141 140 Chapter Seven: What Faculty and Staff Can Do Chapter Seven: What Faculty and Staff Can Do HELPING STUDENTS TO IDENTIFY AND MANAGE OVERWHELMED STRESS HKUST is not alone in dealing with students with overwhelmed stress in pursuit of academic excellence. It is in fact common among many similarly competitive local and overseas universities. Over the past few years, we have tried to build a comprehensive approach and a caring campus culture to promote student mental well-being, to support students, to identify early if there are mental issues and to make early intervention. Not all stress is bad. Stress response can be enormously helpful. An adequate level of stress “Eustress” is important in our lives. We would become unmotivated and perhaps feel a lack of meaning in life without any stress. Some stress are even triggered by positive events such as acing an examination. It could be impairing if we do not strive for goals, overcome challenges or simply have a reason to wake up in the morning. Eustress is good for us. It keeps us healthy, happy, and motivated. Eustress can also enhance our efficiency and performance in our work and study. It helps us to perceive our stressors as challenges rather than threats. It stimulates us to handle those stressors without being overwhelmed. However, when there is too much stress, it drains our energy and inhibits our abilities to cope. One may experience both eustress and distress throughout the university years. When the stress is short-term, the hormone released in our body can help us function better and can even boost the immune system. But when stress persists and become chronic, it brings many health consequences. People under stress are prone to more frequent and severe viral infections, such as flu or common cold. When stress becomes chronic, it can cause wear and tear on your body and may lead to serious health problems, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, anxiety disorder, and other illnesses. Therefore, it is important to notice stress symptoms in our daily life and to cope with it proactively. Learning to cope with stress is not to expect a total elimination of the stressors from your life but to manage them effectively with healthy coping responses and strategies. To identify warning signs of distress, you may refer to Chapter 2. “Eustress is good for us. It keeps us healthy, happy, and motivated. Eustress can also enhance our efficiency and performance in our work and study.”
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