Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

In a crowded library at this time of year, all around you may see the faces of panicked and flustered college students. Exhausted, stressed and procrastinating students will swarm the library every year at the end of each semester. You can almost feel their anxiety just by looking into their half-open, baggy eyes. Look at the desk each one of them have in front of them and you can be guaranteed to see a heavily caffeinated beverage such as coffee or Red Bull. Welcome to finals week at the University of Mississippi.

When desperate times call for desperate measures, students will go above and beyond anything you would expect. It’s not uncommon for students to go days without sleeping, consume incredible amounts of caffeine and even take controlled substances not prescribed to them. Most people, especially students, are familiar with these things. Kamilla Alves, a senior chemistry major here at the University, says it’s no surprise to witness students do outlandish things to get by during finals. “I’ve seen students not sleep for days at a time, and live off of caffeine and Adderoll” said Kamilla while drinking a Red Bull while studying Quantitative Chemistry. “My personal favorite was this one girl who brought a pillow, blanket and entire case of Monster energy drinks to the library.” But the anxiety is not joke, University of Mississippi counselor, Dr. Marc Showalter said he’s even seen students attempt to harm themselves due to stress and anxiety around finals time.

Students constantly will keep themselves awake into late hours just to study a chapter or two. Even our campus J.D. Williams library extends its coffee shop hours and stays open 24 hours during finals week. Students believe that extending the normal hours of the day will help them have more time to learn material for finals; however, students aren’t aware that that isn’t the case at all. In fact college students that get more sleep ultimately have a higher grade point average according to neurological [studies].

What seems to be a growing trend nowadays is the non-medical use of controlled substances. According to a Brown University [study], non-medical stimulant use among college students is second only to marijuana as the most common illicit drug used.

Dr. Marc Showalter said students should be aware of the dangers of taking someone else’s prescribed medication. “Students will take drugs that are prescribed for ADD…the facts are that that can alter your brain chemistry in a way that would help you if you actually had it, but most people don’t, and so it can be very harmful and dangerous.”

Substance abuse can even cause medical emergencies for students that don’t know how to use it. Director of Student Health, Barbara Collier said she’s witnessed it occur many times. “That’s the one we’ve actually seen in the building that we’ve actually had to send to the emergency room because of tachycardia.”

To put it simply, students should learn to prioritize and try not to overwhelm themselves. As it appears, it can have some detrimental consequences.