Sources of Stress

1) My major sources of stress are change and everyday hassles. Having to move from my home in Grand Bahama to the College Dorms in Nassau brought about a great change for me. I now have to share a bedroom and other facilities with strangers. I am not used to this type of living conditions. I basically have to survive on my own, whereas at home I had the support of family. An everyday hassle as well as a change that I have to face is walking to and from the college dorms, before I would get to where I have to go by car. Walking can be dangerous, especially at night due to a risk of being robbed or even knocked down. Another everyday hassle that I face is waking up late because of a lack of sleep caused by large amounts of homework and other assignments and distraction by dorm mates. I also lack focus and fall asleep in class because of the lack of sleep which causes me to miss vital information.

2) I have physical warning signs such as slow movement and body aches. The slow movement is shown in how long I would take to get out of bed and in how long I would take to walk to school. At times the aches are so severe that I would not even get out of bed. Instead I would go back to sleep resulting in me missing class. The long walk to school also causes me to miss class. As it relates to cognitive signs, I am unable to analyze work carefully because I am tired. As for behavior I am extremely irritated at times and may become frustrated with someone or something for the simplest reasons. This is severe because my roommates may think I am angry at them bringing about confusion.

3) I am actively and directly coping with these sources of stress. I am coping with having to live on the dorms through compromise. I realize that I cannot expect for things to be perfect in the dorms because they are inexpensive and it’s not my permanent home. I try to work along with my roommates to make things better; this has been effective at times. I am confronting the dangers of having to walk to and from the dorms by walking in groups when possible. In groups there is a lesser risk of being robbed, thus far it has been effective. At times I have confronted the problem of the lack of sleep by doing homework early in the day during breaks and avoiding procrastination as much as possible between classes but it has been ineffective because each night the distractions persists such as loud noises.

4) After reading the text, I now realize that at times I having been use the defense mechanism of displacement. Sometimes when I am angry over going to bed late or having a lot of homework, I would direct my anger towards someone else through arguing for petty reasons.

5) The lack of sleep certainly is a risky behavior. The lack of sleep also causes my reaction time to be slowed; this is risky because if danger arises I will be able to react in a timely manner to avoid serious injury or even death. For example a car may be speeding towards me but, I may not move quickly enough to get out of the way. Researchers have found that lacks of sleep causes numerous physical and psychological problems can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

6) I am not taking a comprehensive approach. I would start work early but would never finish it at that time. I would decide to go sleep early but I would find something else to do. The area that I need to address is procrastination. I procrastinate a whole lot.

7) If I get an assignment I would not start