Your new college student probably returned home for the holidays with some unexpected baggage: the freshman 15. It’s a common fact that many freshmen can gain weight due to various factors—poor diet, sedentary lifestyle and stress eating.
However, as your student begins the new semester at college in 2023, it’s time to take a step back and rethink a new approach to fitness. They may or may not be concerned about their health but it’s a good idea to encourage them to pursue a healthy lifestyle.
No one ever said that college would be easy. In fact, for many students, it can be downright difficult. From balancing classes and work to dealing with personal problems, there are a lot of situations that can arise during your time in school. If you’re not prepared for them, they can easily throw you off track. That’s why we’ve gathered some tips from the pros on how to handle difficult situations at college.
One of the biggest obstacles when starting your freshman year of college is figuring out how to manage a healthy balance between your academics and social life– but don’t forget that practicing self-care is a key piece to that balance. Making yourself a priority during the hustle and bustle of your first year of college will help you create and maintain healthy habits for the rest of your schooling to come.
Imagine being on an airplane, you get your luggage stowed, you buckle up and the video in front of you starts to play informing you of all the safety measures to take in the event of an emergency. One of the biggest tips they stress is when the oxygen masks come down, always put yours on before helping the person next to you. You cannot help someone if you cannot get air yourself! This goes for life, and even freshman year. If you do not make time to take care of yourself, everything else will start to fail too. But you know the best part of that? It is easier than it sounds!
Here are a few self-care tips for you as you take on this new journey!
Healthy habits are the best way to take care of your body. After all, our body is a gigantic system with so many different processes, each of them working in harmony to create a strong and healthy body. However, when one of these systems or processes is interrupted, it can slow everything down to a crawl. This is not where you want to be, hence why it’s important to take a holistic approach to health and also why it’s important to educate your children on this.
So what can you do to encourage your child to take a full body approach to their health? Here are a couple of suggestions.
College stress happens to just about everyone – if you’re not stressed while in college, there’s probably something wrong! It’s just a combination of responsibilities and things that all add up to make you feel super tense and overwhelmed. Especially as you’re not used to living college life at all – it’s the first time you’ve ever been away from home, you have to be more independent when studying, and the course content is a lot harder than in high school.
With all of this considered, what can you do to manage college-induced stress? Here are three tactics that seem to work really well:
You might think that it’s going to be easy to stay healthy in college. However, it’s possible that this won’t be the case. There are a lot of health problems that college students will commonly face throughout their time in higher education. It’s important to be aware of these problems and guarantee that they do not negatively impact your college career.
Headaches
You might find that you struggle with headaches in college. Believe it or not, this is quite common and there are numerous reasons why this might be the case. First, it’s important that you don’t rule out that these might be tension headaches brought on by stress. Tension headaches can usually be felt on the sides of the head. Some people claim that they feel like there is an elastic band tightening around your head. We’ll talk about stress a little further down but adding some time to relax and unwind into your busy college schedule is often not a bad idea at all.
Headaches may also be caused by eyestrain. This will be the case if you are finding it difficult to read the board or even read your notes. You may also have this issue if you are spending too long staring at a computer screen and that’s often a major part of college. It’s common for everything to be typed up, even the notes in a lecture. If you think that you are suffering from eye strain, then it might be worth visiting an optician to see if you have a problem with low vision. You could be short or long-sighted.
Something to watch out for is sudden severe headaches that you aren’t used to and which makes it difficult to concentrate or even function. On rare occasions this may be a sign of something more serious and it does need to be checked out.
Stress
As mentioned, it’s possible that the headaches that you are experiencing are a sign of stress. But stress can have numerous impacts on your body. It can leave you with chronic pain as your body manifests stress into something it can tackle head-on. It can cause you to feel emotionally and physically drained long before the end of the day. It might also cause you to feel completely overwhelmed and unable to complete your college tasks.
Stress is why it’s important to ensure that your time at college isn’t just all work and no play. Essentially, you do need to make sure that you have a healthy balance. You need to work to guarantee that you are not becoming overladen with issues and that can be a problem if you are not careful. You might even want to speak to a therapist on a regular basis. Some people assume that therapy is only for those with serious mental health issues. However, that’s just not true. Therapy can be beneficial for everyone and ensure that you are mental health is being taken care of.
Depression
When considering the issue of mental health, it’s important that you don’t overlook the problem of depression. Depression is far more common than most people realize in college. It’s possible that you develop depression because you feel as though you are not able to stay on top of the heavy workload. Alternatively, you might find that depression creeps in because you are struggling to keep up with what can be a heavy workload.
For instance, hell week often causes students to break down. If you don’t know hell week is often a planned part of the college schedule. It is one or two weeks that include numerous exams and essay dates all clustered together. Survive it and you pass through one of the most difficult parts of the college year. Unfortunately, a lot of people do end up dropping out during this time.
To understand depression you need to be aware of the common signs. Depression is described as a deep sadness that lasts for an extended period. This could be several days, weeks or months. You may find that you struggle to find the energy or motivation to do anything. Even getting out of bed or getting something to eat can be difficult when you are in a deep state of depression.
Insomnia
Alternatively, you may find that you are struggling to get a good night of sleep. It’s possible that you are constantly up through the night unable to get the rest that you desperately require to function effectively in your college classes. If that’s the case, then it’s important that you don’t take this lightly. You should instead make sure that you are looking for the root cause of this issue. Again, it’s possible that this is going to be stressful. A lot of people will have trouble sleeping if they are overwhelmed by thoughts swirling around their heads.
Alternatively, you might find that insomnia has been caused by your schedule being thrown off course. During the time of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of people are struggling to get a good night of sleep. Experts have suggested this is due to the fact that people are not following their typical schedule. This is why it’s important to make sure that you do have a schedule in college and stick to it as much as possible. That schedule should guarantee that you are staying quite active throughout the day. In doing so, you can guarantee that you do not find yourself filled with energy by the time your head hits the pillow.
Weight Gain
Finally, it’s quite common for your diet to take a hit when you enter college. Suddenly, you find yourself living on fast food or ready meals that are easy to prepare. If you do this, you could notice negative changes to your mental and physical health. Yes, a poor diet has been linked to everything from weight gain to depression. That’s why you need to make sure that you are getting a balanced diet and ensuring that you are getting the vitamins you need. If you are struggling here, natural supplements could be the answer.
Stress in colleges exceeds other learning institutions due to the excessive expectations from the society and the parents. There are however, some several factors that when considered and applied, can effectively reduce this effect on the students on a large scale. It is expected that you will put to use these five essential time management factors to reduce your levels college student stress.
Avoid Peer Pressure
The fact that you are in college means that you get to have an uncontrolled freedom to act as you like. This can be, if utilized properly, a great asset for you, or the reason for your downfall. You should be able to be self-driven, and able to determine the limits of your interactions.
Have your own focused goals and priorities and follow them diligently. Prioritizing your goals rather than over indulging with your peers may come across as selfish but this is one of the greatest ways to reduce stress in college. It is okay to say No sometimes.
Sleep is Essential
Depriving yourself of sleep is never a good idea. This is an indication that you have been failing to manage your time effectively. You have almost certainly been a victim or witnessed someone falling asleep in class due to lack of enough sleep. This can be because of excessive partying or you trying desperately to catch up on class work. However, you will find yourself wasting a lot of time trying to nap during the day, as you could have been doing something more beneficial during that time if you had gotten enough sleep during the night.
Procrastination is the Thief of Time
Procrastination is a major contributing factor to the high levels of stress in colleges. Students in the first weeks of school, tend to occupy themselves with other activities not related to their studies. This builds up a workload that will be cumbersome to deal with as the semester ends and students often use services that do my essay for them as shortcuts to their own work. Do today what you plan on doing tomorrow to reduce your level of stress in the end.
Truancy directly relates to more stress
Absenteeism is one of the major causes of stress in college students. Missing classes might seem like a fun idea at the time but only results in you having to look for more time to play catch up with your peers as the semester ends. This is mostly seen when you will be running up and down in an attempt to seek out your class lecturers to explain more on topics that you missed. Truancy also leads to borrowing of notes at the last minute takes up more of your time, as you are not familiar with your peer’s handwriting or shortened notes.
Take Control of your Time
Be a diligent master of your own time. Avoid shifting blame to unnecessary parties such as your teachers dishing out too much work that messes up with your time to study. To avoid stress in school, learn how to prioritize your tasks effectively with the time that you already have and avoid blaming others on your mismanagement of time.
Preparing your child for college demands a lot from a parent – there’s so much to think about and always a concern that your child may not cope well with a new environment. If that child happens to have a sleep disorder of some kind, parents can become even more anxious worrying that they will not settle well and that their disorder may be exacerbated as a result. Here are a few tips to help you prepare your child to adjust to college life, and learn to cope with their sleeping disorder without mom or pop.
Some types of sleep disorders
Quality sleep is needed for good health and it can affect mood, hormone levels and weight. Sleep problems therefore impact on the same areas as well as causing tiredness and poor concentration. Common disorders include sleep apnea, sleep deprivation, insomnia, restless legs syndrome and snoring.
Children and adolescents require a minimum of nine hours of sleep per night. This means that sleep problems and a lack of sleep can have negative effects on your child’s performance at college, including during extracurricular activities and on their social relationships. While snoring does not seem like a serious problem, except perhaps for a sleep partner, habitual snoring does in fact have an adverse effect on the quality of sleep of the person who snores. Nightmares, night terrors and sleepwalking are among many disruptive disorders known as parasomnias. When sleep apnea is a problem, the child’s breathing becomes disrupted regularly during sleep and they may experience restless nights, fatigue during the day and poor concentration, which of course makes it difficult for them to study effectively.
Heading off to college can be stressful for any student. For some, it is leaving home for the first time. For others, it is traveling across the country for the first time, maybe even entering a new country for the first time. Between leaving home and meeting new people, the last thing that a new college student should worry about is their healthcare. Knowing exactly what is needed before school and how to get healthcare while you are away is important. The following is basic health care information for college students regarding college immunizations.
Recommended Immunizations
The first important thing to know is what immunizations you will need before entering college and where you can get them. The college immunizations an entering freshman will need depends on their medical history. Every situation can be different. It depends what immunizations the student has already had. One vaccination that most college students will not typically have when entering college is the meningitis vaccine. Students who may have had it in high school are ones who may have been exposed to someone with the disease. If not, chances are that you have not had the immunization. Students living in a dorm, in close quarters, will be required to have this vaccine.
Hepatitis B is a serious infection, which can be transferred through sexual activity. This disease can cause long term liver issues including liver failure. Many colleges require students be vaccinated against this disease. The third vaccine that most colleges and universities require is the DPT vaccine. It stands for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. This is a vaccine that most students would not have been given in their childhood or early teens.
It’s hard to know whether the number of people suffering from chronic pain has increased in the last several years or whether the condition is simply more widely diagnosed than it once was, but it certainly seems that a lot more people are now living with chronic pain, and that number includes some college students. Unfortunately, students leaving home for the first time to live on campus may be ill-equipped to deal with ongoing hardships associated with chronic pain, especially without their lifelong caregivers (mom and dad) on hand to help. But there are ways to manage chronic pain in college.
So if your student has chronic pain, here are a five management tips that should help.
Breathing techniques. Although medication is the go-to solution for many people trying to carry on normal lives while living with chronic pain, this might not be the quick fix that students are looking for since some of these pharmaceuticals come with side effects like drowsiness or difficulty concentrating that can make attending class and studying nearly impossible. However, some find that deep breathing and relaxation can help to reduce stress, a major trigger when it comes to sensitivity to chronic pain, as well as decreasing the pain itself. Various meditation techniques can help students to deal with pain and go about their day.
Exercise. It might be harder for students with chronic pain to get up and go for a jog, hit the gym, or play sports with friends, but the benefits are well worth the effort. Increasing strength and flexibility can lead to reduced pain in some cases, in addition to improving health. But the real benefit for chronic pain sufferers comes from the feel-good endorphins produced by moderate to intense activity. Of course, students should speak to a doctor before beginning an exercise regimen; some types of chronic pain could preclude certain activities.
Diet. You’ve no doubt heard the old adage “you are what you eat”, and in some ways it’s true. The average college student subsists on a diet of fats, sugars, and carbs (hence the freshman 15) rather than the lean meats, low-fat dairy, whole grains, and fresh fruits and veggies they should be eating. While they can get some nutrients from daily supplements, the truth is that anyone is going to feel better when consuming a healthy and balanced diet. So impress upon your student the importance of eating right while on campus.
Adequate rest. When we’re tired our minds and bodies are unable to deal with stress and pain as well as when we’re rested. Although most students are prone to burning the midnight oil, either for cram sessions or to hang out with friends, the student that suffers from chronic pain needs to be careful to get eight hours a night, or face the consequences.
Support group. The worst thing for many students dealing with chronic pain is the fact that they feel different and separate from their peers. So you might want to seek out a pain management center near campus where they can not only receive care when they need it, but where there are also support groups for them to join. Likely they will find other students like themselves with whom to commiserate, share problems and advice, and ultimately befriend.
Absenteeism is one of the major causes of stress in college students. Missing classes might seem like a fun idea at the time but only results in you having to look for more time to play catch up with your peers as the semester ends. This is mostly seen when you will be running up and down in an attempt to seek out your class lecturers to explain more on topics that you missed. Truancy also leads to borrowing of notes at the last minute takes up more of your time, as you are not familiar with your peer’s handwriting or shortened notes.
Take Control of your Time
