Stress over ?nals causes a spike in Counseling and Wellness services

With the first day of final exams only two days away, stress levels among students are on the rise.

Avery Cook, clinical coordinator at UNC’s Counseling and Wellness Services, said the center sees an increase in students coming in for stress and anxiety around finals.

She said any student is allowed to walk in and ask for help.

“We try and offer whatever support they need and connect them to whatever resources they need,” Cook said. “We certainly offer to help them with coping skills.”

Jonathan Abramowitz, associate chairman of the psychology department, said stress is common during finals.

“Stress is really your body’s response to a perceived threat, and certainly to some students finals are perceived as a threat,” he said.

“There are good and bad levels of stress,” Abramowitz said. “If you have too little stress that’s actually not good because then you’re not motivated to do your best, and if you have too much stress you’re going to lose sleep, get really tired, get really sick.”

Sara Russell, a freshman English major, said the stress of finals hasn’t hit her yet.

“But I feel like after the last day of class I’ll be sitting on my floor eating Ramen and crying,” she said.

Russell said she copes with stress by going to the gym and spending time with friends.

“It’s important to take breaks when you’re studying,” Abramowitz said. He recommended exercise, sleep, healthy eating habits and good time management as ways to cope.

“One thing would be to make sure you kind of keep perspective on things,” he said. “You have to keep in mind that yes, this is important, but one exam isn’t a matter of life and death.”

Atembe Fonge, a senior global studies major, said she doesn’t normally have a problem with exam-time stress.

“I tend to like the exam period more because it’s just exams,” she said.

But Abramowitz said that some people aren’t so lucky.

“There are some cases when stress gets so bad that you would meet the criteria of a stress or anxiety disorder,” he said. “If you are worrying uncontrollably pretty much 24/7, you’re losing sleep, you’re isolating yourself and you’re really, really anxious all the time, you might have generalized anxiety disorder.”

“There’s some people who have a phobia of tests,” he said. “Before they even begin to take the test they’ve convinced themselves they’re going to fail, and they have trouble studying for the test.”

Abramowitz advised students with those symptoms to seek help.

“Well, now it’s too late,” he said. “But for the fall semester.”

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