Stress. It's a nasty word, even though it has five letters. If you are an incoming student at MSU, one of the things you will become most intimately involved with is stress.
But it doesn't have to be this way. There are a lot of campus resources (and community resources, for that matter) available to help you reduce your stress, enjoy the college experience, and still put forth your best effort.
Students are often juggling several different tasks at once: academics, social events, part-time employment, significant other, family responsibilities, etc. This juggling act can seem overwhelmingly difficult, and for some, it becomes unbearable.
You may begin to feel so burdened by these tasks that you start indulging in self-destructive or physically harmful activities to try to reduce that stress. Unfortunately, such behaviors, like drinking to excess (including weekend binging), smoking, abusing drugs (including the prescription ones), taking unnecessary risks, etc., can cause even more stress.
Just think, if you drink all weekend to escape the stress of a paper that's due on Monday, the paper won't go away and you won't be at your peak when you finally sit down Sunday night (with the hangover) to write it.
Likewise, taking risks such as reckless driving (or biking) won't decrease your stress. In fact, if you get a ticket, the only thing that will decrease is your bank balance. Campus and East Lansing police are not amused by recklessness, nor do they accept stress as an excuse.
We at OPHS value you and hope you will stop in to see us on a regular basis. We, too, can help you battle stress with suggestions, tutoring, and other strategies. Let us help you. Among the many other \hidden" handicaps, such as asthma, allergies, and various learning disabilities, brain injured students sometimes have difficulty convincing professors and other students that they, too, are handicapped.