Utah ranks among the most stressed states in the country, placing second nationally.
That’s according to an October study conducted by PlushCare, an online health and medical provider. The organization analyzed four million geotagged tweets from 340 major United States cities with a stress detection tool called TensiStrength, developed by Wolverhampton University.
PlushCare also looked at where education causes the most stress. In Utah, 43% of education-related tweets classified as stressed, compared to 48% in Montana, the leading state within the education dataset.
Graduate student Kelsie Strong said she can relate to stress stemming from school.
“Once I was in grad school, it was all over the place,” said Strong, who had at that time moved to Washington state. “I was stressed because I didn’t understand exactly what grad school was going to be about, and not understanding the ways in which the pandemic was going to affect that.”
Strong experienced stress as an undergraduate too, but said she didn’t recognize it as such at the time. In hindsight, Strong remembers bouts of depression and not wanting to do anything. But stress isn’t just mental or emotional, she said – it can also be physical.
“The stress of grad school is what hit my body the most,” Strong said. “Gray hair runs in my family, but it just spread like wildfire. I felt like every time I looked in the mirror I had like a new patch of gray hair.”
Strong lost a lot of weight as well, which she attributed to stressors from schoolwork. Strong coped with various activities – such as walking her dog, going on hikes, listening to music and cleaning, which Strong found therapeutic – but she said these strategies were only helpful in the short term.
At Salt Lake Community College, the Center for Health and Counseling offers counseling services to students experiencing depression, anxiety, trouble focusing in class and more.
Claudia Cioni, a licensed therapist at the center, estimated that 90% of the students she sees are struggling with issues related to stress and anxiety. If either of those go unchecked for too long, Cioni said, they can manifest physically.
“Usually, the stress I think we are referring to is the psychological one,” Cioni said. “A lot of people start to actually feel bodily symptoms.”
Those strategies mentioned by Strong – listening to music or going for a walk – are effective at managing stress, Cioni said, but she also pointed to an unassuming technique involving ice.
“There is a pretty easy technique where you take a handful of ice and close your hands. It’s likely going to be uncomfortable, but this physical thing is an attempt to take over the emotional pain or the excessive anxiety that you’re experiencing,” Cioni said.
However, Cioni maintains that professional counseling is the most effective method of dealing with high levels of strain. Cioni said the Center for Health and Counseling is discreet and does not share records with the college. Costs come in at $15 per therapy session, and the center also offers supplementary services such as massages.
Cioni said therapy is very much for the functioning human, and that students are already succeeding by pursuing higher education.
“It is a challenge, and with every challenge comes fear, courage, and you engage in growth,” Cioni said. “But for us to engage in courage, you have to modulate your fear … and as students, you are already a success.”
For more information about the Center for Health and Counseling, services the center offers, or to book an appointment, visit the SLCC website.
