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?
You can read the
full article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4509544/
And you can also
add some of your own ideas if you want to.
Marta Silva
Hi everyone!
ResponderEliminarFirst of all, in order to reduce my stress levels I used to listen to music, draw and colour whatever comes to my mind, spend time with my family and friends. But, being sincere, nothing seems to be useful at exam period.
I don’t smoke and I´ve never taste it. But I definitely agree with the idea of a vicious cycle between stress and smoking. Once you taste it in order to relax, it becomes a routine and finally a necessity.
I usually have conciliation insomnia during exam period or traineeship and I am sure that it is due to stress and the burden of worries I accumulate during the day.
Perhaps this year has increased my stress level because it is the fourth year I have in college, I still have two years left at university and each time the level of demand is higher and the MIR is closer. But of course I do not have depression, I already knew what awaited me when I got into medicine.
About high stress levels in this degree ... Maybe it's because people we deal with put their lives in our hands or because a failure in hospital does not mean the same as a failure in a factory assembly line, without underestimating any job or career. In our case we not only manage money, we manage human lives too.
What? Hectic schedules? Not at all. We only spend most of the day in the hospital or classes and we have to juggle to get some hours to study. Yes, evidently they could be considered hectic schedules.
Raquel.
Hello!
ResponderEliminarMarta I think this is an exellent choice for the article since I think stress is becoming best friends with medicine students, unfortunately.
In order to answer your first question I have to say that my "controling stress routine" is different in my hometown than in Lleida. What really works for me the best is taking my three dogs for a very long walk through the mountains, just myself and my dogs walking and maybe sitting in a rock to observe the unbelivable landscape we have in front of us, and then when I get back home, I pet my cats and play a little bit of basket with my brother or talk with my parents or a friend. In Lleida I don't have my brother, or my parents or my pets so, what works for me (not as much as what I've said before) in order to relief stress is to walk with my headphones, very loud music and a little bit of jogging.
I don't smoke, so I don't know how it affects you, but for what the article says I do agree that it is a vicious circle.
Unfortunately I have cycles of insomnia and it is always when I feel more anxious, for example in exams periods or during clinical basement or when I have a lot of administrative task to do, or when it is all together. I can't sleep because I can't relax myself as I am constantly thinking in the important stuff I need to do.
I completely agree with what it says because for me this year is being my most stressful one. I think because you're in the middle of nowhere but fed up of everything. I mean you already know that this degree is not wonderland, you know how things work, but also it looks like it will never finish because there are two years left.
The high stress levels I think are due to, the extremely high requirments the degree and ourselves put in us, the constant feeling of not being good enough as we are working with people's health, the feeling of being in an endless degree...
Finally, I would say yes, our schedule are a hundred percent hectic, we barely have time for ourselves. I have tried to follow a schedule but for me it only works in exam periods because otherwise I tend not to follow it, and I get more stressed.
This article is a great decision, I think that is impossible to find a medical student (or other students with careers very demanding) without a dangerous level of stress. You think sometimes you are going to lost your mind!
ResponderEliminarI'm agree with all of you, there are a lot of activities you can do to reduce stress level. I suppose it's useful anything that you like, in my case reading a book or drawing, even some people say it's necessary to dedicate a day hour to do something you like, although you have more things to do. Smoking is related with this, it's a ritual, like a little free-time in a busy day.
About the fourth year like the most stressful for the students...I think it's true. You have been suppresed to a lot of stressful things without barely rest, as well as the degree demands more of your "soul" while you are making progress. There are too many things you must think about!
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarHi class!
ResponderEliminarFirst of all, I will explain you how I fight my stress out of my student routine life and how I keep my physical and emotional part in a good state. Both by trying to keep doing some essential activities in my life.
Every day I spend some time listening to music and walking around different places in Lleida city. Moreover, I watch one film or some TV series each day. And in extreme situations, when I am full of negative energy I give up all what I am doing and I go directly to Major Street. There are a lot more methods of keeping far from stress that I use in determinate situations like trying to take a slowly and regular breath, laid on my bed with my eyes closed and my mind in white. Neither of these methods involves smoking. So, as I am not a smoker, I can’t corroborate how it could affect on our stress levels. But, as it is said in the article, I totally agree that there is an extreme relationship between smoking and stress. It is a vicious cycle because when people are stressed they relax smoking but at the same time they create a response of tolerance to this drug, that means that, the next time they will have to smoke a huge number of cigarettes to get the same relaxing effect. Moreover the drug will decrease they natural level of stress tolerance making smokers more susceptible of having stress.
To conclude, in my opinion, we should try to achieve good methods and healthy habits to coping with stress. For example: activities, alimentation, relaxing techniques, study methods...and not resorting to drugs.
Noemí
17-4-17
Hello everyone!
ResponderEliminarIn my case, it’s very effective to exercise in order to decrease my stress levels. It makes me feel better and be more productive on my studies after doing it. For this reason, even in exams period, I try to exercise everyday.
In respect of smoking, I totally agree with the fact that smoking is a vicious cycle, the more you smoke, the more you need to do it in order to fight stress and the withdrawal syndrome derived from its consumption. Fortunately, I don’t smoke nor have sleeping problems like some other respondents of the study you have chosen. Even with that, I consider that trouble sleeping or insomnia is commonly suffered by stressed and worried people, as a symptom caused by the anxiety they have.
Regarding to stress levels in medical students, I guess that they are not only caused by our burden and hectic schedule (which is really chaotic and demanding), but also by how demanding is our degree. I believe that it’s also a determinant factor that we should take into account the typical medical student’s personality. Normally, medical students are perfectionists who require much of themselves and push themselves to the limit more frequently than students from other degrees. I think that people with that type of personality is more likely to suffer stress, anxiety or/and depression.
Finally, I have to say that it really surprises me that students in 4th year had the highest level of affective disorders related to their academic life. I thought that students in 5th year would be more stressed than the ones in the 4th one. I can’t understand why, but may be because students who are in 5th year have been more time under stress and know better how to manage it. Or maybe depends on the university or how much demanding are the different academic years.
Cheers!
Hello once again!
ResponderEliminarThis is a point which affects us very much, because we are almost all the year studing, and everyone has a few moments along the course with high stress levels.
In tobacco issue, I agree with Raquel. If someone starts taking something to reduce stress, maybe this fact can become in a vicious circle and he could not leave it. Besides, I also consider that every kind of exogenous substance which you can use for relax(benzodiazepines and other pills, some natural remedies…) has a high risk for follow this model.
In many degrees, and perhaps in medicine in which more, a peak performance is needed. This implies that if you not have the suitable mechanisms for disconnect private life of academic life, you could finish exhausted and with a high burnout level. In my case, some of these mechanisms would be go out, listen to music, sport… and we should not consider exams more than it really is, and if we do not pass an exam, we can try again.
As many of you have commented, we have four years in our backs, and in one hand we are a little tired, but in the other hand we have already four years of experience.
With this matter we could be hours talking because is an interesting issue. Cheer up! We are close to finish!
Hello everyone!
ResponderEliminarSuch an accurate item, Marta! While I was reading I didn´t know whether to laugh or cry! Well, asking to your question, I don´t really have a defined strategy, I use to go on the progress, but what I use to do to wind down is going out with my friends or my boyfriend, watching movies or some TV series and I sometimes practice yoga to relax too, although I´m not an expert no less. On the other hand, I do smoke and it is a fact that when I´m nervous I increase the number of cigarettes I think, but I also try not to do it, because I know that, due to its effects, it is a vicious cycle, as you said.
I don´t use to have problems to sleep, but some nights I start to think about university items and it´s impossible for me to sleep. Then, I take a chamomile infusion or a hot glass of milk, and read something. This way, it´s easier for me to fall sleep. So I truly believe it is due to stress.
The reason why year 4 is so stressful, is maybe due to the fact that the rest of academics are probably finishing their studies and we not. Another reason could be that it is far and near enough to have the time to think about our specialty choose and MIR. All that, may be related with the high levels of stress amongst medical students, added to clinical placements and the pressure of thinking that every mistake could be vital. Competitiveness plays an important role too.
Finally, of course I do think our schedules are hectic, nevertheless I think too that it is difficult to structure it better. Personally I don´t follow them every day, depending of different factors, for example the lack of time for lunch or sleep, which I think that are crucial to stay in medicine and work properly.
Stress is usually perceived in its negative terms, but it can manifest as having both positive and negative ways. Each passing year requires more and more from us, and if it wasn't from stress, we wouldn't be able to push the boundaries of our own capabilities. With each new challenge, we need stress that makes us do our best in order to achieve our objectives.
ResponderEliminarThis is a romantic way to put it, but this doesn't allways happen. There are certain situations that require too much from us and stress may become deleterious. I become quite overwhelmed in exam periods, and after several weeks of study I become anxious, tense, depressed; also, i feel that I am not as productive, i tend to be forgetful and i make more mistakes, and none of these really help when all you want is to hang on to as much information as you can.
I believe it is important for us to learn how to cope with stress now, because in the future we will also need this ability to manage the negative effects of stress in our emotional welbeing.