Coping with Stress
The inherent characteristics of medical school
listed earlier clearly lend themselves to
stimulating a stressful life for the medical
student. This potential is enhanced by the nat-
ural insecurity that a major new phase in life
can engender. Thus, a significant element
in achieving success by a medical student is
knowing how to cope with stress.
The ability to cope with stress is dependent
upon your personality as well as your
prior life experiences. Some people can
withstand very intense stress before they feel
the pressure, while others have a lower stress
tolerance threshold. Mastering the art of
coping with stress is essential in order to
succeed in medical school.
Coping with stress is also essential in helping
you maintain your health. Under
stress, your breathing becomes shallow and
uneven, your pulse speeds up, and your
senses sharpen. Consequently, a stressful day
frequently results in a feeling of tiredness.
Prolonged stress has been demonstrated to
contribute to headaches, skin rashes, or even
more serious illness such as ulcers and
asthma.
If you have any problems coping with stress,
you should seek information about
deep breathing, stretching, or regular aerobic
exercises that can help you control the
feelings generated by pressure. Consulting a
physician can also prove useful, especially
in severely stressful situations where
medication may be indicated.
At the very outset, it should be recognized
that, if you have been admitted to medical
school, you have already proven that you can
probably cope rather effectively with stress
induced by educational demands. A successful
premedical phase clearly included getting
superior grades in college, especially in the
science courses, as well as on the MCAT
exam, completing an application that was
impressive, and effectively facing the challenge
of admission interviews. These achievements
should serve to strongly reinforce your
sense of confidence in being able to cope with
stress while attending medical school.
The goal in coping with stress should be
twofold: (1) to control the extent of your
exposure to stressful situations; and (2) to
learn how to respond to stress.
The following seven suggestions may be useful
in coping with stress:
1. Maintain your health as optimally as
possible. This includes following an
appropriate diet and a suitable exercise
regimen.
2. Try to meet pending responsibilities one at
a time. Tasks and problems should
be prioritized and addressed accordingly. When
possible, subdivide large prob-
lems into small manageable tasks, which in turn
should also be solved in a pri-
oritized manner.
3. Utilize your time efficiently. This means
budgeting time in an appropriate man-
ner. Don't overextend yourself with an
excessive number of scheduled activi-
ties, or underestimate the time they may
require. Be flexible in meeting needed
changes in planned activities.
4. Realize that some stressful situations are
unavoidable. These include sched-
uled examinations, traffic delays, and so on.
Since you cannot exercise control
over certain potential stress-inducing
problems, try to accept them calmly and
matter-of-factly.
5. Find a wholesome outlet for stress and
frustrations. This can include participa-
tion in some sports activities, or the use of a
close friend to whom you can ver-
balize your frustrations and
fears.
6. Avoid situations that you know will be
stressful. Thus, if last-minute cramming
for an exam generates stress, schedule your
study time so that you are fully pre-
pared in advance of the test deadline and
therefore can avoid cramming.
Similarly, if getting to school is an erratic
experience time-wise, schedule an
adequate amount of time in order to avoid the
frustration and stress created by
the fear of arriving late.
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