Stresses of university

People get stressed in different situations, stress itself isn't actually that bad. University can be very stressful. I thought I’d share an issue I had in my second year. It started out with me becoming very anxious and nervous about even getting the bus/coach to uni, then it turned to headaches and migraines. Not just a “Take a painkiller” type of migraine, I’m on about 3 days solid while taking strongest painkillers for migraines on prescription. It affected my studies hugely. I thought it was the stress of uni that was causing me to get migraines and the fact that I was getting migraines was causing stress. Vicious circle, I even opted to get counselling at the university which helped greatly.

I personally thought it was very strange of me to be getting these symptoms, considering my grades. I didn't feel like the coursework was an issue, but somehow almost 24/7 I wanted to be in a dark room/sleeping because of the migraines. Luckily, I know what the issue is now. It was actually allergies and intolerance's which was causing these migraines. It was still an eye opener, getting these types of symptoms while studying is a huge handicap. It was one of my biggest life lessons, I couldn't physically work because of this, and so whenever I felt better I would try and get some work done. I still do this now, whenever I have some free time, I generally get some work done. It’s helped my grades and my overall attitude.

Now I’m generally fine, I just avoid certain foods. Might financially cost me a bit more, but it’s a huge improvement than it was last year. I personally don’t mind talking about this, it sounded silly once I knew it was food related. Either way, something like this can make you want to leave university. I thought it was educational stress causing the issues. I’m not looking for sympathy, I managed to get all A’s still.  I think if you manage your time well, these literally nothing to worry about. Plus, you should enjoy your course and what you do! University should be some of the best years of your life ;)