Academic stress happens every semester—especially during midterms and finals week—but burnout is very different.
Academic stress vs. Burnout
The vital difference between academic stress and burnout is that academic stress occurs for a short time period.
A sense of urgency, anxiety, and hyperactivity are temporary because academic stress is caused by exams, projects, or that one daunting assignment that can make or break our grade in the class.
The stress-induced headaches or stomach aches go away too, and we begin to feel a wave of relief once it’s all over.
Burnout is a whole different story.
Burnout is a constant state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion for a long period of time. It’s not stress based on an assignment or exam but a build-up of stress that can cause lack of motivation or interest, increased irritability, anxiety, and more.
Burnout is a serious and overwhelming state that college students, especially those close to graduation, can find themselves in.
What else contributes to burnout?
Academic stress is a big factor in what leads college students to burnout but it isn’t the only one.
Scrolling on social media is another big one. It’s hard to avoid all the talk about politics and the world we seem to have found ourselves in. Though it might feel like mindless scrolling, it can be overwhelming to see all the news about everything going on right now.
Sometimes we have one bad day after another and it can feel endless. Maybe balancing our work, school, and social lives has become too much and the balance is lost. Not enough sleep or financial stress can be factors as well.
There are plenty of reasons for college students to feel burned out; how we manage that is what matters.
Avoiding burnout
There are a few different ways students can prevent burnout, but finding one that works can be hard.
Lack of motivation is the one that creeps up on me the most. I no longer find my assignments or readings interesting because I’m so overwhelmed with all of the material I need to learn in the span of a week. I get stress-induced headaches and feel tired almost all of the time.
At first, I tried sleeping earlier instead of staying up all night on my phone, but this didn’t work. I was exhausted mentally, not just physically. I needed to find a way to stay engaged, manage my time, and change my perspective in an attempt to lower my stress levels.
Sometimes this helped, but other times it didn’t. Nevertheless, I do everything I can to avoid burning out, including sleeping more, staying active, focusing on my goals, and taking time for myself.
Burnout can creep up on us and mask itself as normal academic stress because it has become normalized for students to be tired and overworked. Taking care of ourselves—physically, mentally, and emotionally—is more important and should be treated as such.