Stressed OUT in school !!!!!!!!!!!!! any one else???

[Jax0408]

For some odd reason I came home the other day feeling overwhelmed. I couln't eat, coultn't sleep, I couldn't even concentrate on studying. I'm in a 2-yr program for RN. And this is probably week 6/7 and out of nowhere I freaked. I try to sleep at night and all I think about is Cranial nerves and going over them in my head. I feel so stressed out, they expect you to read 200 pgs a week write one or two papers and still have a family and worklife. I read all assignments but never get a chance to STUDy to actually learn. I guess I am done rambling just trying to make myself feel better.

Good luck to all Jax0408

[LydiaGreen]

One of my first year nursing instructors made sure that one of our first group assignments was not just about stress and its effects on the body but on STRESS RELIEF. There were many projects on some pretty weird stuff (new nursing students tend to go for the unusual at first). At the end of our presentations, the nursing instructor showed us how to use deep breathing to calm our minds. When I felt stressed to the max (and you will feel this way more than once - every single one of my classmates - myself included - had little emotional breakdowns now and then in the privacy of our own homes), I used this deep breathing and found that it works! School tends to overtake every moment of our lives, and not just while awake - you begin DREAMING about school and cranial nerves and IV sites and drug cards. It's unavoidable. What worked for me was designating Friday nights as family night and doing nothing school related - wouldn't even speak to my classmates on the telephone. We'd order pizza, watch a movie with the kids, tuck them in to bed for the night and then cuddle up on the sofa together and watch a movie for us. You need one sane night a week to deal with LIFE instead of school - if you don't have a family then go to dinner and a movie with the friends you had BEFORE nursing school so you don't spend the whole evening talking about SCHOOL. The deep breathing becomes useful at night when you can't sleep and your head is full of everything you have done and everything you haven't done and need to do but, darn it, you need SOME sleep. Breathe in, nice and deep and slow, let it out nice and slow. Repeat. Over and over again. Concentrate on listening to the sound of your breathing, feeling the expansion of your lungs and ribs. Everytime you start thinking, STOP and start concentrating on listening to your breathing again. If you are concentrating on listening, school will have a harder time making it into your thoughts. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I found that I was listening to my breathing one minute and sound asleep the next. It becomes easier each time you do it. I still use it as a stress reliever now to help me fall asleep when I can't stop thinking about work.