Most high schools around the world have students who feel it’s absolutely necessary to push themselves beyond their limits in order to complete multiple tasks and eventually graduate with top honors.

But the question remains, how does such a rigorous lifestyle affect those students?

Students who take advanced academic classes are given a lot of assignments from their teachers and are expected to understand whatever is placed in front of them. For most, this is an extremely stressful experience. 

This often causes students to experience “burnout,” particularly during their junior and senior years of high school. Burnouts usually occur when a person is in a state of chronic stress due to outside stressors. This can have moderate to drastic alterations in a student’s personalities and work ethic.

The symptom that is most noticeable when looking at a student who’s gone through a burnout is sleep deprivation or insomnia. That in itself causes forgetfulness, impaired concentration, and increased irritability. More notable symptoms of burnouts are chronic fatigue, detachment, and a lack of productivity in school assignments and activities outside of school. If a burnout continues for a long period of time, then a student may have a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, and a strong feeling of isolation.

During my interview one weekend with Leah Jarrell, one of the morning announcers, she spoke about how she kept up with different school-related tasks, like FFA, her Onramps courses, and Girl Scouts, as well as how it affected her. She also talked about how she kept to herself about the stress that is caused by all her activities. “You just kind of deal with it and then just keep going through school”, she says, “Like I’m sure most students here do.” In high school, students often feel that these problems have to be dealt with by themselves, so they keep quiet about the struggles they go through.

In my time in high school, I’ve experienced many burnouts due to heavy workloads and having to study for certain classes. The worst one I’ve gone through was during and after finals of the recent fall semester.

I studied constantly for my classes that had finals with little rest and as a result, after every day of finals, I would have excruciating headaches and breathing problems when doing my usual activities. Even after those symptoms passed, with my immune system weakened from the stress, the allergies that I would usually have around that time of year worsened and I felt sick throughout winter break and the first two weeks of school.

There are ways of dealing with these burnouts, however. In my interview with Leah, she suggested, “Students should make a list of assignments they need to do so they can be more organized and talk to their teachers about coming in for tutoring.”

Going to the Student Support Service office is also highly recommended to receive any counseling one might require. Ms. Scamardo would be happy to help anyone in need.

Ultimately a high school student should take care not to overexert themselves too much and be sure to get enough rest when they’re not working. Also, doing activities, such as working out, drawing, and listening to music can help greatly reduce stress from school.

Anything helps when conserving energy is essential to doing well in classes and eventually graduating.