Under too much stress I just zone out

[0rthodontist]

This has happened to me before in high school and now it is happening again. When I am under too much stress I just zone out, playing video games and wasting time for 8 hours a day. This was responsible for a serious drop in high school grades. I thought I was over it when I did great in college up until now but now I am doing it again because of my software engineering class. Now, wasting time on watching animations and playing games is harming my performance in all my classes and I can't make myself stop.

Anyone have advice on how to stop this?

 

[haynewp]

That is very different than the way I handle too much stress. Maybe set a time schedule for yourself on when you are going to spend time on the software class. What happens to me when I am overstressed is my performance goes down and I try to overcompensate.

 

[nocturnal]

I would get rid of the distractions. Take your TV, video games, and any other distractions over to a friends house and leave them there! Turn your phone off and seal your self in your room/library. Begin setting small deadlines for yourself and STICK to them. For example come up with a schedule of when your going to complete what assignments and make sure you get it done by that time. Make an effort to do your work first, and reward yourself with TV , vid, only after you've finished your assignments. Productivity is self-motivating, you just need to build a little momentum

 

[scorpa]

If you live close to your school or library take you work and do it there. That way even if you want a distraction there is none...you are forced to study. And leave the mp3 player at home to haha!

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

If you live close to your school or library take you work and do it there. That way even if you want a distraction there is none...you are forced to study. And leave the mp3 player at home to haha!

i reackon that if he's already learning in college, he also spends time in the library (when his got a vacant time in his schedule).
anyway, i don't know how can you learn maths & physics without some sort of hearing music in the background.

 

[Drimar]

This has happened to me before in high school and now it is happening again. When I am under too much stress I just zone out, playing video games and wasting time for 8 hours a day. This was responsible for a serious drop in high school grades. I thought I was over it when I did great in college up until now but now I am doing it again because of my software engineering class. Now, wasting time on watching animations and playing games is harming my performance in all my classes and I can't make myself stop.

Anyone have advice on how to stop this?

Are you smoking ?
smoking can help you relax.

 

[siddharth]

Are you smoking ?
smoking can help you relax.

Smoking can kill you as well.

 

[TheCavortr]

What if you only alowed yourself to do those zone-out activities as a reward for working? Don't allow yourself to play video games/watch tv at night until you meet certain study goals.

One really good way to deal with stress is to exercise regularly. Even though it can be hard to get into a regular routine, you will be amazed on how good it is for stress relief and concentration.

 

[Drimar]

so how long dos it take me to meet my study goal?
sleeping and beer relax ur mind

 

[SimplySolitary_]

I get this problem. I've found just trying to take everything away, and hiding in a library, a bookstore, even a room and closing myself off from everything work sometimes. It's really a bad problem of mine. In fact, right now I have at least three things I could be working on. Instead I'm replying to this. Well, this and listening to music.

I don't suggest smoking, purely because my father almost died of lung cancer, and cancer's not fun (hah). For some reason, a really good energy drink - Rockstar, or even Tab - seem to help me, but I've heard that for some people it just makes it worse.

Good luck!

 

[michaeltorrent]

Smoking can kill you as well.

from statistics, no one dies while smoking.
unless you smoke in the middle of traffic.

 

[SimplySolitary_]

from statistics, no one dies while smoking.
unless you smoke in the middle of traffic.

No, but the direct effects of smoking can kill you.

Actually, it might be a little amusing to see someone die while smoking...

 

[gokugreene]

How morbid of you..

 

[JoAuSc]

What is the stress due to? If it's just normal academic stress, then I agree with those who've suggested exercising (I find a 9 p.m. run really helps me clear my mind), working in the library, etc. )

However, I'm currently also under a lot of stress, mostly due to not only procrastinating on setting up my senior year project, but also procrastinating on asking my advisor what the due dates are for things like these, so that I'm not even sure how much I'm procrastinating. Furthermore, I've gotten into this bad habit of staying up till 4 and skipping next morning's 9 o'clock class, which makes me miss homework assignments and new material, further perpetuating an academic slide (and for the record, I know I'm posting this at 5 a.m., but it's not as bad as it looks because I took a 3-hour nap from 9:30 pm-12:30 am.) I guess my advice is to fix any bad habits you might have that give you stress, especially staying up late and not knowing when your long-term deadlines are.

 

[EnumaElish]

This has happened to me before in high school and now it is happening again. When I am under too much stress I just zone out, playing video games and wasting time for 8 hours a day. This was responsible for a serious drop in high school grades. I thought I was over it when I did great in college up until now but now I am doing it again because of my software engineering class. Now, wasting time on watching animations and playing games is harming my performance in all my classes and I can't make myself stop.

Anyone have advice on how to stop this?

I am no therapist, but you sound like you have a mild form of game addiction triggered by stress.

 

[mr_coffee]

when I'm stressed I sleep!
My body is like, oh hi, goodnight.

I agree don't sit by the computer at all. In fact, this forum takes up a lot of my time, just by clicking on it to see what people are talking about. I don't even use it to answer any of my questions anymore :P

and i have a quiz in an hour! ahh i gota go.

 

[radou]

Are you smoking ?
smoking can help you relax.

Smoking can kill you as well.

from statistics, no one dies while smoking.
unless you smoke in the middle of traffic.

Hahahaha!

Quickly, a medal for this one !

 

[Sariel]

You said it happened before. How did you deal with it then? What worked, what didn't?

 

[Equilibrium]

whuts good with smoking?

Anyway having a computer in youre room makes your school life easy unless you don't use it for fun ... when youre a software engineer just like me you shud be a computer freak... use it for your programming instead of playing...

Well i still graduated freshmen tho and was wondering which subject will i first take from basic computer programming C ? or C++? or neither of it?

 

[mr_coffee]

whuts good with smoking?

Anyway having a computer in youre room makes your school life easy unless you don't use it for fun ... when youre a software engineer just like me you shud be a computer freak... use it for your programming instead of playing...Well i still graduated freshmen tho and was wondering which subject will i first take from basic computer programming C ? or C++? or neither of it?

I hope you would know this if your a "software engineer".

My college started with C++ others use Java, some use scheme or LISP.

Also being a "computer freak" isn't a good thing if you want to get past any type of interview with someone, they like social skills and hearing about what you do other than computer things so they know your not a "freak".

 

[emsidis]

This has happened to me before in high school and now it is happening again. When I am under too much stress I just zone out, playing video games and wasting time for 8 hours a day. This was responsible for a serious drop in high school grades. I thought I was over it when I did great in college up until now but now I am doing it again because of my software engineering class. Now, wasting time on watching animations and playing games is harming my performance in all my classes and I can't make myself stop.

Anyone have advice on how to stop this?

Hi, I had the exact same problem for quite sometime. I used to head straight for WoW, or just surfing the net whenever I felt stressed or overwhelmed by all I had to study. What helped me was just not one single thing, the secret is to come up with lots and lots of effective coping methods for stress. What helped me most was creating moderately risky (A goal too high is bound for failure and procrastination however a moderately risky goal is enough to leave you feeling accomplished), specific goals (Specific enough so you know WHEN you've accomplished the goal) for my studying and breaking my goals and work down into manageable chunks i.e. 30 minutes quality work followed by 30 minutes reward and doing this twice a day in the beginning and slowly increasing the frequency and time of each block.

I also recommend reading "The Last Self-Help Guide You'll Ever Need": http://www.homestead.com/flowstate/files/lastselfhelp.html"