The boy in the picture is going through ACADEMIC STRESS which is highly relatable but nobody talks about it, ACADEMIC STRESS is the result of academic demands that exceed a student’s ability to cope, leading to stress and potential negative effects on mental. Stress has become part of our academic life due to various internal and external expectation placed on our shoulders. We go through personal inadequacy(emotional stress from failed relationship which we keep to ourselves because we are not meant to engage in them, financial burdens our parents cannot meet), fear of failure, our relationship with our colleague being constantly compare to them some of them hide updates so the other will not get through as easy as they do , our lectures pouring down frustrations from unpaid salaries, problems at home, at work , of them our barely good at the areas of studies so we have to spend extra hours researching on extra materials spending more time on a course instead of splitting on others, inadequate facilities , some places are unconducive for learning.
Parents and institutions relentlessly instill fear of failure which affects our self esteem and confidence, expectations from our parents who have no idea what we our really passing through but we are to make them proud in everywhere, we cannot let ourselves down but ourselves don’t know if we can trust us, high expectations from our institution and rigorous academic demands, which leads to immense pressure. Due to the thought of failure most of us engage in drugs, consumption of alcohol, to help cope with our depression not knowing that’s not the right path or we do know but engage in it cause that’s all we know and we blame them without , some even go as far as committing suicide that I have thought of once. Though certain levels of stress push students towards optimum performances, some students who don’t know how best to cope with it which have dismal consequences for the student as well as the institution.
The educational system plays an enabling role subsequently leading to increased stress levels experienced by students. Some of the sources include time stress where we feel really overwhelmed with the amount of work, overcrowded lecture halls, vastness of syllabus, long hours and expectations of rote learning, excessive assignment, pressure to achieve high grades, anticipatory stress which is the anxiety and worry we students experience before test, exams and sometimes presentation, the funny part is that no matter how many times we do this we can never get over this particular stress . Because of time stress there is a lack of balance between our social life and academic life most of us presently all we know and think of is our academic work that we isolate ourselves trying to solve them rather than do something else.
The boy in the picture shows all this emotions but probably does not know how to communicate them, maybe fear from a failed homework, test exams, probably not a first time his being faced with such situation and thinking of how best to face his parent after so much warning from them. Have been there a lot of times, sometimes nobody to communicate this feelings to even if you do they don’t understand what your going through and don’t know how best to advice you, most times they have their own shit their going through then you feel you should go through yours. To all those going through this we are strong and I hope we get the best of everything we need.
