What Goes Around...

Remember the "best days of your life"? At least, that's what our parents said they were: we headed off to college while they continued to work and (hopefully) send us money. For most, college seemed like the ultimate good life what with MTV, lots of members of the opposite sex who didn't know what dorks we were, and Spring Break, to name a few of the Philistinian pleasures we experienced. Oh sure, there were classes to (mostly) attend, tests to take and papers to write at the very, very last minute (using correcting tape and liquid paper instead of a computer terminal), but all in all, not a bad life. Things have changed, apparently.
College freshmen now claim to be among the most stressed-out occupants of the planet, and much is being made of their apparent angst.
I suppose it's only natural since the entire population of the world seems to be suffering elevated stress levels...somewhat like the environment, to make an appropriate simile.
So, are you "stressed out," too? According to the American Institute of Stress (you KNEW there had to be one), there are 50 common symptoms of being overly stressed (URL below). Fifty? Fortunately, the college life seems to note fewer than 10 symptoms of exaggerated stress levels, according to ulifeline.org:

1. A change in sleeping and eating patterns. Doesn't this happen the minute someone walks onto campus?
2. An increased frequency of headaches. Professors will do that to anybody!
3. Increased frequency of levels of frustration and anger. Sounds like the dorms to me.
4. Being more irritable than usual. See #1 to understand this one.
5. Recurring colds and minor illnesses. Nos. 1 and 3 explain this.
6. Frequent muscle aches.
7. Being more disorganized than usual. Well, SURE since Mom isn't there to do it for you anymore!
8. A greater sense of persistent time pressure. "I will NOT put writing a paper off until the last minute NEXT time!
9. Increased difficulty in getting things done. "Jersey Shore and Gray's Anatomy are on tonight? Sweet!"

But the real eye-opener in all of this is that my life is increasingly filled with those EXACT symptoms!
It's just that the reasons are different.

http://www.stress.org/topic-effects.htm