomach specialist, and a lot of people actually have their problems go away once they graduate, which is nice, I guess.” Not only does Martinsons have to deal with distracting pain when doing schoolwork, but she also has to pack all of her food for the day when she goes to campus. This time-consuming commitment to a medical diet does not even ensure that her pain will not arise in times of stress.
Stratford and Martinsons aren’t alone in their struggles with university stress. The other students that reached out with their anecdotes explained a range of experiences. One student had a severe panic attack in a first-year exam, but was forced to finish the test. Another experienced severe heart pain brought on by stress during final exams. An extreme case involved a student with six courses and five jobs who had to consume four extra-large coffees each day over three weeks to get through his work until he began hallucinating. His visions forced him to stop drinking caffeine, but he admitted that he would not have passed his classes without the coffee. Some may argue that stress is an inevitable obstacle that all university students must face because of the nature of the institution. However, this mental or emotional strain shouldn’t be a prerequisite for surviving an undergraduate education. Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University explains the purpose of mammalian stress in the National Geographic documentary, Stress: Portrait of a Killer. The stress response originated as a physiological reaction to escape life-threatening situations, in which the body produces adrenaline and glucocorticoids. These stress-related neurotransmitters are meant to aid in the fight-or-flight response by shutting down the digestive system, raising blood pressure, making breathing more rapid, drawing blood from limbs toward the heart and brain and increasing sweating. This physiological reaction is beneficial in short-term life-threatening situations. However, Sapolsky revealed in the documentary that humans are experiencing this response for coping with worries as menial as taxes and the ozone layer thinning. Sapolsky showed that chronic stress response impacts the body by shrinking the brain, adding belly fat and unraveling chromosomes — to name a few side effects. >> see STRESS pg.2 Graphics: Mike Laine GAZETTE