7 am: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!! Your alarm clock
goes off! Ugh! It’s painfully early, but you’re too numb to fight it. You try
to cover your ears with your pillow and block that obnoxious loud sound, but it
won’t go away no matter what you do. Finally you just face it: you have to get
out of your cozy nest and start your day.
7:30 am: You’ve just had a hot shower and you are
giving it your best to stay awake. The hot water against your skin does
wonders, but it can’t take away your tiredness; it helps palliating your lack
of energy, though. You wish you could just take a cold shower instead, but the
thought of it sends shivers down your spine.
7:45 am: Yummy! You used to love having a nice
breakfast, but now it is almost like a task. You start your coffee machine and
wait until it is ready. If only the smell of freshly brewed coffee could wake
you up faster! Coffee is just a blessing in disguise: you can’t live without it
and if you try you’ll fail miserably or feel a huge hangover. You just go
through with it in what seems to be a robotic motion: milk, coffee, cereal, a
cup of water and that’s it.
7:46 am: And… you’re late again. You have to
start running if you want to get to class on time. You know you actually tried
to be ready on time, but it looks as if each day it gets harder to get out of
bed. You drag your feet and try to run, but you’re not very fast. You know you
won’t get there on time anyway, but you still try it.
8 am: You start your classes. In the first
period you’re still awake and fresh as lettuce and you take your notes
frantically. During the second period you’re probably feeling overwhelmed
already: how much physiology and different yet so similar diseases can you
learn in an hour? Well, as a matter of fact you can learn almost 50 pages in an
hour during a lecture, so you try not to worry about it… yet.
10 am: Off you go to your clinical placement!
You know you’re going to be dead tired after this, but you also know that it is
very fulfilling and that you learn something new almost every second. So you
prepare your note book and you scrabble in your lab coat looking for a pen that
actually works. You listen to the doctor that’s teaching you, you go on and
listen to the patient’s complaints and in your head you start thinking about the
differential diagnosis and you try to guess what’s wrong at the top of a hat.
One of the best feelings in the world is when you’re right; you feel as if all
your hard work actually pays off and that you really are learning and becoming
a doctor step by step. You feel on top of the world for a brief moment.
10:05 am: Reality check: you really are
becoming a doctor! OMG you only have two more years to decide what to do with
(almost) your whole adult life. You start second guessing everything again:
“What if I’m not ready? What if I don’t know what to do?”. You breathe through
it and you think about everything you’ve accomplished so far: you should be so
incredibly proud of yourself! Actions speak louder than words and you have to
stay focused, so you know you have to keep up with the doctor and not think
about this right now.
2 pm: You’ve just finished your clinical
placement. You have about 30 minutes to eat lunch if you’re lucky enough. Then
you have 20 minutes to relax, 10 for your second coffee of the day and you have
to go to class again.
3-7 pm: From 3 to 7 pm life is just a big blur.
You try to stay focused in class yet you feel a bit under the weather. You know
you’re not listening when someone asks you “A penny for your thoughts?” and you
can’t answer. Perhaps you were thinking about something you’ve just learnt or
perhaps you were not thinking at all. You know you have to keep your sleepiness
at bay, even if it is easier said than done. Studying medicine is not a piece
of cake and if you’re juggling clinical placement and classes it gets even
harder. The bottom line is that everything is possible if you put your mind to
it.
8 pm: You’re home! Your bed is calling you
incessantly, but you know you have to go to the gym to clear your mind. You put
on your yoga pants and your snickers and you find the bit of energy that’s left
and leave your house running. You feel the breeze in your face as you’re
running towards the gym and you feel alive and happy. You feel the blood going
through your veins and your heart bit - lub-dub-lub-dub-lub-dub - and that’s
somehow relaxing.
9:30 pm: You’re home again! You have to cook
dinner, wash the dishes, do the laundry and all that comes with living by
yourself.
10:30 pm: You burn the midnight oil so that you do
all the work that’s required for your studies. You have group work, individual
work, homework, numerous deadlines to meet and on top of that you try to have a
social life. All of that from 10.30 up until midnight, because you know you
have to wake up again at 7 am tomorrow and you can’t risk missing some precious
minutes of sleep.
This is obviously a satire on
what would be our worst day ever. In fact, not all days are the same and not
all days are as busy as the one described above. This goes without saying that
everyday has some level of stress in it and that stress, anxiety and depression
go hand in hand amongst medical students. It is not that far-fetched to assume
that all of us have experienced this kind of stress and that some may have felt
anxious before a particular situation, for example before an exam or an oral
presentation or even shown some signs of depression.
Stress itself is not harmful; in
fact it is just the way our body responds to any kind of demand and it can be
caused either by a good or a bad experience. Stress can be physical (if you
experience fear or have to run from a dangerous situation) or emotional (if
you’re worrying over your job or your family problems, for example). Along
these lines, our body responds accordingly, affecting both our body and our
mind. When we think about stress in regards to medical students, we think about
the emotional consequences of being under large amounts of stress: we tend to
feel tired, sick and unable to think clearly, which is crucial while we’re
studying. It can also manifest itself through frequent headaches, dizziness and
panic attacks.
Anxiety can alter the way you
feel and behave and even manifest real physical symptoms. It usually is a state
of fear or worry when you’re confronted with something challenging, which can
be a test, as examination or an interview, for instance. Anxiety is a part of
our lives and is only considered a problem when it interferes with our ability
to function or sleep. It is a feeling of utter hopelessness that can greatly
interfere with our daily lives.
The reason why I’ve chosen this
article in particular is because I’ve always been very curious about how other
medical students deal with their daily levels of stress. Each and every one of
us has different coping mechanisms, and it would be interesting to know which are the
strategies that work best for you and what could be implemented in our lives in
order to make them a bit less stressful or more stress free and therefore prevent
anxiety and depression.
So, could you give me a hand
answering some of these questions?
. What strategies do you use to
decrease your stress levels? Do you go to the gym, to the cinema, go out with
your friends…?
. Do you smoke? – If you read
through the article you’ll find a relationship between stress and smoking. Do
you agree that it is a vicious cycle?
. Do you have trouble sleeping or insomnia? If
so, so you think that it may be due to your levels of stress?
. In this study it is said that students in year 4 had the highest level
of depression, anxiety, and stress. Can you think of any reasons why this may
happen?
. Why do you think
the baseline levels of stress are so high amongst medical students?
. “The students
perceive the course burden and hectic schedule as the most important reasons
underlying their high DASS-21 scores.” Would you say our schedules might be
considered hectic? Are you able to follow a study schedule in your everyday
life?
And you can also
add some of your own ideas if you want to.
Marta Silva
