University students deal with stress everyday, some more than others. There is a way to manage stress, even if itís too stressful to think about.

A substantial number of students deal with some sort of stress, Dr. Joshua Kaplan said. Kaplan is a medical director and physician at the Universityís Student Health Services.

Stress is an illness that has symptoms including headaches, irritabilty, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, muscle aches and digestive disturbances.

ìYou physically feel ill,î Kaplan said.

The illness can be due to life situations or emotions. It is extremely common for students to come to Health Services feeling ill and find out they are dealing with too much stress, Kaplan said.

ìAbout half of the visits to doctors are found to be stress related,î Kaplan said.

College students deal with a lot of stress because of time constraints in balancing work, school and a social life. Some students who are new to the University and just out of high school feel the stress from such a big change in their life.

ìIn high school, I never studied but still managed to get straight Aís,î Samantha Stone, freshman, said. ìNow it seems like all I do is study.î

Not only is the studying different, but the teaching is different as well.

ìItís more teaching yourself than them (instructors) teaching you,î Stone said. ìIn one of my classes I already have a whole notebook filled with notes. My teacher teaches too much at once.î

Anthony Coate, sophomore at the University, agrees with Stone, ìIn high school I pretty much got Aís for doing nothing, here if you fall behind itís hard to catch up.î

Coate believes work is more of a reliever because he doesnít have to think about all the stress in his life with school and personal things.

ìIn the job world, an annual job evaluation is done, but at school students donít know the standards of the five or six different bosses they have every semester. The students are evaluated every couple of weeks and satisfactory is not good enough,î Kaplan said.

One thing that makes a lot of people stressed is the ìDoomsday Clockî in Times Square that marks the man invoked armageddon.

ìThe threat of devastation is stressful,î Kaplan said.

This is one example of background stress. Crowds and noise can also be stressful, but for the college student, the tremendous amount of work load between school and work is stressful in itself. Health Services tries to be there for students who deal with too much stress. Once the diagnosis is found to be stress, treatment is administered. Medical treatment is not used, though.

ìI donít think itís appropriate to use medication because of the side-effects. They blunt the ability to experience (life),î Kaplan said. ìPeople self medicate with alcohol, which is a dangerous drug, I wouldnít recommend it.î

There are techniques that Kaplan uses to help students have a more stressless life. Aerobic exercise gives people more energy and better health.

ìThey are more resilient to dealing with stress. Past 20-25 minutes, the brain induces a hormone, endorphin, that makes you feel good. Itís known as the ërunnerís highí,î Kaplan said.

For students that donít exercise, but need a stress reducer, relaxation and muscle techniques should be done.

ìA piece at a time, relax all your muscles,î Kaplan said. Generic meditation techniques also work. These techniques are religious-neutral and produce good benefits.

ìYou feel lighter and the room gets brighter when you pop back into reality,î Kaplan said. ìWhile you are in a trans state, all kinds of unexpected things happen. I highly recommend it.î

Students who know they are dealing with stress should go to the Wellness Connection to get information on techniques to relieve stress. Students at the Connection are trained in the techniques.

ìIf I had the time, I would go to a counselor,î Stone said. Coale doesnít believe going to a counselor will help, ìI did it before and it didnít work. They didnít seem to understand what I was going through.î

Counselor or no, there are many ways that students can manage their stress. The University book store even has a book, ìRelaxation Responseî by Herbert Benson, that gives simple techniques that are easy to learn.