Health Center offers tips for fighting stress

Walking through the IU Health Center, it's hard to tell who is sick and who is just the sick patient's driver. All the students here are bedraggled, shuffling through the center's efficient system with baggy pajama pants, droopy shoulders and red-tipped noses. \nOne sniffling student smiles sheepishly when asked if she's sick because she has been working too hard on her schoolwork this week. \n"No -- I mean -- yeah," she said.\nStudents are gearing up for finals week, finishing last-minute assignments they were supposed to be working on all semester and pulling all-nighters to get everything done on time. This kind of havoc on college students' bodies often sends them straight from their last classes of the week to the health center.\n"We're just in a holding pattern," said Mary Jo Belcher, the acute care nurse.\nHealth Center Assistant Director Peter Grogg said the center gets busy in October and November, explaining that while it gets a steady average of 300 students per day, flu season can sometimes bring in twice as many people as usual. \n"So far, it's been pretty normal," he added.\nAnd normal for the health center means all sorts of cold symptoms. Nancy Macklin, director of nursing, calls these flu and cold bugs "winter illnesses," ranging from gastrointestinal to respiratory illnesses.\n"Some years we actually get influenza this time of year," she added. "Fortunately, this year we've had no influenza cases."\nWith so many tired, overworked and sick students passing through the health center's halls, Macklin said she always tells students, "College is not a healthy lifestyle."\nHowever, there are some tips to pulling through that last week of finals before heading home for the holidays and relaxing.\n• Simple, common sense rules like getting an adequate amount of sleep (at least six hours a night) and eating a balanced meal can easily keep students from getting too ill to finish their work.\n• Remembering basic rules of preventing illnesses, like washing hands, covering a cough, staying away from sick people and not smoking are good ways to keep yourself from catching your roommate's cold or passing one on to someone else, Macklin said. \n• Don't pull an all-nighter unless it's an absolute must. Remember that the more tired you get, the less productive the time spent on your work will be.\n"It's kindergarten stuff," she said. "But it's all scientifically based."\nFor those who aren't sick but are just stressed out from the amount of work they need to do, Macklin recommends taking it one day at a time. \n• Many of the same rules to staving off winter illnesses will also reduce stress. Eat well, and exercise if you have time. Go ahead, complain and commiserate with your friends -- that's a way of calming your nerves and reducing stress. \n• If you have a stress attack while working, take a 15-minute break and walk around your apartment, dorm or the library to clear your head. \n• Allow yourself some relaxation time, whether it be from getting a massage or manicure at a local spa or taking the afternoon off with friends to watch a movie. You'll be in a much better frame of mind when you return to your computer.\n• And for overstressed students, the health center has counselors available to talk with people about stress, offering methods of reducing it. "Health educators will meet for free with someone to talk about stress or anxiety," said Health and Wellness Office Coordinator Tracy Crowe. "We're typically the place to come"