Describe a stressful life event or a problem that you’re willing to have shared with the class later in the course.

write a one page paper: Describe a stressful life event or a problem that you’re willing to have shared with the class later in the course.

Juggling: Stress, Money, Family, and Work

Learning Outcomes

By the time you finish this chapter you will be able to

It had been a long day for Diana Michaels—and now, lying in bed, she couldn’t fall asleep.

The many stresses and worries of her day kept repeating in her mind. The babysitter she relied on to watch her children in the afternoon when she went to nursing classes had told her she wanted a raise. Diana, a single mother, wasn’t sure she could afford to pay more and still pay all the other bills: utilities, rent, car insurance, tuition, and the rest. Her paycheck from her job as an administrative assistant at a hospital was already stretched thin. And given that she worked full time and was going to college, she didn’t think she could find time to take on a new job or even additional shifts. Describe a stressful life event or a problem

Diana reassured herself that she could figure out a way to save a little more money. She told herself that at the moment what she really needed was sleep. She had to get up at 5:00 a.m. to exercise, then get her children to school, then go to work, then go to class. But all she could do was toss and turn, stressing about the many challenges she had to face in the morning.

Looking
Ahead

Do you ever feel like Diana? Do you ever stay awake wondering how you’ll meet the demands of family, bills, college, and work? Then you’re no stranger to stress. It’s something that all of us experience from time to time, but that college can often exacerbate. It isn’t easy to be a student on top of being a parent, a spouse, an employee, and so forth. Almost one-third of first-year college students report feeling frequently overwhelmed with all they need to do.¹

Coping with stress is one of the challenges that college students face. The many demands on your time can make you feel that you’ll never finish what needs to get done. This pressure produces wear and tear on your body and mind, and it’s easy to fall prey to ill health as a result. Describe a stressful life event or a problem

However, stress and poor health are not inevitable outcomes. In fact, by following simple guidelines and deciding to make health a conscious priority, you can maintain good physical and mental health. It’s not easy to balance the many responsibilities of study and work and family, but it is possible. Describe a stressful life event or a problem

Perhaps the greatest source of stress for college students, if not for most people in general, is money. Even under the best of circumstances, our finances present us with many challenges. But money stress is not inevitable either. This chapter will show you how to manage your money. It begins by discussing the process of preparing a budget and identifying your financial goals—the basis for money management. The chapter goes on to examine ways you can keep track of your spending and estimate your financial needs and resources, and discusses ways to control your spending habits and save money.

LO 10.1 Living with Stress

Stressed out? Tests, papers, job demands, family problems, volunteer activities…. It’s no surprise that these can produce stress. But it may be a surprise to know that so can graduating from college, starting your dream job, falling in love, getting married, and even winning the lottery. Describe a stressful life event or a problem

Stress

The physical and emotional response to events that threaten or challenge us.

Virtually anything —good or bad—is capable of producing stress if it presents us with a challenge. Stressis the physical and emotional response we have to events that threaten or challenge us. It is rooted in the primitive “fight or flight” response wired into all animals—human and nonhuman. You see it in cats, for instance, when confronted by a dog or other threat: Their backs go up, their fur stands on end, their eyes widen, and, ultimately, they either take off or attack. The challenge stimulating this revved-up response is called a stressor. For humans, stressors can range from a first date to losing our wallet to experiencing a tornado or hurricane. Describe a stressful life event or a problem

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