BBA-2A: Spring 2021

BIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT DUE

TO PROLONGED STRESS AMONG

STUDENTS

Group 1:

Fatima Kamran 20L-0001

Ayesha Haroon 20L-0078

Ayesha Nisar 20L-0007

Ahmed Rauf 20L-0009

Word count:
Farrukh Humair5553 20L-0026
Plagiarism: 6%

Submitted to:
Assistant Professor Raheela Tariq
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Contents
Acknowledgement:....................................................................................................................................3
Abstract:.....................................................................................................................................................3
Member Contribution:..............................................................................................................................5
Survey Method...........................................................................................................................................6
Procedure of survey research:..................................................................................................................7
Types of surveys:.......................................................................................................................................7
Online survey:............................................................................................................................................7
Procedure to conduct online survey:....................................................................................................8
Questionnaire survey:...........................................................................................................................8
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................10
Types of stress:.....................................................................................................................................11
Effects of stress:...................................................................................................................................13
Topic of the survey..................................................................................................................................17
Literature Review:...................................................................................................................................18
Statistical analysis....................................................................................................................................22
Discussion:................................................................................................................................................39
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................................39
Recommendations:..................................................................................................................................40
References:...............................................................................................................................................40
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Acknowledgment:

Miss Raheela Tariq, the course instructor, and an assistant professor are to be credited the most

as she has given us this opportunity to conduct this research. We would like to thank her for

constantly aiding us through the course of this research. The responders of our questionnaire are

secondly, the most important members of this research as they expanded our horizons by sharing

their valuable opinions and experiences. We are grateful for them and are much obliged.

Abstract:

This investigation communicates that there are various effects of stress on human beings,

especially students that are going through the immense workload, home issues, and other

personal/social issues. The investigation was coordinated to test out whether stress has any

effects on the mental and physical health of people or not. As per reports according to the health

organization, the majority of the students are facing stress-related issues like anxiety, agitation,

and frustration which is why we surveyed to acknowledge the condition of students that fall in

the age bracket of 17-26. A total of 50 people were targeted for this survey, both male and

female university students. The survey was in a questionnaire form where responders could

select the answer of their choice or answer the question themselves. Students from universities

like FAST, UMT, LUMS, and FCCU were targeted as they are the leading universities with a

hefty amount of workload, peer pressures, and exertion. Statistical analysis was carried out that

showed staggering results. More than half of the responders were suffering from stress the

majority of times and the rest, at a slightly lower frequency. Also, it was discovered that almost

3/4th of the people that responded were facing stress due to excessive workloads and
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examinations. If we come across stress management techniques (even though a lot of people had

this issue), only 17% of them took proper steps to manage stress. Most people depended upon

entertainment to reduce stress which is not a much viable option when you are suffering from

something affecting you physically and mentally. Schools, colleges, and universities should

PROVIDE stress management courses and HOLD workshops where students, staff, and faculty

members can lessen the burden. Furthermore, if the educational institutes are not paying enough

attention, parents/guardians should have a check on the mental and emotional balance of their

children especially when they become teens or reach the age of adulthood.
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Member Contribution:

Name Roll No. Survey Research Report Analysis Proof Reading

writing

Farrukh 20L-0026

Humair

Fatima Kamran 20L-0001

Ayesha Haroon 20L-0078

Ayesha Nisar 20L-0007

Survey Method
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A survey is a research method used for collecting data from a predefined group of respondents to

gain information and insights into various topics of interest. They can have multiple purposes,

and researchers can conduct it in many ways depending on the methodology chosen and the

study’s goal. Research is of extreme importance, and hence we need to understand the benefits of

social research for a target population using the right survey tool.

The data is usually obtained through the use of standardized procedures to ensure that each

respondent can answer the questions at a level playing field to avoid biased opinions that could

influence the outcome of the research or study. The process involves asking people for

information through a questionnaire, which can be either online or offline.

Advantages of survey method:

• Surveys can be led quicker and less expensive contrasted with different

techniques for essential information assortment like observation and experiment.

• Primary information gathered through studies is moderately simple to dissect.

• Disadvantages of survey method:

• In a few cases, reluctance or inability of respondents to give data.

• The human bias of respondents, for example, respondents providing incorrect

data.

• Differences in comprehension: it is hard to plan inquiries so that it will mean

precisely the same thing to every respondent.

The Procedure of Survey Research:

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1. Define the number of people in intrigue and decide the testing strategy

2. Define the exploration questions: What precisely would you like to know?

3. Will you control the overview instrument utilizing a composed, survey design or a

meeting design?

4. How will you oversee the review (online, up close, and personal, through the mail,

etcetera)?

5. What kind of inquiries would you say you will utilize?

Types of Surveys:

1. Interviews

2. Focus group

3. Panel sampling

4. Telephone survey

5. Mail-in survey

6. Kiosk survey

7. Online survey

Online Survey:

Online reviews are possibly one of the best overview strategies as they can be utilized by

anybody for pretty much anything, and are precisely constructed for a specific crowd. There are

numerous sorts of online reviews; they can be messaged straightforwardly to individuals, housed

on a site, or even publicized through Google Search. The web additionally makes it exceptionally

simple to contact an extremely broad crowd (yet similarly as simple to arrive at just a modest
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bunch of individuals), and that has been beneficial for organizations that need worldwide

reactions.

Procedure to Conduct Online Survey:

Step 1. Outline survey objectives and target cluster

Step 2. Draft survey queries

Step 3. Pilot and re-adjusting the form

Step 4. Choose respondents and therefore the knowledge assortment technique

Step 5. Run the survey

Step 6. Analyze the results

Questionnaire Survey:

It is a tool that permits you to get reviews about an item, an administration, or gather information

for research on account of an online review stage. Make polls on how you need to utilize an

overview programming and accomplish more noteworthy reach by rapidly sending them to your

intended interest group. Online polls permit the interaction to be compelling, as scientists can

contact a more extensive crowd and get the outcomes progressively, as well as gathering data for

better dynamic. Online surveys allow you to straightforwardly contact individuals whose

conclusions matter the most, however, just in the event of posing the correct inquiries. An all-

around planned arrangement of queries can help you slice through the commotion of likely

responses to furnish you with quantifiable reactions and significant patterns. Considered
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destinations and the consciousness of your intended interest group are the initial steps to plan a

more compelling web poll. A survey comprises of sample and population.

• Sample: A representative part or a single item from a larger whole or group, especially

when presented for inspection or shown.

• Population: A population is a distinct group of individuals, whether that group

comprises a nation or a group of people with a common characteristic.

Introduction:
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Stress is the body's customary protection against threat and hazard. It makes the body flood with

hormones that set up its system to stay away from or go facing hazards. People consistently

allude to this as the battle or flight instrument.

At the point when people face a test or danger, they have a halfway physical reaction. The body

enacts resources that assist individuals to face the test or get to safety as quick as could be

possible

The body produces bigger amounts of the synthetic compounds cortisol, epinephrine, and

norepinephrine. These trigger the actual responses like:

 Extended heartbeat

 Elevated muscle availability

 Sweating

 Readiness

These elements all improve an individual's capacity to react to a possibly dangerous or testing

circumstance. Norepinephrine and epinephrine likewise cause a quicker pulse.

Biological components that trigger this reaction are called stressors. Models incorporate

upheavals, powerfully direct, a rapidly moving vehicle, frightening scenes in movies, or

regardless, going out on a first date. Impressions of stress will overall increase with the number

of stressors.

Some of the stress symptoms that the majority of people experience are:

 Low energy.

 Muscle spasm
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 Headaches and body aches

 Ups and downs in sexual functions of the body

 Shortness of breath

 Difficulty breathing

 Muscle tension

 Nervousness and anxiety

Types of stress:

Other than two types of stress, Eustress (the good and positive) and Distress (negative stress).

There are three major stresses:

1) Acute stress

2) Episodic Acute Stress

3) Chronic stress

Acute stress:

The acute stress factor is the sort of pressure that frightens you right away. This is the sort of

pressure that goes on quickly and consistently, but doesn't continue to go unreasonably long, yet

requires a response and shakes you up to some degree, like a conflict with someone in your life,

or a test for which you don't feel acceptably orchestrated. Your body's pressing factor response is

set off with serious pressing factor, any way you can center it with fast loosening up strategies,

and a short time later re-visitation of your day feeling less centered around again. These pressing
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factor relievers can help you with loosening up and even more quickly recover from extreme

pressing factors.

Episodic acute stress:

Episodic acute stress is the term utilized when somebody encounters intense pressure with some

routineness or recurrence. There are a few reasons why this may occur:

 Taking on a lot obligation

 Being in an abnormally requesting position

 Being liable for a friend or family member with successive or huge troubles

 Misfortune

 Having relational troubles

 Tending to decipher circumstances catastrophically

Chronic stress:

Chronic stress is a drawn-out and consistent feeling of stress that can influence your wellbeing if

it goes untreated. It very well may be brought about by the ordinary pressing factors of family,

work, or by awful circumstances. Persistent pressure happens when the body encounters stressors

with such recurrence or power that the autonomic sensory system doesn't have a sufficient

opportunity to enact the unwinding reaction consistently. This implies that the body stays in a

steady condition of physiological energy. Types of chronic stress are emotional, environmental,

and relational, and workload stress.

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Effects of stress:

Physical (Biological):

1) Headaches/body-aches:

As the students experience different stages of stress at different times, it affects them differently.

However, aches are something almost everyone going through stressful experiences. They can be

minor aches or major aches. The minor aches are those that last usually for some hours and the

body recovers them after a good sleep. Other aches includes migraine, fibromyalgia, and

autoimmune disorders

2) Upset stomach:

Some students react to stress uniquely. What happens is that their IBS gets triggered when they

are under even little stress-causing immense and unbearable pain in their stomach. Diarrhea

kicks in when your stomach digests food in a disordered manner causing it to be watery or loose.

When the bowel moments become tough, one gets constipated. It is quite common among

students that whenever they are unable to handle stress, they start getting nausea and vomiting.

3) Ulcers:

Stress ulcers are now getting more and more common among the majority of students. They are a

result of physiological stress. Whenever they get stressed, their stomach releases too much acid

that causes acidity. And when the acidity increases to uncontrollable levels, it starts creating

pores on the surface of the stomach lining causing ulcers. Use of anti-inflammatory drugs or H.

pylori infection causes stress ulcers

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4) Insomnia:

A prolonged issue within students is sleep initiation, or commonly known as insomnia. It is a

medical condition in which you experience a sleeping disorder. It may be acute or chronic,

depending on your psychological condition. It varies from 1 to few nights a week or for a longer

time like 3 or more months. It happens when a student is constantly worried about something

that prevents them from falling asleep or when they are under a lot of pressure. Concerns about

work, assignments, deadlines, exams, and finances are the probable causes of insomnia.

5) Sexual desire disorder:

Stress has long-term effects also like sexual disorders. Even though it affects later in life, but it is

a serious issue that is discussed worldwide. When students start getting stressed, it causes them

anxiety. When they suffer from anxiety and stress, their brains are unable to send sexual need

signals to their reproductive part causing a disorder. Erectile dysfunction is common in men

nowadays. Sexual changes lead to behavioral changes also.

Mental (Psychological)

 Forgetfulness and disorganization

 Constant worrying

 Inability to focus

 Agitation, frustration and moodiness

 Avoiding others

6) Forgetfulness and disorganization:

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Forgetfulness as we can suggest by name is the failure to remember. When you go under

immense pressure constantly, it results in memory loss as you are unable to remember things

chronologically. Students for an instance have a lot over their heads to remember and learn.

Disorganization is also another curse to students as organization is the vital factor in success, but

unfortunately unfinished projects, piled up works, deadlines and degree issues cause

disorganization among students as it get out of control to manage everything at once

7) Constant worrying:

When students undergo emotionally or say mental stress, it triggers certain health problems.

These health problems affect students psychologically as they start getting worried about little

things in life that are of low importance or no importance. Flight or fight phenomenon is

triggered among students when they undergo excessive stress and worrying

8) Inability to focus:

Common signs of stress include the inability to concentrate. Students that experience insomnia as

discussed above are prone to not able to focus on multiple things in their life. Students start

facing a loss in appetite, experience sweating, and difficulty concentrating. As students suffer

from anxiety, their ability to focus decreases resulting in a lack of focus

9) Agitation, frustration and moodiness:

It is obvious that when you are mentally depressed you start getting anxious. This stage of

anxiety is called agitation. The next stage after getting anxious is an annoyance. The feeling of

getting upset prevails in your mind. And when you suffer from both agitation and frustration,
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you are most likely to get moody. As it happens with the majority of students. They start to have

their routines for almost everything just because of their mood swings that are caused by stress.

10) Avoiding others:

When you are stressed, you are most likely to start avoiding people. Because you are done with

yourself and tired of everything, and ultimately avoid interaction with people. This causes a

feeling of despair and depression. It is a common issue within hard-working students that they

become secretive and don’t interact much. This leads to issues like loneliness in the future.
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Topic of the survey

Effects of stress among students

Purpose:

The sole purpose of the survey was to know the stress condition among students and its causes

and effects on them. This could be only done by inquiring the students about what they are

suffering through when they are stressed.

Supposition:

Students of this ear are stressed at large and are being mentally/physically affected

Survey:

Our entire sample was obtained from leading universities in Lahore like FAST, LUMS, UMT,

and FCCU. We had a total of 50 respondents, each being able to answer 25 given questions in

our survey

Results:

As a result of the survey, an astonishing 98.1% of the respondents agreed that they were stressed.

Out of them, 56.6% were sure about their stress, 37.7% of them has stress under some conditions

while 3.8% were in between being stressed and not. And of the 50 people, 75.5% agreed that

they were stressed because of examination and excessive workload. Our main stance that

students of today are stressed was proved almost 100% right. All the information gathered from

the surveys was kept only to the report creators and was confidential.
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Literature Review:

Below are listed 4 types of research from which, 2 were done at the national level and the

remaining 2 were obtained from overseas:

a) Stress among students: An emerging issue:

Objective:

1. To understand the concept of stress and sources of stress affecting students.

2. To examine the signs and symptoms of stress; and the effects of stress on students.

Conclusion:

An attempt was made in this paper to review the literature on stress among the students and tried

to present the sources and symptoms of stress as well as the adverse effect of stress on students.

Stress is an inevitable phenomenon in all aspects of human life. Stress is a physiological and

psychological imbalance. It arises due to the demands of a person and that support.

Person’s inability to meet those demands. Stress may be negative or positive for an

individual, depending upon the strength and persistence of the stress, the individual's

personality, cognitive appraisal of the stress, and social

b) Investigating Stress and Sources of Stress Among Female Health

Profession Students in a Saudi University:

Background:

Health profession students experience tremendous levels of stress throughout their education.
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Methods:

Data was collected from 260 students in health profession programs in Saudi Arabia. The

Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) was used to collect the data from all second-,

third-, and fourth-year undergraduate students. Results: A high level of stress was observed in

42.7% of the students, and a moderate stress level was observed in 41.5% of the students. The

major source of stress experienced by students was related to the academic domain (mean=

2.7±0.73), followed by the group activity domain (mean= 2.1±0.91; p< 0.05). Second-year and

third-year students were significantly less likely to show high stress levels compared with fourth-

year students (AOR= 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1–0.8; p≤ 0.030 and AOR= 0.4; 95% CI: 0.1–0.5; p≤ 0.001,

respectively). High stress levels were not found to be associated with students’ age and academic

performance.

Conclusion:

Half of the students experienced high and severe levels of stress. Academic and group activity

domains were perceived as the major stressors.

c) Effect of Perceived Academic Stress on Students’ Performance:

Hypotheses:

To explore the effect of academic stress on students’ performance the following hypotheses

were formulated and tested.

 Academic stress will be higher in younger students than older students.

 Academic stress will be higher in less qualified students (junior students) than highly

qualified students (senior students).

 Academic stress will be higher among students at the end of the semester than at the

beginning of the semester.

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Method:

Sheldon Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983) is a measure of

the degree to which situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful. It has 10 items. It uses a 5

point rating scale ranging from “0” to “4”. 0 = Never, 1 = Almost Never, 2 = Sometimes, 3 =

Fairly Often, 4 = Very Often. Items 4, 5, 7, and 8 are reversed scored. The reliability of Sheldon

Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale according to different researchers is .78 (Cohen & Williamson,

1988), .89 (Roberti, Harrington & Storch, 2006) and.83 (Gonzalez & Ladero, 2007).

Sample:

The sample consists of 150 university students, purposively selected from different universities

located in Islamabad

Procedure:

The data was collected by administering the scale in a group to the student participants. The

respondents were instructed to complete the scale by giving a response to every item of the scale.

Informed consent was taken and all the respondents were assured that the data would be kept

confidential. Their percentages of the previous semester’s exam were taken as a measure of

academic performance. After getting data, scoring and analysis were done.

d) Prevalence of Depression, Anxiety And Stress Among University Students In Sialkot

Objective:

The main objective of the present study was to explore the frequency of depression, anxiety, and

stress among university students in Sialkot, Pakistan.

.Method:

The Survey research method was used to collect data from three universities of Sialkot by using

a simple random sampling technique from 500 university students. The study was conducted at
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GC Women University, Sialkot for a total duration of five months from February 2019 to June

2019. A demographic sheet and DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety Stress Scale) were used to

measure the level of depression, anxiety, and stress.

Results:

The means of Depression, Anxiety, and stress are M=15.08, M=18.24, and M=19.02

respectively. The frequency of depression, anxiety, and stress among university students was

found 75%, 88.4%, and 84.4% respectively. Findings of the study showed the prevalence of

Depression within the range of normal (25%), mild (16%), moderate (35.8%), severe (14.6%),

and extremely severe (8.6%). The prevalence of anxiety was found to be in the range of normal

(11.6%), mild (4.4%), moderate (19.4%), severe normal (15.6%), mild (33.8%), moderate

(35.4%), severe (13.2%) and extremely severe (2.8%)

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Statistical analysis:

1. Saba Asif1, Ask Mudassar2, Talala

Zainab Shahzad3,
2. Mobeen Raouf4, Tehmina Pervai
When asked what grade they were studying in, all 53 responders (100%) answered university.

A total of 53 responses were recorded for the survey, out of which, a total of 27 people (50.9 %)

belonged to the age range of 20-22, 24 people (45.3%) in the age range of 17-19, 1 person

(1.9%) in the age range of 23-25, and only 1 person (1.9%) was 26 and above. As seen from the
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pie chart, the highest percentage in the age bracket suffering from stress is 50.9% from the 20 -

22 age range.

When asked what grade they were studying in, all 53 responders (100%) answered university.

“Have you been stressed out lately?”, an overwhelming majority of 30 responders (56.6%)

answered a yes. 20 responders (37.7%) stated that it depended on the situation itself. 2

responders (3.8%) expressed uncertainty and answered with a maybe while just 1 responder

(1.9%) declined to feel any stress.

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We asked them the question, “How regularly do you have a hard time feeling relaxed?” and the

highest frequency of responses turned out to be “often” from 23 people (43.4%). About 16

responders (30.2%) answered with a ‘‘sometimes’’. 9 responders (17%) stated that they rarely

have a hard time relaxing, 4 responders (7.5%) admitted that they always have a hard time

relaxing, and just 1 responder (1.9%) denied having any difficulty in relaxing. Only 12

responders (22.6%) answered not being able to share when they are feeling stressed out. 19

people (35.8%) answered sharing their condition sometimes to anyone and the highest number of

responders at 22 (41.5%) answered being unable to confess when they felt stressed out.

Only 12 responders (22.6%) answered not being able to share when they are feeling stressed out.

19 people (35.8%) answered sharing their condition sometimes to anyone and the highest

number of responders at 22 (41.5%) answered being unable to confess when they felt stressed

out.
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“Do you not feel like enjoying your life when you are stressed?” We asked this question, and a

formidable amount of people opted for the option “Yes” from 36 people (67.9%) which is the

highest percentage from the pie chart. A tie was observed between “Sometimes” and “Maybe”

from 6 responders each (11.3%). While only 5 responders (9.4%) answered “No” to the question.
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23 people (43.4%) admitted that they got fed up with every little offset happening around them.

14 responders (26.4%) acknowledged feeling that way usually, while 6 responders (11.3%)

chalked it up to feeling this way a lot. 10 responders (18.9%) responded non-affirmative to the

question.

When it came to feeling agitation, 20 responders (37.7%) said yes to this question while 22

responders (41.5%) responded that they felt agitated often. 10 people (18.9%) replied not feeling

agitated and only 1 person responded to always feeling that way.

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We wanted to keep exploring how the responders felt psychologically, so we asked them how

often they felt down, depressed or hopeless. 22 people (41.5%) replied feeling exactly like what

we asked for a few days but less than a week. Furthermore, about 17 takers of the questionnaire

(32.1%) acknowledged having this feeling over a long time. 9 people (17%) felt this way for

over a week but only 5 people answered, ‘’not at all” to the question.

We also asked them how often they felt bothered being unable to control their thoughts and

worries. 18 responders (34%) recognized this feeling to be over a long period while 15

responders (28.3%) replied that they felt this way for a few days but less than a week. At a

higher level, 11 responders (20.8%) felt bothered about this over a week while a meager amount

of 9 responders (17%) admitted not feeling disturbed by their worries.

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While observing the effects of stress, we also felt curious in learning how many people were

beyond a manageable level of coping with stress, so we asked them how often they resorted to

overthinking and started getting negative thoughts. 23 takers (43.4%), the highest percentage

replied that they did both at times. Closely behind this, 20 people (37.7%) made use of both

actions all the time and was almost more than a double value to people who never did both of

these (7 people making up 13.2% of the entire chart). 3 people sought the middle ground and

replied that they did both of these sometimes.

We also asked in the questionnaire, if they felt that the difficulties were piling up so high to the

point where it felt they couldn’t be overcome, and about half of the takers (27 people making up

50.9%) replied that they often felt this way. About 18 people(34%) responded sometimes to the

question, while 6 people (11.3%) replied almost never and only 2 people (3.8%) responded they

never felt this way.

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When asked about their ability to concentrate while they were stressed, 21 people (39.6%)

responded that they sometimes had difficulty in concentrating while 14 participants (26.4%)

leaned to a higher frequency and responded that they often faced difficulty concentrating. 11

people (20.8%) felt like they rarely experienced any difficulty in concentrating and 7 people

(13.2%) admitted always facing problem in maintaining concentration with their current task/job.

While exploring the link between self-esteem and stress for this question, we found that about 22

responders (41.5%) admitted to losing their self-esteem when dealing with stress-related issues.

15 responders (28.3%) felt that they rarely lost their self-esteem when facing a stressful issue, 10

responders (18.9%) experienced loss in self-esteem completely when handling stressful

situations and just 6 people (11.3%) making up the smallest value in the responses, answered that
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that they were strong enough and resilient to manage through stressful situations without losing

their self-esteem.

When asking if they ever had suicidal thoughts when overburdened severely, the highest number

of responders, comprising 18 people (34%) answered negatively to this question. 15 responders

(28.3%) confessed to feeling this way rarely, while 11 responders (20.8%) had suicidal thoughts

at a slightly greater frequency and responding to this question with “sometimes”. 9 responders

(17%) admitted to having suicidal thoughts due to crushing amounts of stress.

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Moving on to the exploration of physical effects when dealing with stress, first of all, we asked

people whether they were able to get a good night’s sleep without worrying about work. 21

responders (39.6%) responded that they were rarely able to get a good sleep. 18 people (34%)

replied that they were able to sometimes get a good night’s sleep without worrying about work.

11 responders stated that most of the time they could sleep well without worries while only 3

people (5.7%) stated that they can never get a good sleep without worrying about work.
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“Do you feel nauseous when you are stressed?” The question received the highest response as

“No” with 24 responders (45.3%). 16 people(30.2%) responded with “sometimes” and 13 people

(24.5%) responded with an affirmative.

When asking about experiencing an increase in muscular aches while undergoing stress, 19

responders (35.8%) experienced this “often” while 18 people (34%) replied that they rarely went

through this. 10 people (18.9%) said that they never experienced an increased amount of

muscular aches. 6 people (11.3%) responded “always’’ from muscular aches from stress.
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24 responders (45.3%), making up the highest number of responders, stated that they sometimes

got headaches, eye-pain as well impaired vision. 17 people (32.1%) admitted to having these

symptoms most of the time while a tie was observed between feeling these signs “rarely” and

‘’never’’ with 6 responders each (11.3%).

After ascertaining the psychological and physical effects of stress, we wanted to comprehend

what exactly the source of their stress was. More than half of the responders, 29 in number

(54.7%) deemed the source to be the excessive workload. 11 people (20.8%) recognized their

source of stress to be examinations, while 10 people (18.9%) admitted to feeling stressed out

from home-related issues. 1 responders from each of the three remaining categories in the pie
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chart (making up 1.9% each) replied that they were feeling stress from health-centered issues or

feeling offense from someone or something, expressed uncertainty that it mostly depended on the

situation itself, and the

remaining responder considered their source to be personal.

We also wanted to discern what techniques our responders opted for to deal with stress. 32

responders, more than half of our sample size, (60.4%) answered their stress management

techniques to be home remedies. 5 responders (9.4%) answered ‘medications’ and 4 responders

(7.5%) admitted to seeking help from a psychologist/psychiatrist. 3 people (5.7%) made use of

positive thinking during difficult times and 2 people started working out in gyms to reduce stress.
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The remaining 7 responders each (making up 1.9% individually) replied with the following:

Sleeping or talking it out with friends, sharing their problems with someone close, indulging in

painting, keeping a journal, managing time efficiently to avoid inviting negative thoughts,

applying psychological methods on themselves and lastly not having a stress management

technique at all.

For a better understanding of our responders, we asked a few questions more. The first of them

was “which activities you get involved infrequently.” The highest amount of response, having

more than half of the amount at 28 (making up 52.8%) answered indulging in entertainment and

enjoying music. 22 people (41.5%) answered that they preferred resting. 16 people(30.2%)

preferred hanging out with someone in their circle of friends and 13 people (24.5%) enjoyed

spending time with their family. 3 people (5.7%) made use of yoga/meditation and 2 people

(3.8%) enjoyed gaming.

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Moving on, we asked their opinion about whether they thought that stress was something among

the people belonging to the age range of 18-26. The highest amount of response turned out to be

a “yes” from 35 people (66%). Only 9 people (17%) answered that they usually see people

stressed at this and 8 people responded that they observed a lot of people stressed out at that age

range. 1 person (1.9%) said that they don’t think stress is common at that age range.

We then asked if they had observed anyone taking stress recently and the highest amount of

response was “parents” from 19 people (35.8%). The next common response was “siblings” from

13 people (24.5%) and then 8 people responded with Uncle/aunt (15.1%). A tie was observed

between two categories where 2 responders each (making up 3.8%) said that they either observed

stress in their cousins or no one at all. The next tie was observed in 9 following responses: that
 Page 36

they did not know, they could not disclose, their grandparents, classmates, neighbors, mother,

someone else in their family, a friend or lastly a maid/servant with 1 response each (making up

1.9% individually).

The last question was left open-ended for our responders. We asked them how they would

personally define stress. The most common answer from them was “a state when you are

completely drained and just want to relax” from 3 people (5.7%). A tie was found in 4

descriptions of stress as the following definitions from 2 people (3.8%) each : ‘a dominant

emotion that kills the other feelings”, “pressure”, “unable to cope up with completing the basic

tasks”, “when a person looses themselves and finds trouble doing anything under pressure”. 42

responses coming from 1 person each (1.9%) defined stress as the following : “the feeling that

you have when you have less control over an unexpected situation”, “an intense feeling of

depression”, “anxiety, depression and sadness accumulating” , “any work or thought of doing a

task that makes you mentally ill”, “anything feeling like a burden and you are not up to doing”,

“being mentally, emotionally or physically drained and experiencing frequent anxiety or pain”,
 Page 37

“being in a constant state of tension”, “being overburdened”, “burdening thoughts or frequent

pressure”, “feeling hopelessness” , “stress having different definitions but personally feeling that

it is a body’s response to a different or unused to situation”, “a situation of being unable to

control your thoughts and feeling nauseous from it”, “ a negative state of mind” , “feeling

constantly pushed down’’, “losing yourself”, “overburdening yourself with thoughts”, “reaction

to dealing with something negative”, “feeling of emotional or physical tension’’, “feeling of

frustration or anger from a situation”, “a state that can harm a person physically or mentally”,

“anything that can make you lose your state of calmness”, “a basic reaction of your body to a

tough situation”, “body’s response from pressure”, “feeling emotional or physical tension”,

“anything that ruins your mood”, “affects our mental health greatly”, “something we feel when

trying anything new or unexpected”, “when we have little to no control over something”,

“something that you have to let in at times”, “piling up of anxiety”, “it is difficult to explain but

easy to attain”, “when you’re forced to do something you do not want to”, “tension of being

unable to do anything’’, “things closing in on you due to lack of time”, “mental occurrence after

a negative event”, “something that decreases a person’s performance”, “an overwhelming

situation”, “state of psychological tension” and “a huge gap in what you are expected to do and

what you can actually do”

 Page 38

Participant Individual number Individual number

Number %
FOR MAYBE AGAINST FOR MAYBE AGAINST
1 15 1 2 83.3% 5.6% 11.1%

2 4 8 6 22.2% 44.4% 33.4%

3 10 3 5 55.5% 16.7% 27.8%

4 6 4 8 33.3% 22.2% 44.5%

5 9 5 4 50% 27.8% 22.2%

6 7 5 6 38.9% 27.8% 33.3%

7 8 5 5 44.4% 27.8% 27.8%

8 5 8 5 27.8% 44.4% 27.8%

9 5 7 6 27.8% 33.9% 33.4%

10 5 9 4 27.8% 50% 22.2%

11 10 8 0 55.5% 44.5% 0%

12 10 3 5 55.5% 16.7% 27.8%

13 7 5 6 38.9% 27.8% 33.3%

14 13 1 4 72.2% 5.6% 22.2%

15 6 11 1 33.3% 61.1% 5.6%

16 11 3 4 61.1% 16.7% 22.2%

17 7 5 6 38.9% 27.8% 33.3%

18 2 5 11 11.1% 27.8% 61.1%

19 4 6 8 22.2% 33.3% 44.5%

20 8 5 5 44.4% 27.8% 27.8%

21 10 5 3 55.5% 27.8% 16.7%

22 8 7 3 44.4% 38.9% 16.7%

23 7 7 4 38.9% 38.9% 22.2%

24 6 10 2 33.3% 55.6% 11.1%

25 11 5 2 61.1% 27.8% 11.1%

 Page 39

26 10 3 5 55.5% 16.7% 27.8%

27 5 4 9 27.8% 22.2% 50%

28 5 7 6 27.8% 38.9% 33.3%

29 6 3 9 33.3% 16.7% 50%

30 12 4 2 66.7% 22.2% 11.1%

31 8 7 3 44.4% 38.9% 16.7%

32 10 3 5 55.5% 16.7% 27.8%

33 6 6 6 33.3% 33.3% 33.3%

34 4 8 6 22.2% 44.4% 33.3%

35 7 9 2 38.9% 50% 11.1%

36 8 9 1 44.4% 50% 5.6%

37 10 4 4 55.6% 22.2% 22.2%

38 4 5 9 22.2% 27.8% 50%

39 11 6 1 61.1% 33.3% 5.6%

40 10 5 3 55.6% 27.8% 16.6%

41 14 2 2 77.8% 11.1% 11.1%

42 5 9 4 27.8% 50% 22.2%

43 12 5 1 66.6% 27.8% 5.6%

44 2 5 11 11.1% 27.8% 61.1%

45 5 9 4 27.8% 50% 22.2%

46 13 1 4 72.2% 5.6% 22.2%

47 15 0 3 83.3% 0% 16.7%

48 11 4 3 61.1% 22.2% 16.7%

49 9 4 5 50% 22.2% 27.8%

50 9 7 2 50% 38.9% 11.1%

51 13 3 2 72.2% 16.7% 11.1%

52 2 7 9 11.1% 38.9% 50%

 Page 40

53 5 7 6 27.8% 38.9% 33.3%

Total 423 287 232

Percentage 44.90% 30.47% 24.63%

Discussion:

The objective of our survey was to know about the condition and effects of stress among

university students. As the data could have become very large and difficult to handle, therefore

we opted for a closed-end question survey that would help us gather and collect data and keep it

precise. Thus we made a questionnaire containing 25 questions and a sample of 50 respondents

was targeted. The survey was precisely sent to major universities like LUMS, FAST, UET, and

FCCU (A chartered university). We obtained results that we were hoping for and are discussed in

the conclusion.

Conclusion:

As a conclusion that we got from the survey, we found out that majority of students were

suffering from some type of stress. They all agreed with the fact that stress had physical and

psychological effects on them. 100% of the sample was targeted for university students, and the

majority out of them agreed that they were having stress because of examination and due to

excessive workload. Such a curse of stress was not only imposed because of work-related issues

but also family and friends-related problems caused stress. Students that are an asset to some

nation or an institution for that matter were not getting proper treatment for stress. The majority
 Page 41

of them were on their own when it came to treatment as they opted for home remedies.

Unfortunately, universities don’t tend to offer stress workshops where the student could come

and learn different methods and techniques to fight stress and eventually eradicate it. Many

students had physical effects of stress as they felt nauseous and headaches for a short and

prolonged time. Some of them were having psychological issues like being disturbed, not being

able to focus on work, or feeling alone and despaired.

Recommendations:

First of all, at the very start, it is the responsibility of the educational institute where the student

is pursuing their academic careers, to look after the mental health of students. Because they are

the ones to indirectly disturb students by loading excessive work on students. The government

should have a check and balance that the courses being provided at the universities are bearable

for the students and are not difficult for them

After universities and government, parents or guardians of the student must keep an eye on the

behavior of a student to be aware of their mental status.

Students should be given proper education to manage stress. If they aren’t provided with

education, counseling institutes should start awareness campaigns to help the students

References:

1) researchgate.net/publication/

332037428_Prevalence_Of_Depression_Anxiety_And_Stress_Among_University_Stude

nts_In_Sialkot_Pakistan
 Page 42

2) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

334835276_Stress_among_students_An_emerging_issue

3) http://sbbwu.edu.pk/journal/FWU%20Journal%20Vol.7,%20No.2/6.%20EFFECT

%20OF%20PERCIEVED%20ACADEMIC-1.pdf

4) https://www.dovepress.com/front_end/cr_data/cache/pdf/

download_1619629428_60899574e797c/jmdh-255781-investigating-stress-and-sources-

of-stress-among-female-heal.pdf

Survey:

1) Your age bracket: 

a) 17-19
b) 20-22
c) 23-25
d) 26 and above

2) What grade do you study in? 

a) Matriculation
b) Intermediate
c) O/A Level
d) University

3) Have you been stressful lately? 

a) Yes
b) No
c) Maybe
d) Depends on certain situations I face
 Page 43

4) How often do you have a hard time feeling relaxed? 

a) Always
b) Often
c) Sometimes
d) Rarely
e) Never

5) Do you tend to share your condition with anyone? 

a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes

6) Do you not feel like enjoying your life when you are stressed? 
a) Yes
b) No
c) Maybe
d) Sometimes

7) Do you get fed up with little things happening offset around you? 
a) Yes
b) No
c) A lot
d) Usually

8) Do you feel agitated? 

a) Yes
b) No
c) Often
d) Always

9) How often have you felt down, depressed, or hopeless? 

a) Not at all
b) For a few days but less than a week
c) Over a week
d) Over a long period of time
 Page 44

10) How often have you been bothered by being unable to control your thoughts or worries?  
a) Not at all
b) For a few days but less than a week
c) Over a week
d) Over a long period of time

11) I always get a good sleep without worrying about work 

a) Most of the time
b) Sometimes
c) Rarely
d) Never

12) Why do you feel stressed out? 

a) Excessive workload
b) Examination
c) Home-related issues
d) Other:

13) Felt difficulties were piling up so high that you could not overcome them?  
a) Very Often
b) Sometimes
c) Almost Never
d) Never

14) Do you find it difficult to concentrate on the job/task in front of you? 

a) Rarely
b) Sometime
c) Often
d) Always

15) Do you start overthinking or start getting negative thoughts? 

a) All the time
b) At time
c) Never
 Page 45

d) Sometimes

16) Do you feel nauseous when you are stressed? 

a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes

17) Do you lose self-esteem when you face stress-related issues? 

a) I lose myself completely
b) Sometime
c) Rarely
d) Never, I'm strong

18) Do you get suicidal thoughts when you are overburdened to your limits? 
a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes
d) Never

19) Do you feel an increase in muscular aches? 

a) All the time
b) Often
c) Rarely
d) Never

20) Do you get headaches, eye pain, or impaired vision? 

a) Most of the time
b) Sometime
c) Rarely
d) Never

21) Have you ever opted for stress management techniques? 

a) Medication
b) Psychologist/Psychiatrist
c) Home remedies
 Page 46

d) Other:

22) Which activities you get involved infrequently? 

a) Spending family time
b) Yoga/Meditation
c) Entertainment/Music
d) Taking rest
e) Hangouts
f) Other:

23) Do you think stress is common in people that are between 18-26 years of age? 
a) Yes
b) No
c) Usually, I see people stressed at this age
d) I see a lot of people stressed at this age

24) Do you have someone tackling stress in your family? 

a) Parents
b) Siblings
c) Uncle/Aunt
d) Other:

25) Can you define stress? 

 Page 47

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BIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT DUE TO PROLONGED STRESS AMONG
STUDENT by Farrukh Humair
From General (General)
 Processed on 05-May-2021 09:01 PKT
 ID: 1578385567
 Word Count: 4106

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https://hypnosisminds.com/chronic-stress/
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Submitted to Wawasan Open University on 2020-12-06

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2017-2018/html/24.html

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Submitted to North Park University on 2020-10-26
 Page 48

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Submitted to Murray State University on 2017-12-04

Paper text:
BIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT DUE TO PROLONGED STRESS AMONG STUDENT
3Page 1 Introduction: Stress is the body's customary protection against threat and hazard. It
makes the body flood with hormones that set up its system to stay away from or go facing
hazards. People consistently allude to this as the battle or flight instrument. At the point when
people face a test or danger, they have a halfway physical reaction. The body enacts resources
that assist individuals to face the test or get to safety as quick as could really be possible The
body produces bigger amounts of the synthetic compounds cortisol, epinephrine, and
norepinephrine. These trigger the actual responses like: ? Extended heartbeat ? Elevated muscle
availability ? Sweating Page 2 ? Readiness These elements all improve an individual's capacity
to react to a possibly dangerous or testing circumstance. Norepinephrine and epinephrine
likewise cause a quicker pulse. Biological components that trigger this reaction are called
stressors. Models incorporate upheavals, powerfully direct, a rapidly moving vehicle, frightening
scenes in movies, or regardless, going out on a first date. Impressions of stress will overall
increase with the number of stressors. Some of the stress symptoms that majority of people
experience are: ? Low energy. ? Muscle spasm ? Headaches and body aches ? Ups and downs in
sexual functions of the body ? Shortness of breath ? Difficulty breathing ? Muscle tension ?
Nervousness and anxiety Types of stress: Other than two types of stress, Eustress (the good and
positive) and the Distress (negative stress). There are three major stresses: 1) Acute stress 2)
Episodic Acute Stress 3) Chronic stress Page 3 Acute stress: The acute stress factor is the sort of
pressure that frightens you right away. This is the sort of pressure that goes on quickly and
consistently, but doesn't continue to go unreasonably long, yet requires a response and shakes
you up to some degree, like a conflict with someone in your life, or a test for which you don't
feel acceptably orchestrated. Your body's pressing factor response is set off with serious pressing
factor, anyway you can center it with fast loosening up strategies, and a short time later re-
visitation of your day feeling less centered around again. These pressing factor relievers can help
you with loosening up and even more quickly recover from extreme pressing factor. Episodic
acute stress: Episodic acute stress is the term utilized when somebody encounters intense
pressure with some routineness or recurrence. There are a few reasons why this may occur: ?
Taking on a lot obligation ? Being in an abnormally requesting position ? Being liable for a
friend or family member with successive or huge troubles ? Misfortune ? Having relational
troubles ? Tending to decipher circumstances catastrophically Chronic stress: Page 4 Chronic
stress is a drawn out and consistent feeling of stress that can influence your wellbeing in the
 Page 49

event that it goes untreated. It very well may be brought about by the ordinary pressing factors of
family, work or by awful circumstances. Persistent pressure happens when the body encounters
stressors with such recurrence or power that the autonomic sensory system doesn't have a
sufficient opportunity to enact the unwinding reaction consistently. This implies that the body
stays in a steady condition of physiological energy. Types of chronic stress are emotional,
environmental, and relational and work load stress. Effects of stress: Physical (Biological): 1.
Headaches/body-aches: As the students experience different stages of stress at different time, it
affects then differently. However, aches are something almost everyone going through stress
experiences. They can be minor aches or major aches. The minor aches are those that last usually
for some hours and the body recovers them after a good sleep. Other aches includes migraine,
fibromyalgia and autoimmune disorders 2. Upset stomach: Some students react to stress
uniquely. What happens is that their IBS gets triggered when they are under even little stress
causing immense and unbearable pain in their stomach. Diarrhea kicks in when your stomach
digests food in a disordered manner causing it to be watery or loose. When Page 5 the bowel
moments become tough, one gets constipated. It is quite common within students that whenever
they are unable to handle stress, they start getting nausea and vomiting. 3. Ulcers: Stress ulcers
are now getting more and more common among majority of students. They are a result of
physiological stress. Whenever they get stressed, their stomach releases to much acid that causes
acidity. And when the acidity increases to uncontrollable levels, it starts creating pores on the
surface of stomach lining causing ulcers. Use of anti-inflammatory drugs or H. pylori infection
causes stress ulcers 4. Insomnia: A prolonged issue within students is sleep initiation, or
commonly known as insomnia. It is basically a medical condition in which you experience
sleeping disorder. It may be acute or chronic, depending on your psychological condition. It
varies from 1 to few nights a week or for a longer time like 3 or more months. It happens when a
student is constantly worried about something that prevents them from falling sleep or when they
are under a lot of pressure. Concerns about work, assignments, deadlines, exams and finances are
the probable causes of insomnia. 5. Sexual desire disorder: Stress has long term effects also like
sexual disorders. Even though it effects later in life, but it is a serious issue that is discussed
worldwide. When students start getting stressed, it causes them anxiety. When they suffer from
anxiety and stress, their brains is unable to send sexual need signals to you reproductive part
causing a disorder. Erectile dysfunction is common in men now a days. Sexual changes lead to
behavioral changes also. Page 6 Mental (Psychological) ? Forgetfulness and disorganization ?
Constant worrying ? Inability to focus ? Agitation, frustration and moodiness ? Avoiding others
6. Forgetfulness and disorganization: Forgetfulness as we can suggest by name, is the failure to
remember. When you go under immense pressure constantly, it result in memory loss as you are
unable to remember things chronologically. Students for an instance have a lot over their heads
to remember and learn. Disorganization is also another curse to students as organization is the
vital factor in success, but unfortunately unfinished projects, piled up works, deadlines and
degree issues cause disorganization among students as it get out of control to manage everything
at once 7. Constant worrying: When students undergo emotional or say mental stress, it triggers
certain health problems. These health problems affect students psychologically as they start
getting worried about little things in life that are of low importance or no importance. Flight or
fight phenomenon is triggered among students when they undergo excessive stress and worrying
8. Inability to focus: Common signs of stress include inability to concentrate. Students that
experience insomnia as discussed above are prone to not able to focus on multiple things in their
life. Students start facing Page 7 a loss in appetite, experience sweating and difficulty
 Page 50

concentrating. As students suffer from anxiety, their ability to focus decreases resulting in lack of
focus 9. Agitation, frustration and moodiness: It is obvious that when you are mentally depressed
you start getting anxious. This stage of anxiety is called agitation. Next stage after getting
anxious is annoyance. Feeling of getting upset prevails your mind. And when you suffer from
both agitation and frustration, you are most likely to get moody. As it happens with the majority
of students. They start to have their own routines for almost everything just because of their
mood swings that are caused by stress. 10. Avoiding others: When you are stressful, you are
most likely to start avoiding people. Because you are done with yourself and tired of everything,
and ultimately avoid interaction with people. This causes a feeling of despair and depression. It
is a common issue within hard working students that they become secretive and don’t interact
much. This leads to issues like loneliness in future. Page 8 Topic of the survey Effects of stress
among students Purpose: The sole purpose of the survey was to know the stress condition among
students and its causes and effects on them. This could be only done by inquiring the students
about what they are suffering through when they are stressed. Supposition: Students of this ear
are stressed at large and are being mentally/physically affected Survey: Our entire sample was
obtained from leading universities in Lahore like FAST, LUMS, UMT and FCCU. We had a
total of 50 respondents, each being able to answer 25 given questions in our survey Results: As a
result of the survey, an astonishing 98.1% of the respondents agreed that they were stressed. Out
of them, 56.6% were sure about their stress, 37.7% of them has stress under some conditions
while 3.8% were in between being stressed and not. And of 50 people, 75.5% agreed that they
were stressed because of examination and excessive work-load. Our main stance that students of
today are stressed was proved almost 100% right. All the information gathered from the surveys
was kept only to the report creators and was confidential. Page 9 Statistical analysis: When asked
what grade they were studying in, all 53 responders (100%) answered university. A total of 53
responses were recorded for the survey, out of which, a total of 27 people (50.9 %) belonged to
the age range of 20- 22, 24 people (45.3%) in the age range of 17-19, 1 person (1.9%) in the age
range of 23-25, and only 1 person (1.9%) was 26 and above. As seen from the pie chart, the
highest percentage in the age bracket suffering from stress is 50.9% from the 20 - 22 age range.
Page 10 When asked what grade they were studying in, all 53 responders (100%) answered
university. “Have you been stressed out lately?”, an overwhelming majority of 30 responders
(56.6%) answered a yes. 20 responders (37.7%) stated that it depended on the situation itself. 2
responders (3.8%) expressed uncertainty and answered with a maybe while just 1 responder
(1.9%) declined feeling any stress. We asked them the question, “How regularly do you have a
hard time feeling relaxed?” and the highest frequency of responses turned out to be “often” from
23 people (43.4%). About 16 responders (30.2%) answered with a ‘‘sometimes’’. 9 responders
(17%) stated that they rarely Page 11 have a hard time relaxing, 4 responders (7.5%) admitted
that they always have a hard time relaxing, and just 1 responder (1.9%) denied having any
difficulty in relaxing. Only 12 responders (22.6%) answered not being able to share when they
are feeling stressed out. 19 people (35.8%) answered sharing their condition sometimes to
anyone and the highest number of responders at 22 (41.5%) answered being unable to confess
when they felt stressed out. Only 12 responders (22.6%) answered not being able to share when
they are feeling stressed out. 19 people (35.8%) answered sharing their condition sometimes to
anyone and the highest number of responders at 22 (41.5%) answered being unable to confess
when they felt stressed out. Page 12 “Do you not feel like enjoying your life when you are
stressed?” We asked this question, and a formidable amount of people opted for the option “Yes”
from 36 people (67.9%) which is the highest percentage from the pie chart. A tie was observed
 Page 51

between “Sometimes” and “Maybe” from 6 responders each (11.3%). While only 5 responders
(9.4%) answered “No” to the question. 23 people (43.4%) admitted that they got fed up with
every little offset happening around them. 14 responders (26.4%) acknowledged feeling that way
usually, while 6 responders (11.3%) Page 13 chalked it up to feeling this way a lot. 10
responders (18.9%) responded non-affirmative to the question . When it came to feeling
agitation, 20 responders (37.7%) said yes to this question while 22 responders (41.5%)
responded that they felt agitated often. 10 people (18.9%) replied not feeling agitated and only 1
person responded to always feeling that way. Page 14 We wanted to keep exploring how the
responders felt psychologically, so we asked them how often they felt down, depressed or
hopeless. 22 people (41.5%) replied feeling exactly like what we asked for a few days but less
than a week. Furthermore, about 17 takers of the questionnaire (32.1%) acknowledged having
this feeling over a long time. 9 people (17%) felt this way for over a week but only 5 people
answered, ‘’not at all” to the question. We also asked them how often they felt bothered being
unable to control their thoughts and worries. 18 responders (34%) recognized this feeling to be
over a long period of time while 15 responders (28.3%) replied that they felt this way for a few
days but less than a week. At a higher level, 11 responders (20.8%) felt bothered about this over
a week period of time while a meagre amount of 9 responders (17%) admitted not feeling
disturbed by their worries. Page 15 While observing the effects of stress, we also felt curious in
learning how many people were beyond a manageable level of coping with stress, so we asked
them how often they resorted to overthinking and started getting negative thoughts. 23 takers
(43.4%), the highest percentage replied that they did both at times. Closely behind this, 20
people (37.7%) made use of both actions all the time and was almost more than a double value to
people who never did both of these (7 people making up 13.2% of the entire chart). 3 people
sought the middle ground and replied that they did both of these sometimes. Page 16 We also
asked in the questionnaire, if they felt that the difficulties were piling up so high to the point
where it felt they couldn’t be overcome, and about half of the takers (27 people making up
50.9%) replied that they often felt this way. About 18 people(34%) responded sometimes to the
question, while 6 people (11.3%) replied almost never and only 2 people (3.8%) responded they
never felt this way. When asked about their ability to concentrate while they were stressed, 21
people (39.6%) responded that they sometimes had difficulty in concentrating while 14
participants (26.4%) leaned to a higher frequency and responded that they often faced difficulty
concentrating. 11 people (20.8%) felt like they rarely experienced any difficulty in concentrating
and 7 people (13.2%) admitted always facing problem in maintaining concentration with their
current task/job. While exploring the link between self-esteem and stress for this question, we
found that about 22 responders (41.5%) admitted to losing their self-esteem when dealing with
stress-related issues. 15 responders (28.3%) felt that they rarely lost their self-esteem when
facing a stressful issue, 10 responders (18.9%) experienced loss in self-esteem completely when
handling stressful situations and just 6 people (11.3%) making up the smallest value in the
responses, answered that Page 17 that they were strong enough and resilient to manage through
stressful situations without loosing their self-esteem. When asking if they ever had suicidal
thoughts when overburdened severely, the highest number of responders, comprising of 18
people (34%) answered negatively to this question. 15 responders (28.3%) confessed to feeling
this way rarely, while 11 responders (20.8%) had suicidal thoughts at a slightly greater frequency
and responding to this question with “sometimes”. 9 responders (17%) admitted to having
suicidal thoughts due to crushing amounts of stress. Page 18 Moving on to the exploration of
physical effects when dealing with stress, first of all, we asked people whether they were able to
 Page 52

get a good night’s sleep without worrying about work. 21 responders (39.6%) responded that that
they were rarely able to get a good sleep. 18 people (34%) replied that they were able to
sometimes get a good night’s sleep without worrying about work. 11 responders stated that most
of the time they could sleep well without worries while only 3 people (5.7%) stated that they can
never get a good sleep without worrying about work. Page 19 “Do you feel nauseous when you
are stressed?” The question received the highest response as “No” with 24 responders (45.3%).
16 people(30.2%) responded with “sometimes” and 13 people (24.5%) responded with an
affirmative. When asking about experiencing an increase in muscular aches while undergoing
stress, 19 responders (35.8%) experienced this “often” while 18 people (34%) replied that they
rarely went through this. 10 people (18.9%) said that they never experienced increased amount of
muscular aches. 6 people (11.3%) responded “always’’ from muscular aches from stress. Page 20
24 responders (45.3%), making up the highest number of responders, stated that they sometimes
got headaches, eye-pain as well impaired vision. 17 people (32.1%) admitted to having these
symptoms most of the time while a tie was observed between feeling these signs “rarely” and
‘’never’’ with 6 responders each (11.3%). After ascertaining the psychological and physical
effects of stress, we wanted to comprehend what exactly the source of their stress was. More than
half of the responders, 29 in number (54.7%) deemed the source to be excessive workload. 11
people (20.8%) recognised their source of stress to be examinations, while 10 people (18.9%)
admitted to feeling stressed out from home related issues. 1 responders from each of the three
remaining categories in the pie chart (making Page 21 up 1.9% each) replied that they were
feeling stress from health-centered issues or feeling offence from someone or something,
expressed uncertainty that it mostly depended on the situation itself , and the remaining
responder considered their source to be personal. We also wanted to discern what techniques our
responders opted for to deal with stress. 32 responders, more than half of our sample size,
(60.4%) answered their stress management techniques to be home remedies. 5 responders (9.4%)
answered ‘medications’ and 4 responders (7.5%) admitted to seeking help from a
psychologist/psychiatrist. 3 people (5.7%) made use of positive thinking during difficult times
and 2 people stated working out in gyms to reduce stress. Page 22 The remaining 7 responders
each (making up 1.9% individually) replied with the following : Sleeping or talking it out with
friends, sharing their problems with someone close, indulging in painting, keeping a journal,
managing time efficiently to avoid inviting negative thoughts, applying psychological methods
on themselves and lastly not having a stress management technique at all. For a better
understanding of our responders, we asked a few questions more. The first of them was “which
activities you get involved in frequently.” The highest amount of response, having more than half
of the amount at 28 (making up 52.8%) answered indulging in entertainment and enjoying music.
22 people (41.5%) answered that they preferred resting. 16 people(30.2%) preferred hanging out
with someone in their circle of friends and 13 people (24.5%) enjoyed spending time with their
family. 3 people (5.7%) made use of yoga/medidation and 2 people (3.8%) enjoyed gaming.
Page 23 Moving on, we asked their opinion about whether they thought that stress was
something among the people belonging to the age range of 18-26. The highest amount of
response turned out to be a “yes” from 35 people (66%). Only 9 people (17%) answered that they
usually see people stressed at this and 8 people responded that they observed a lot of people
stressed out at that age range. 1 person (1.9%) said that they don’t think stress is common at that
age range. We then asked if they had observed anyone taking stress recently and the highest
amount of response was “parents” from 19 people (35.8%). The next common response was
“siblings” from 13 people (24.5%) and then 8 people responded with Uncle/aunt (15.1%). A tie
 Page 53

was observed between two categories where 2 responders each (making up 3.8%) said that they
either observed stress in their cousins or no one at all. The next tie was observed in 9 following
responses : that they did not know, they could not disclose, grandparents, classmates, neighbors,
mother, Page 24 someone else in their family, a friend or lastly a maid/servant with 1 response
each (making up 1.9% individually). The last question was left open-ended for our responders.
We asked them how they would personally define stress. The most common answer from them
was “a state when you are completely drained and just want to relax” from 3 people (5.7%). A tie
was found in 4 descriptions of stress as the following definitions from 2 people (3.8%) each : ‘a
dominant emotion that kills the other feelings”, “pressure”, “unable to cope up with completing
the basic tasks”, “when a person loses themselves and finds trouble doing anything under
pressure”. 42 responses coming from 1 person each (1.9%) defined stress as the following : “the
feeling that you have when you have less control over an unexpected situation”, “an intense
feeling of depression”, “anxiety, depression and sadness accumulating” , “any work or thought of
doing a task that makes you mentally ill”, “anything feeling like a burden and you are not up to
doing”, “being mentally, emotionally or physically drained and experiencing frequent anxiety or
pain”, “being in a constant state of tension”, “being overburdened”, “burdening thoughts or
frequent pressure”, “feeling hopelessness” , “stress having different definitions but personally
feeling that Page 25 it is a body’s response to a different or unused to situation”, “a situation of
being unable to control your thoughts and feeling nauseous from it”, “ a negative state of mind” ,
“feeling constantly pushed down’’, “losing yourself”, “overburdening yourself with thoughts”,
“reaction to dealing with something negative”, “feeling of emotional or physical tension’’,
“feeling of frustration or anger from a situation”, “a state that can harm a person physically or
mentally”, “anything that can make you lose your state of calmness”, “a basic reaction of your
body to a tough situation”, “body’s response from pressure”, “feeling emotional or physical
tension”, “anything that ruins your mood”, “affects our mental health greatly”, “something we
feel when trying anything new or unexpected”, “when we have little to no control over
something”, “something that you have to let in at times”, “piling up of anxiety”, “it is difficult to
explain but easy to attain”, “when you’re forced to do something you do not want to”, “tension
of being unable to do anything’’, “things closing in on you due to lack of time”, “mental
occurrence after a negative event”, “something that decreases a person’s performance”, “an
overwhelming situation”, “state of psychological tension” and “a huge gap in what you are
expected to do and what you can actually do” Page 26 Discussion: The objective of our survey
was known about the condition and effects of stress among university students. As the data could
have become very large and difficult to handle, therefore we opted for a closed end question
survey that would help us gather and collect data and keep it precise. Thus we made a
questionnaire containing 25 questions and a sample of 50 respondents was targeted. They survey
was precisely sent to major universities like LUMS, FAST, UET and FCCU (A chartered
university). We obtained results that we were hoping for and are discussed in the conclusion.
Conclusion: As a conclusion that we got from the survey, we found out that majority of students
were suffering from some type of stress. They all agreed with the fact that stress had physical
and psychological effects on them. 100% of the sample was targeted for university students, and
majority out of them agreed that they were having stress because of examination and due to
excessive workload. Such a curse of stress was not only imposed because of work related issues,
but also family and friends related problems caused stress. Students that are an asset to some
nation or an institution for that matter were not getting proper treatment for stress. Majority of
them were on their own when it came to treatment as they opted for home remedies.
 Page 54

Unfortunately universities don’t tend to offer stress workshops where student could come and
learn different methods and techniques to fight stress and eventually eradicate it. Many students
had physical effects of stress as they felt nauseous and had aches for a short and prolonged time.
Some of them were having psychological issues like being disturbed, not being able to focus on
work or feeling alone and despaired. Page 27 Recommendations: First of all at the very start, it is
the responsibility of the educational institute where student is pursuing their academic careers, to
look after the mental health of students. Because they are the ones to indirectly disturb students
by loading excessive work on students. The government should have a check and balance that
the courses being provided at the universities are bearable for the students and are not difficult
for them after universities and government, parents or guardian of the student must keep an eye
on the behavior of student in order to be aware of their mental status. Students should be given
proper education to manage tress. If they aren’t provided with education, counseling institutes
should start awareness campaigns to help the students 2Introduction: Stress is the body's
customary protection against threat and hazard. It makes the body flood with hormones that set
up its system to stay away from or go facing hazards. People consistently allude 2to this as the
battle or flight instrument. At the point when people face a test or danger, they have a halfway
physical reaction. The body enacts resources that assist individuals to face 2the test or get to
safety as quick as could really be possible the body produces bigger amounts of the synthetic
compounds cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. These trigger the actual responses like:
Extended heartbeat ? Elevated muscle availability ? Sweating Page 2? Readiness 4These
elements all improve an individual's capacity to react to a possibly dangerous or testing
circumstance. Norepinephrine and epinephrine likewise cause a quicker pulse. Biological
components that trigger this reaction are called stressors. Models incorporate upheavals,
powerfully direct, a rapidly moving vehicle, frightening scenes in movies, or regardless, going
out on a first date. Impressions of stress will overall increase with the number of stressors. Some
of the stress symptoms that majority of people experience are: Low energy. ? Muscle spasm?
Headaches and body aches? Ups and downs in sexual functions of the body? Shortness of
breath? Difficulty breathing? Muscle tension? Nervousness and anxiety Types of stress: Other
than two types of stress, Eustress (the good and positive) and the Distress (negative 5stress).
There are three major stresses: 1) Acute stress 2) Episodic Acute Stress 3) Chronic stress Page 3
Acute stress: The acute stress factor is the sort of pressure that frightens you right away. This is
the sort of pressure that goes on quickly and consistently, but doesn't continue to go
unreasonably long, yet requires a response and shakes you up to some degree, like a conflict with
someone in your life, or a test for which you don't feel acceptably orchestrated. Your body's
pressing factor response is set off with serious pressing factor, anyway you can center it with fast
loosening up strategies, and a short time later re-visitation of your day feeling less centered
around again. These pressing factor relievers can help you with loosening up and even more
quickly recover from extreme pressing factor. Episodic acute stress: Episodic acute stress is the
term utilized when somebody encounters intense pressure with some routineness or recurrence.
There are a few reasons why this may occur: Taking on a lot obligation? Being in an abnormally
requesting position? Being liable for a friend or family member with successive or huge
troubles? Misfortune? Having relational troubles? Tending to decipher circumstances
catastrophically 1Chronic stress: Page 4 Chronic stress is a drawn out and consistent feeling of
stress that can influence your wellbeing in the event that it goes untreated. It very well may be
brought about by the ordinary pressing factors of family, work or by awful circumstances.
Persistent pressure 1happens when the body encounters stressors with such recurrence or power
 Page 55

that the autonomic sensory system doesn't have an opportunity to enact the unwinding reaction
consistently. This implies that the body stays in a steady condition of physiological energy.
Types of chronic stress are emotional, environmental, and relational and work load stress. Effects
of stress: Physical (Biological): 1. Headaches/body-aches: As the students experience different
stages of stress at different time, it affects then differently. However, aches are something almost
everyone going through stress experiences. They can be minor aches or major aches. The minor
aches are those that last usually for some hours and the body recovers them after a good sleep.
Other aches includes migraine, fibromyalgia and autoimmune disorders 2. Upset stomach: Some
students react to stress uniquely. What happens is that their IBS gets triggered when they are
under even little stress causing immense and unbearable pain in their stomach. Diarrhea kicks in
when your stomach digests food in a disordered manner causing it to be watery or loose. When
Page 5 the bowel moments become tough, one gets constipated. It is quite common within
students that whenever they are unable to handle stress, they start getting nausea and vomiting. 3.
Ulcers: Stress ulcers are now getting more and more common among majority of students. They
are a result of physiological stress. Whenever they get stressed, their stomach releases to much
acid that causes acidity. And when the acidity increases to uncontrollable levels, it starts creating
pores on the surface of stomach lining causing ulcers. Use of anti-inflammatory drugs or H.
pylori infection causes stress ulcers 4. Insomnia: A prolonged issue within students is sleep
initiation, or commonly known as insomnia. It is basically a medical condition in which you
experience sleeping disorder. It may be acute or chronic, depending on your psychological
condition. It varies from 1 to few nights a week or for a longer time like 3 or more months. It
happens when a student is constantly worried about something that prevents them from falling
sleep or when they are under a lot of pressure. Concerns about work, assignments, deadlines,
exams and finances are the probable causes of insomnia. 5. Sexual desire disorder: Stress has
long term effects also like sexual disorders. Even though it effects later in life, but it is a serious
issue that is discussed worldwide. When students start getting stressed, it causes them anxiety.
When they suffer from anxiety and stress, their brains is unable to send sexual need signals to
you reproductive part causing a disorder. Erectile dysfunction is common in men now a days.
Sexual changes lead to behavioral changes also. Page 6 Mental (Psychological) ? Forgetfulness
and disorganization ? Constant worrying ? Inability to focus ? Agitation, frustration and
moodiness? Avoiding others 6. Forgetfulness and disorganization: Forgetfulness as we can
suggest by name, is the failure to remember. When you go under immense pressure constantly, it
result in memory loss as you are unable to remember things chronologically. Students for an
instance have a lot over their heads to remember and learn. Disorganization is also another curse
to students as organization is the vital factor in success, but unfortunately unfinished projects,
piled up works, deadlines and degree issues cause disorganization among students as it get out of
control to manage everything at once 7. Constant worrying: When students undergo emotional or
say mental stress, it triggers certain health problems. These health problems affect students
psychologically as they start getting worried about little things in life that are of low importance
or no importance. Flight or fight phenomenon is triggered among students when they undergo
excessive stress and worrying 8. Inability to focus: Common signs of stress include inability to
concentrate. Students that experience insomnia as discussed above are prone to not able to focus
on multiple things in their life. Students start facing Page 7 a loss in appetite, experience
sweating and difficulty concentrating. As students suffer from anxiety, their ability to focus
decreases resulting in lack of focus 9. Agitation, frustration and moodiness: It is obvious that
when you are mentally depressed you start getting anxious. This stage of anxiety is called
 Page 56

agitation. Next stage after getting anxious is annoyance. Feeling of getting upset prevails your
mind. And when you suffer from both agitation and frustration, you are most likely to get
moody. As it happens with the majority of students. They start to have their own routines for
almost everything just because of their mood swings that are caused by stress. 10. Avoiding
others: When you are stressful, you are most likely to start avoiding people. Because you are
done with yourself and tired of everything, and ultimately avoid interaction with people. This
causes a feeling of despair and depression. It is a common issue within hard working students
that they become secretive and don’t interact much. This leads to issues like loneliness in future.
Page 8 Topic of the survey Effects of stress among students Purpose: The sole purpose of the
survey was to know the stress condition among students and its causes and effects on them. This
could be only done by inquiring the students about what they are suffering through when they are
stressed. Supposition: Students of this ear are stressed at large and are being mentally/physically
affected Survey: Our entire sample was obtained from leading universities in Lahore like FAST,
LUMS, UMT and FCCU. We had a total of 50 respondents, each being able to answer 25 given
questions in our survey Results: As a result of the survey, an astonishing 98.1% of the
respondents agreed that they were stressed. Out of them, 56.6% were sure about their stress,
37.7% of them has stress under some conditions while 3.8% were in between being stressed and
not. And of 50 people, 75.5% agreed that they were stressed because of examination and
excessive work-load. Our main stance that students of today are stressed was proved almost
100% right. All the information gathered from the surveys was kept only to the report creators
and was confidential. Page 9 Statistical analysis: When asked what grade they were studying in,
all 53 responders (100%) answered university. A total of 53 responses were recorded for the
survey, out of which, a total of 27 people (50.9 %) belonged to the age range of 20-22, 24 people
(45.3%) in the age range of 17-19, 1 person (1.9%) in the age range of 23-25, and only 1 person
(1.9%) was 26 and above. As seen from the pie chart, the highest percentage in the age bracket
suffering from stress is 50.9% from the 20 - 22 age range. Page 10 when asked what grade they
were studying in, all 53 responders (100%) answered university. “Have you been stressed out
lately?”, an overwhelming majority of 30 responders (56.6%) answered a yes. 20 responders
(37.7%) stated that it depended on the situation itself. 2 responders (3.8%) expressed uncertainty
and answered with a maybe while just 1 responder (1.9%) declined feeling any stress. We asked
them the question, “How regularly do you have a hard time feeling relaxed?” and the highest
frequency of responses turned out to be “often” from 23 people (43.4%). About 16 responders
(30.2%) answered with a ‘‘sometimes’’. 9 responders (17%) stated that they rarely Page 11 have
a hard time relaxing, 4 responders (7.5%) admitted that they always have a hard time relaxing,
and just 1 responder (1.9%) denied having any difficulty in relaxing. Only 12 responders
(22.6%) answered not being able to share when they are feeling stressed out. 19 people (35.8%)
answered sharing their condition sometimes to anyone and the highest number of responders at
22 (41.5%) answered being unable to confess when they felt stressed out. Only 12 responders
(22.6%) answered not being able to share when they are feeling stressed out. 19 people (35.8%)
answered sharing their condition sometimes to anyone and the highest number of responders at
22 (41.5%) answered being unable to confess when they felt stressed out. Page 12 “Do you not
feel like enjoying your life when you are stressed?” We asked this question, and a formidable
amount of people opted for the option “Yes” from 36 people (67.9%) which is the highest
percentage from the pie chart. A tie was observed between “Sometimes” and “Maybe” from 6
responders each (11.3%). While only 5 responders (9.4%) answered “No” to the question. 23
people (43.4%) admitted that they got fed up with every little offset happening around them. 14
 Page 57

responders (26.4%) acknowledged feeling that way usually, while 6 responders (11.3%) Page 13
chalked it up to feeling this way a lot. 10 responders (18.9%) responded non-affirmative to the
question. When it came to feeling agitation, 20 responders (37.7%) said yes to this question
while 22 responders (41.5%) responded that they felt agitated often. 10 people (18.9%) replied
not feeling agitated and only 1 person responded to always feeling that way. Page 14 we wanted
to keep exploring how the responders felt psychologically, so we asked them how often they felt
down, depressed or hopeless. 22 people (41.5%) replied feeling exactly like what we asked for a
few days but less than a week. Furthermore, about 17 takers of the questionnaire (32.1%)
acknowledged having this feeling over a long time. 9 people (17%) felt this way for over a week
but only 5 people answered, ‘’not at all” to the question. We also asked them how often they felt
bothered being unable to control their thoughts and worries. 18 responders (34%) recognized this
feeling to be over a long period of time while 15 responders (28.3%) replied that they felt this
way for a few days but less than a week. At a higher level, 11 responders (20.8%) felt bothered
about this over a week period of time while a meagre amount of 9 responders (17%) admitted not
feeling disturbed by their worries. Page 15 While observing the effects of stress, we also felt
curious in learning how many people were beyond a manageable level of coping with stress, so
we asked them how often they resorted to overthinking and started getting negative thoughts. 23
takers (43.4%), the highest percentage replied that they did both at times. Closely behind this, 20
people (37.7%) made use of both actions all the time and was almost more than a double value to
people who never did both of these (7 people making up 13.2% of the entire chart). 3 people
sought the middle ground and replied that they did both of these sometimes. Page 16 We also
asked in the questionnaire, if they felt that the difficulties were piling up so high to the point
where it felt they couldn’t be overcome, and about half of the takers (27 people making up
50.9%) replied that they often felt this way. About 18 people (34%) responded sometimes to the
question, while 6 people (11.3%) replied almost never and only 2 people (3.8%) responded they
never felt this way. When asked about their ability to concentrate while they were stressed, 21
people (39.6%) responded that they sometimes had difficulty in concentrating while 14
participants (26.4%) leaned to a higher frequency and responded that they often faced difficulty
concentrating. 11 people (20.8%) felt like they rarely experienced any difficulty in concentrating
and 7 people (13.2%) admitted always facing problem in maintaining concentration with their
current task/job. While exploring the link between self-esteem and stress for this question, we
found that about 22 responders (41.5%) admitted to losing their self-esteem when dealing with
stress-related issues. 15 responders (28.3%) felt that they rarely lost their self-esteem when
facing a stressful issue, 10 responders (18.9%) experienced loss in self-esteem completely when
handling stressful situations and just 6 people (11.3%) making up the smallest value in the
responses, answered that Page 17 that they were strong enough and resilient to manage through
stressful situations without losing their self-esteem. When asking if they ever had suicidal
thoughts when overburdened severely, the highest number of responders, comprising of 18
people (34%) answered negatively to this question. 15 responders (28.3%) confessed to feeling
this way rarely, while 11 responders (20.8%) had suicidal thoughts at a slightly greater frequency
and responding to this question with “sometimes”. 9 responders (17%) admitted to having
suicidal thoughts due to crushing amounts of stress. Page 18 Moving on to the exploration of
physical effects when dealing with stress, first of all, we asked people whether they were able to
get a good night’s sleep without worrying about work. 21 responders (39.6%) responded that that
they were rarely able to get a good sleep. 18 people (34%) replied that they were able to
sometimes get a good night’s sleep without worrying about work. 11 responders stated that most
 Page 58

of the time they could sleep well without worries while only 3 people (5.7%) stated that they can
never get a good sleep without worrying about work. Page 19 “Do you feel nauseous when you
are stressed?” The question received the highest response as “No” with 24 responders (45.3%).
16 people (30.2%) responded with “sometimes” and 13 people (24.5%) responded with an
affirmative. When asking about experiencing an increase in muscular aches while undergoing
stress, 19 responders (35.8%) experienced this “often” while 18 people (34%) replied that they
rarely went through this. 10 people (18.9%) said that they never experienced increased amount of
muscular aches. 6 people (11.3%) responded “always’’ from muscular aches from stress. Page 20
24 responders (45.3%), making up the highest number of responders, stated that they sometimes
got headaches, eye-pain as well impaired vision. 17 people (32.1%) admitted to having these
symptoms most of the time while a tie was observed between feeling these signs “rarely” and
‘’never’’ with 6 responders each (11.3%). After ascertaining the psychological and physical
effects of stress, we wanted to comprehend what exactly the source of their stress was. More than
half of the responders, 29 in number (54.7%) deemed the source to be excessive workload. 11
people (20.8%) recognized their source of stress to be examinations, while 10 people (18.9%)
admitted to feeling stressed out from home related issues. 1 responders from each of the three
remaining categories in the pie chart (making Page 21 up 1.9% each) replied that they were
feeling stress from health-centered issues or feeling offence from someone or something,
expressed uncertainty that it mostly depended on the situation itself , and the remaining
responder considered their source to be personal. We also wanted to discern techniques our
responders opted for to deal with stress. 32 responders, more than half of our sample size,
(60.4%) answered their stress management techniques to be home remedies. 5 responders (9.4%)
answered ‘medications’ and 4 responders (7.5%) admitted to seeking help from a
psychologist/psychiatrist. 3 people (5.7%) made use of positive thinking during difficult times
and 2 people stated working out in gyms to reduce stress. Page 22 The remaining 7 responders
each (making up 1.9% individually) replied with the following : Sleeping or talking it out with
friends, sharing their problems with someone close, indulging in painting, keeping a journal,
managing time efficiently to avoid inviting negative thoughts, applying psychological methods
on themselves and lastly not having a stress management technique at all. For a better
understanding of our responders, we asked a few questions more. The first of them was “which
activities you get involved in frequently.” The highest amount of response, having more than half
of the amount at 28 (making up 52.8%) answered indulging in entertainment and enjoying music.
22 people (41.5%) answered that they preferred resting. 16 people (30.2%) preferred hanging out
with someone in their circle of friends and 13 people (24.5%) enjoyed spending time with their
family. 3 people (5.7%) made use of yoga/mediation and 2 people (3.8%) enjoyed gaming. Page
23 Moving on, we asked their opinion about whether they thought that stress was something
among the people belonging to the age range of 18-26. The highest amount of response turned
out to be a “yes” from 35 people (66%). Only 9 people (17%) answered that they usually see
people stressed at this and 8 people responded that they observed a lot of people stressed out at
that age range. 1 person (1.9%) said that they don’t think stress is common at that age range. We
then asked if they had observed anyone taking stress recently and the highest amount of response
was “parents” from 19 people (35.8%). The next common response was “siblings” from 13
people (24.5%) and then 8 people responded with Uncle/aunt (15.1%). A tie was observed
between two categories where 2 responders each (making up 3.8%) said that they either observed
stress in their cousins or no one at all. The next tie was observed in 9 following responses : that
they did not know, they could not disclose, their grandparents, classmates, neighbors, mother,
 Page 59

Page 24 someone else in their family, a friend or lastly a maid/servant with 1 response each
(making up 1.9% individually). The last question was left open-ended for our responders. We
asked them how they would personally define stress. The most common answer from them was
“a state when you are completely drained and just want to relax” from 3 people (5.7%). A tie was
found in 4 descriptions of stress as the following definitions from 2 people (3.8%) each : ‘a
dominant emotion that kills the other feelings”, “pressure”, “unable to cope up with completing
the basic tasks”, “when a person loses themselves and finds trouble doing anything under
pressure”. 42 responses coming from 1 person each (1.9%) defined stress as the following : “the
feeling that you have when you have less control over an unexpected situation”, “an intense
feeling of depression”, “anxiety, depression and sadness accumulating” , “any work or thought of
doing a task that makes you mentally ill”, “anything feeling like a burden and you are not up to
doing”, “being mentally, emotionally or physically drained and experiencing frequent anxiety or
pain”, “being in a constant state of tension”, “being overburdened”, “burdening thoughts or
frequent pressure”, “feeling hopelessness” , “stress having different definitions but personally
feeling that Page 25 it is a body’s response to a different or unused to situation”, “a situation of
being unable to control your thoughts and feeling nauseous from it”, “ a negative state of mind” ,
“feeling constantly pushed down’’, “losing yourself”, “overburdening yourself with thoughts”,
“reaction to dealing with something negative”, “feeling of emotional or physical tension’’,
“feeling of frustration or anger from a situation”, “a state that can harm a person physically or
mentally”, “anything that can make you lose your state of calmness”, “a basic reaction of your
body to a tough situation”, “body’s response from pressure”, “feeling emotional or physical
tension”, “anything that ruins your mood”, “affects our mental health greatly”, “something we
feel when trying anything new or unexpected”, “when we have little to no control over
something”, “something that you have to let in at times”, “piling up of anxiety”, “it is difficult to
explain but easy to attain”, “when you’re forced to do something you do not want to”, “tension
of being unable to do anything’’, “things closing in on you due to lack of time”, “mental
occurrence after a negative event”, “something that decreases a person’s performance”, “an
overwhelming situation”, “state of psychological tension” and “a huge gap in what you are
expected to do and what you can actually do” Page 26 Discussion: The objective of our survey
was known about the condition and effects of stress among university students. As the data could
have become very large and difficult to handle, therefore we opted for a closed end question
survey that would help us gather and collect data and keep it precise. Thus we made a
questionnaire containing 25 questions and a sample of 50 respondents was targeted. They survey
was precisely sent to major universities like LUMS, FAST, UET and FCCU (A chartered
university). We obtained results that we were hoping for and are discussed in the conclusion.
Conclusion: As a conclusion that we got from the survey, we found out that majority of students
were suffering from some type of stress. They all agreed with the fact that stress had physical
and psychological effects on them. 100% of the sample was targeted for university students, and
majority out of them agreed that they were having stress because of examination and due to
excessive workload. Such a curse of stress was not only imposed because of work related issues,
but also family and friends related problems caused stress. Students that are an asset to some
nation or an institution for that matter were not getting proper treatment for stress. Majority of
them were on their own when it came to treatment as they opted for home remedies.
Unfortunately universities don’t tend to offer stress workshops where student could come and
learn different methods and techniques to fight stress and eventually eradicate it. Many students
had physical effects of stress as they felt nauseous and had aches for a short and prolonged time.
 Page 60

Some of them were having psychological issues like being disturbed, not being able to focus on
work or feeling alone and despaired. Page 27 Recommendations: First of all at the very start, it is
the responsibility of the educational institute where student is pursuing their academic careers, to
look after the mental health of students. Because they are the ones to indirectly disturb students
by loading excessive work on students. The government should have a check and balance that
the courses being provided at the universities are bearable for the students and are not difficult
for them after universities and government, parents or guardian of the student must keep an eye
on the behavior of student in order to be aware of their mental status. Students should be given
proper education to manage tress. If they aren’t provided with education, counseling institutes
should start awareness campaigns to help the students