The Personal Theology of Suffering - Research Paper Example

Malisa Anderson Crisis and Suffering Liberty This research paper intends to explore the personal theology of suffering purpose for which the psychological issues such as depression and anxiety within students have been selected. The paper comprises multiple aspects of personal sufferings along with negative and positive consequences faced by majority of the students within their academic phase. The crisis and suffering faced by the students are identified and reflected upon, based on personal experiences. 1. Introduction Depression and anxiety are the two remedial outcomes of psychological issues that have been affecting the lives of the teenage students considerably. Due to the drastic increase in the academic competency levels over the last few years, students are forced to struggle for attaining competitive stance. Even though, the reasons for competing towards attaining brighter future can be considered as justified, however, the impact of the immense pressure from both the society and family members are causing multiple psychological disorders within the students. Parents do want their children to attain appreciable competitive ranks and brighter futures but they often ignore the level of pressure which their children go through, in terms of attaining their expectation. Additionally, the consequences of these psychological disorders are immensely affecting the physical health of the students. Eventually, the students get subjected to weakness, lack of interest in their educational aspects and thus, pose a threat to their career. As a result, this discussion will be focusing towards elaborating the side effects of depression and anxiety to which various students have been subjected to. It will also elaborate the remedial measures, which needs to be currently taken into consideration along with those, which can be intended to be undertaken in the future, taking into consideration the present deteriorated state of the students (Liselotte et al., 2006). 2. Evaluating Myself in Accordance to the Theology of Suffering Depression and anxiety are the two psychological issues that in the current societal scenario can be considered to be in a rising state specifically within the student population. At some point students believe that they might also get subjected to these psychological issues. Multiple aspects have come into observation regarding deterioration in their academic performances. Over the past few years, it has been observed that students undergo immense pressure and tension thinking about one aspect i.e., how will they position themselves within an appreciable ranking in the competitive examinations (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Multiple students consider themselves as an average student and get nervous when they observe other students struggling towards attaining a better academic ranking. Eventually, they start observing the negative impact of the nervousness that further deteriorates their health. It is observed that apart from the educational aspects, multiple other factors lay immense pressure on the mental and behavioral aspects of the students, due to which they often end up getting subjected to depression and anxiety. As for the symptoms within the subjected students, it can be observed that their sleep duration subsequently deteriorates. Students, often suffer from headache and pain in their eyes due to the increasing educational pressure (Buboltz et al., 2001). Considering the societal pressure on students, it can be stated that majority of them belong from middle class family and are thus, incapable of paying huge donation fees for getting themselves admitted to a prestigious college. As a result, they get left out with only one option of relying upon their merits for getting an admission opportunity to such colleges, which requires huge competitive effort. By taking into consideration their career goals and objectives, they will gradually have to work hard for attaining a brighter future. The career objectives of majority of the students include getting a master degree from a reputed college, which might be a distant goal to them. Moreover, for reaching that goal point, the students will have to aim for attaining a high score in the competitive exams taking into consideration, the level of competency within the educational line. Additively, such students undergo immense pressure in term of preparing for the exams. The syllabus of all the subjects are vast and thus, such students start feeling the nervousness building up within themselves regarding, how will they prepare such a huge syllabus within the tenure of few months. The negative consequences of all these pressures subsequently start affecting their health parameters. With time, they start feeling that their concentration levels are dropping gradually. They fail to remain focused on the studies and academic aspects for long. Day by day the anxiety level of the students can be observed to be rising regarding, tackling all these challenging factors in a systematic manner for reaching the expected destination point (OKeeffe et al., 2011). Students have also undertaken certain online findings regarding the symptoms of depression and anxiety for evaluating, whether they have been subjected to such symptoms or not. However, for the downside, the results often go against expectations. Students are found to be witnessing multiple symptoms of psychological issues related to depression and anxiety in themselves, which various other teens of this age may suffer due to, the immense academic and societal pressure on them. Students are also witnessing the negative impact of all these factors on their emotional and behavioral aspects. Earlier, students use to enjoy long and interactive conversations with their friends, family members and batch mates but nowadays, they feel irritated and annoyed while interacting with others (OKeeffe et al., 2011). Additionally, students generally look out for excuses for running away from such conversational sessions. They also fail to identify the reason as to why they behave in such a manner and do not feel like discussing their matters with their friends. They always find themselves to be tensed and nervous, as they fail to feel the happiness, excitement as earlier, when interacting with others or studying. This subsequently deteriorates their relationship within their friends and batch mates with whom they use to hang around. They feel that within the duration of few months, they have made themselves isolated enough from the surrounding so as to escape the questions, which the people around them often ask regarding the change in their behavior (OKeeffe et al., 2011). To a certain specific extent, as being a part of a religious congregation, students do find mental peace during their periodic visits to the church and consulting with the pastor regarding, how can they make themself feel better. The peaceful advices provided to them by the pastor often helped in reducing their psychological pressure. However, due to the increased academic pressure, they fail to manage their time for visiting the Church, to gain some relaxation and feel happy. Additively, their family members also start posting multiple comments regarding the change in attitude of such students. In accordance with their complaints, such students often get into argument sessions even on small topics and affect the relationship with their parents. As a recommendation, they will have to get along in some counseling sessions with a psychologist for discussing their psychological issues along with the associated side effects to bring in stability within their life and academic performances (Hollon et al., 2006). Taking into consideration, the recent changes within their behavior, the students will have to identify the reasons that might add up to their present deteriorated conditions. They will have to structure a schedule of their daily activities, for finding out the level of isolation that they imposed upon themselves. Students will have to believe that bringing about change within their daily activities will provide them with lot of opportunities in term of re-establishing communication with their friends circle and family. For them, this will be a second opportunity, for pulling themselves out of the depression state in which they might be currently present. It has also been observed that due to the depression and anxiety within the college teens, they often fail to maintain a proper diet and have food on time which in turn gives rise to multiple other health anomalies within themselves such as weakness, boredom, loss of energy and many more (Hollon et al., 2006). In this context, the students can plan on consulting with a nutritionist and getting along with an appropriate diet chart. By taking the advices of the college faculties into consideration, regarding segregation of study period in a systematic manner, the students can manage their academic pressure and reduce the level of stress significantly. This will help them in managing their stress and focus on their studies efficiently and bringing positive changes in themselves. For the students, attaining a bright career should be their prime goal, but considering the pressure, perceptions can be made regarding the inability of the students to systematically structure themselves (Coulter et al., 2008). Students should not worry a lot about the negative consequences rather try to overcome the negative situation. They fear regarding how family and society will react if they fail to attain their expected objectives. It can also be believed that their fear of creating a negative image has been the major contributor for raising their anxiety levels. All these have immensely deteriorated their health and behavioral conditions to a certain extent (Coulter et al., 2008). The negative impact of depression and anxiety also affect their judgment capability. As stated above, the students suffering from depression and anxiety often end up making rash decisions against critical aspects. They do not even feel interested in listening to the situational parameters or thinking about the consequences of their rash decision making. Moreover, during group assignments they not only fail to remain focused but also end up providing wrong outcomes. Although, these students try their best, but the fear within themselves always compel them regarding what negative might happen if they end up making the wrong decisions (Coulter et al., 2008). 3. Appropriate Remedial Measures That Are Intended To Be Undertaken In The Future By taking into consideration the above discussed side-effects, which the students have been going through, a perception can be made regarding their necessity in coming up with certain strategies for tackling their deteriorating situations. Through appropriate research in this context, it came be understood that the psychological issues such as depression and anxiety in the teenage students are considered as high priority issues within medical terms. As per general understanding, undertaking a counseling session with a psychologist should be the priority of the students for dealing with the current situation. It can also be believed that the psychologist can help them in bringing change within their daily lifestyle. They might also have to pronounce their identified reasons, which they might feel to have given rise to the increasing pressure in them. Moreover, with the appropriate advice from the psychologist, they will be able to systematically structure their life as earlier and increase their concentration level (Wells & Matthews, 1994). Apart from just relying on the psychological advice, the students will have to bring about multiple changes within them, to get their confidence level back. The first change that needs to be brought about is regarding the way they perceive situation. They should think less about the negative consequences that might happen due to their actions, which in turn increases the level of pressure on them. Taking this aspect into consideration, they will have to look forward towards grabbing the chances of success rather than just perceiving the negative consequences that might not even turn up to be true in reality (Wells & Matthews, 1994). For that, they will have to broaden their communication pattern with the individuals around them rather than just keeping themselves confined to the stress related factors. Through appropriate communication, they can loosen themself and even consider the opinions of their fellow mates that might actually turn out to be beneficial for the students. The students will have to work on their interaction techniques with their friends and family members through which they can discuss their matters of worries and subsequently take their valuable suggestions into consideration (Ellgring, 2007). One effective advantage of this strategy is that the students will be able to provide much more importance to the positive aspects of being happy and stress free, rather than just converging themselves to the negative attributes. They need to believe that interaction is the key through which any individual can eliminate the dullness within his or her live and live up to his or her positive expectations (Ellgring, 2007). Additively, constant communication with the friends and batch mates will also help the students in transforming their decision making capabilities much more reliable. With collaborative efforts of the group, the students can easily understand the points, where they were lacking and amend them in due time. Apart, from just improvising the communication, their strategy list should also comprises of attaining appropriate advice from the medical experts, regarding how they can improve their current deteriorated heath condition that has been a result of the depression and anxiety, which they have been subjected to. Based on their research, they need to believe that a combination of medication and cognitive behavioral therapies will prove effective in their case (Ellgring, 2007). Likewise, they will also have to consult the teaching faculties of their college and explain them the state, which the students have been going through. They need to believe that the teaching faculties within their professional life must have witnessed multiple students, facing the same academic pressure as they are going through in the present scenario. The students need to get into consultation with them regarding how to structure their study pattern so that their academic pressure can be minimized to a possible level (Dahlin et al., 2005). With an appropriate study structure, the student’s quality of grasping the academic concepts will gradually increase and it will help them in performing better in the competitive exams. In this regard, while preparing for the competitive exams and to reduce the monotony, they will try to avoid long hours of continuous studying. This will help them to remain focused along with balance the subjective pressure and achieve success in the competitive exams. Moreover, as mentioned by Buboltz (2001), regarding the importance of sleep for students, it can be stated that considering this aspect will be beneficiary for quick recovery from the psychological issues of depression and anxiety through which the students have been suffering from months. In accordance to Buboltz (2001), sleep is the most effective tension relieving technique suggested by doctors. Additively, sleep also helps in restoring the everyday metabolic activities of both the human body and mind. Therefore, as a recommendation from the medical practitioners, the students will have to get adequate 8 hours of sleep every day (Buboltz et al., 2001). Likewise, Klesse & Onofrio (2000), have also discussed about one more crucial aspect that has been considered as highly effective in terms of relieving the physiological and the emotional stress out the college students. This crucial aspect is regarding the co-curriculum activities. It has been observed that co-curriculum activities are considered as mandate within every educational facility. Taking reference of the statements of Klesse & Onofrio (2000), along with other research in this context, it can be stated that co-curriculum activities such as football, basketball and multiple other sports, will gradually help in increasing the physical metabolism of the students and reduce the mental pressure faced by them (Klesse & Onofrio, 2000). Klesse & Onofrio (2000), has also mentioned about one additive advantage of the co-curriculum activities in terms of building confidence within the students that further facilitate the communication process. It is believed that co-curriculum activities also benefit the students in term of paving brighter future in the areas of sports. Taking into consideration, these mentioned benefits it will definitely help the students for participating in the co-curriculum activities that are organized in their college on periodic basis. It can also be stated that with appropriate interests in the areas of sports, the students can attain multiple other developmental opportunities rather than just remaining confined to the study areas. It will also be a gradual help for them in terms of bringing down their pressure level (Klesse & Onofrio, 2000). In context to all the above mentioned recommendations, the students will also require the support of their family members who till date have continuously motivated them for moving forward and facing all the emerging challenges in the path. They will also need the consolidation of their friends, whom they might have sided apart due to their subjection to depression and anxiety. Such students will have to build up new bonds with their friends for coming out of the troublesome situation, in which they are currently in. They might also expect adequate moral support from their friends for getting them back their old and interactive life, which they appear to have lost in due course of time. The students that are subjected to the psychological issues will also be requiring appropriate help of the dietician, who will be able to guide regarding an effective diet plan through, which they can restore their health within a short period (Curran, 2003). They need to believe that a healthy physical and mental environment, will gradually give them the confidence and support for moving forwards towards attaining the competitive stance, as expected. Students commonly agree that the competitive pressure is high in every aspect, with the belief that through appropriate structuring of the daily schedule, all the challenges can be accomplished that appear to be impossible at the present state. Through the help of the supportive aspects, students will gradually come out of their current deteriorated situations in due course of time (Ann, 2004). 4. Conclusion The above discussion is like a mirror describing about any student’s current scenario and the future strategies, which they will have to plan to undertake in due course of time. The physiological issues, through which students commonly undergo has been observed to affect them at drastic levels. However, the research work that the students might undertake will provide them with a lot of option regarding, how they can systematically structure their life for getting back what they might have lost over the days of their sufferings. By thinking about, the negative consequences of their actions, the students gradually restricted themselves from physically and mentally participating with the external world, which, they used to enjoy at one point of time. The psychological issues of depression and anxiety cost the students multiple crucial aspects depending on which they could attain a better academic stance along with their desired career objectives. The above discussions also make projections regarding the priority, which the students will have to give to the advices of the experts. These suggestion and guidelines will help them in resolving the identified issues, which they think have stressed out their life. In this context, it is worth mentioning that the faster the students implement these above strategized resolutions within their everyday activities, the quicker they can improve their condition and reduce the psychological impact on them 5. References Ann, B. (2004). Measuringhealth. England: McGraw-Hill International. Buboltz, W. C., Brown, F., & Soper, B. (2001). Sleep habits and patterns of college students: a preliminary study. Journal of American College Health, 50(3), pp.131-135. Curran, C. E. (2003). 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