[This feature about stress burnout was created as an assignment in my journalism course. It is geared towards a reader new to the "culture of busyness," which is a millennial phenomenon].
The dreary winter quarter of the school year is ending, but this
does not mean Selenia Segura-Verdin, a third-year Environmental
Studies student at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
will drop all of her responsibilities. Finals are around the corner and
Segura-Verdin is busy keeping up with her three courses, work, and
weekly meetings for the Environmental Justice Alliance and
Geography Club.
Segura-Verdin has been this busy since freshman-year and noticed stress from her full schedule negatively impacted her well-being. From then onward, she now acknowledges her stress levels and meets with a psychologist at school to reduce her stress and better control her busy schedule.
“Stress inhibits my work,” Segura-Verdin said. “A lot of the times, I will lose my concentration. I will sit in front of my work for hours and not get anything done.”
Because she noticed stress decreased her motivation in schoolwork and exhausted her, Segura-Verdin is currently learning ways to cope with stress because she wants to achieve a satisfactory grade point average to participate in an environmental internship next year. Now that she reduces her
stress levels, she manages her busy schedule efficiently
and feels more confident about fulfilling her responsibilities
throughout the week.
A 2015 study by the American College Health Association
showed life stressors involving academics, personal issues,
and relationships among students correlated with mental
health issues, such as anxiety. As a result, students experience
academic burnout and face consequences, including a decrease
in motivation for schoolwork and poor grades. This academic burnout
is caused by the “busyness culture,” which emphasizes students’ need
to be busy with various aspects of their lives, such as academics and work.
Busy schedules seem to provide a sense of accomplishment for students, yet they increase stress and exhaustion. However, reducing stress levels and using coping mechanisms can help prevent academic burnout.
The Roots of the “Busyness Culture”
According to a 2016 study from the Journal of Consumer Research, people in America and across the globe are working longer hours, such as ten-hours compared to seven-hours daily, resulting in less leisure time. This obsession with productivity is a trend, known as “busyness culture.” Busyness upholds
on individuals’ need to be constantly productive to show they are doing everything they can to be successful in various
areas of their lives in the present and future.
As shown in the study, individuals are endlessly busy because
availability assumes a lack of favorable employee attributes, like
“competence” and “ambition.” Because the labor market considers
individuals possessing these attributes more suitable for jobs, people
overschedule their days with various commitments leading to problems,
such as lack of sleep or difficulty concentrating.
Because students go through high school preparing for college,
many of them also overschedule themselves with extracurriculars,
like music and sports while managing classes and other responsibilities.
When arriving to college, undergraduate students attempt to uphold
similar busy schedules and burden themselves with many tasks throughout
the day.
“Students share a history of being very involved and doing so much
in high school and they feel a pressure to be really involved,” Dr. Jessica Adams,
a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s (UCSB) Counseling
and Psychological Services (CAPS) concurred.
By elaborating further, Dr. Adams said it is challenging for undergraduate
college students to maintain similar levels of busyness at a university
compared to a high school because the work is more difficult.
From Busyness to Academic Burnout
Individuals’ persistent need to be busy to achieve success, which is
prevalent in undergraduate college students, causes increased levels
of stress and anxiety, leading to academic burnout. Academic burnout
includes experiencing negative attitudes towards academics and poor
performance in classes.
A 2014 study by the Journal of Active Learning in Higher Education
reported that life stresses, ranging from personal to academic, lead
to this type of burnout in college students. Among these stressors,
future development stress and academic stress were the biggest factors
contributing to it.
Future development stress takes a toll on college students because
they worry about their future careers, while achieving a degree, managing
extracurriculars, and working.
Emiria Henry, a second-year Psychological and Brain Sciences major at UCSB,
grew up in a family that valued productivity and emphasized success is achieved
through endless work.
During her first quarter at UCSB, she enrolled in three psychology courses,
worked two jobs, and participated in extracurriculars, like dancing. Yet, this
took a turn when she experienced burnout from her schedule.
“I was completely exhausted all the time. Completely burned out. I never
had time for myself,” Henry said.
Because of her busyness with different duties, she experienced negative
changes in her mental health and academics.
Henry said this left her physically and mentally drained. “The slightest things
could make me mad or upset due to lack of sleep,” Henry said. She was so
stressed that she lost focus in her academics and received poor grades for
her classes.
In a 2013 study by the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers reported
stress levels increase levels of cortisol resulting in decreased concentration,
which can explain Henry’s lack of academic motivation.
Similarly, Segura-Verdin struggled focusing on her schoolwork when her stress
levels rose. She felt overwhelmed with her work that she could not think about
any of her assignments. “I would just kinda give up at some points,” she said.
After Henry and Segura-Verdin noticed their plummeting grades, they said
they were burned out and decided to make changes to relieve the stresses
they experienced from school, work, and personal commitments.
Fighting Burnout
The Johns Hopkins Health Review suggests individuals can prevent burnout
by simply doing less tasks throughout the day. This helps people prioritize
important tasks, instead of overscheduling their already busy days.
Henry’s exhaustion led her to quit one of her jobs and cut out dancing,
one of her favorite extracurricular activities, to get some relief from her
overwhelming schedule.
According to a 2018 article by Harvard Medical School, students need
to address their mental health issues to learn to cope with stress. In
addition to taking personal steps, students can seek help and speak
with professionals about useful ways to combat stress and burnout.
At UCSB, CAPS provides students with the support they need to address
mental health issues, such as stress and anxiety, while also teaching them
coping mechanisms to decrease the prevalence of these issues.
Students in need of mental health support can go to CAPS for a brief
assessment, during which a certified therapist can identify the primary
concerns of the student. Students can then see a therapist for an in-take
appointment, where the student individually works with a therapist to learn
effective ways to overcome their struggles.
This is exactly what Segura-Verdin decided to do. She realized her third
year would end quickly and she wanted to learn how to cope with stress to
prevent burnout, so she could focus on her courses without feeling overwhelmed.
By using coping mechanisms, she hoped to overcome her struggles, so she could
improve her grades and participate in an internship that would benefit her future
career endeavors.
Dr. Adams noticed many students do not realize they may be exacerbating
their feelings of stress and anxiety by their thinking patterns and reactions to
life stressors, so she uses various techniques to help students fix this.
She uses a method called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which deals
with affect, behavior, and cognition. These three aspects help change one’s
feelings, behavior, and thought processes while experiencing stress and anxiety.
Besides CBT, Dr. Adams also encourages students to tend to “mental nutrients,” such as getting plenty of sleep. Dr. Adams goes over healthy habits with students and shows how they can feel refreshed when facing stress and burnout. Students may think of these steps as taking time away from their busy schedules, but this actually gives them the chance to relax and reduce stress.
Furthermore, the School Anxiety Program (SAP) at UCSB through the Mental Health Peer Program (MHPP) provides sessions for students experiencing mental health issues because of academic struggles. These sessions include meetings with a Mental Health Peer who helps students figure out what their issues are and teaches them strategies to reduce stress.
Techniques as simple as deep breathing, taking breaks
while studying, or even using a massage chair in the
MHPP Office can help reduce students’ mental and
emotional strain.
CAPS MHPP Coordinator, Samantha Bearman, and Mental
Health Specialist and MHPP supervisor, Gladys Koscak, said the
program specifically focuses on helping students reduce mental
health issues to reach academic success.
Because students are so engaged on campus and off campus,
they experience an increase in stress and anxiety. Students not
only have academics to tend to, but they also can find it difficult
adjusting to college, which creates more challenges in their
personal lives.
By addressing these struggles, students can prevent academic burnout
because life stressors can lead to lower attention spans, decreases in
concentration and motivation, and a lack of sleep, which prevent students
from achievement in their academic career and personal lives.
In addition to SAPS, the MHPP at UCSB offers plenty of online resources
for students, which emphasize how important it is for stressed-out students
on the edge of burnout to take a step back and do something they enjoy out
of their busy schedule to unwind.
Taking Time for Ourselves
Because busyness is emphasized in our society, individuals are endlessly
working to achieve success. Amongst these individuals are students who
get overwhelmed with their work and then face increased stress levels, leading
to academic burnout.
Although busyness seemingly never ends, since busy schedules may follow
individuals into their later lives and careers, it is important to note there are
ways to reduce stress and fight burnout.
The words of Dr. Adams could not be more true in that individuals need to
find a “dynamic” surrounding their daily activities and well-being, since burnout
can cause people to feel so exhausted to the point of giving up.
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