As we approach the end of the semester the feeling of impending doom draws closer. Finals week will soon be upon us, and with this comes highly increased levels of stress and anxiety plaguing students at universities across the country. Some of the wonderful side effects that come along with increased stress include insomnia, binge eating (or not eating at all), feelings of worthlessness, and a weakened immune system, just to name a few. It's a proven fact that stress causes the body to be less immune to diseases, which in turn causes us to get sick more- and we all know being sick while away at college is not a pleasant experience, especially during finals week.

Doing poorly on a final could seem like the end of the world to a college student, and with suicide rates rising at an alarmingly high rate over the past several years, this stigma desperately needs to be broken.

"Stress is a very vicious cycle." -my nursing major roommate

My roommate is completely true with that statement. It has been proven that the effects of stress affects our bodies both physically and mentally, and its side effects last indefinitely. Here's a breakdown of how the cycle of stress works...

1. because of stress you start eating less or more

2. this in turn causes you to feel more fatigued

3. the overall worse feeling causes you to perform more poorly on your finals

4. your body is left feeling more hurt than before

bonus: this causes your body to continue to become run down, leaving you more susceptible to future stress and illness.

Now you may have come across this picture on social media -- it's been circulating the past few weeks.

Basically, the motto of this picture is that you should overwhelm yourself with work and studying for the last two weeks of the semester and then cruise into winter break stress-free. What this image fails to convey is that though the stress you are feeling about a test will most commonly be replaced with a sense of relief following the end of that test, any damage that was done to your mind or body will still remain.

Keeping all of this in the back of your mind is important to living a healthy life. With this being said I offer to you some alternatives to focus on instead of finals and school in general:

1. the family that cannot wait to see you over winter break

2. your pet that will get so excited it pees when you walk in the door

3. the beautiful feast you know will be waiting for you on Christmas

4. getting to see the shining faces of your friends and family opening gifts

Remember a healthy mind is the key to a healthy life.