Catie Byrne
Features Editor

Several papers and books remain untouched on the desk in my dorm, 73 emails remain unread and — due to an unfortunate turn of events on Friday night — a hand-sized, bright purple bruise on the side of my thigh remains aching. In other words, I’m tired. As I have so many unfinished things to do, one may assume that these unfinished tasks are the result of laziness or academic neglect, but, this is not the case.

I am, like many other college students, burnt out. However, this burnout extends beyond its normal connotation of stress, mental fatigue and sleepless all nighters. While I have, and continue to experience all of these things, my burnout is more of the physical than psychological sort.

Of course, this physical burnout is essentially linked to the aforementioned stress-inducing activities of the average college student; but, to fully understand the extent of this, I feel as though the physical toll of academia needs to be unpackaged in relation to the bad habits one can develop in order to keep up with their school work.

My first bad habit is that I am, among other things, a perfectionist. And, as one can imagine, this isn’t always a good thing. When I’m writing essays or just about anything else, I’d rather spend hours at a time getting something right the first time, rather than haphazardly forming several drafts to later come back to and re-write.

As an English major, the accumulation of concurring deadlines, other school work, as well as other responsibilities means that I just can’t dedicate the amount of time I would like to, and know that I need to, in order to produce what I believe I should be able to for every class.

A conservative estimate for the amount of time I take writing an average five to seven page English essay can range from six to eight hours of actual writing, and two to three hours of staring blankly at a computer screen, caffeinating, reading through notes and trying not to cry from exhaustion. Considering that it is the season for midterms, and midterms mean an excessive amount of writing, as of late, I’ve been running on empty.

This, coupled with my severe Attention Deficit Disorder, is a disastrous combination. This isn’t to say that ADD is some insurmountable condition; but it is a developmental disability, and, in my experience, greatly hinders my ability to function on a day to day basis. Additionally, as one could imagine, this majorly contributes to my inability to focus and complete the various tasks I need to accomplish.

A tendency for disorganization and inability to focus has also contributed to the formation of my second bad habit, which is bad time management. To clarify, this isn’t limited to academia, but, as previously mentioned, extends to everyday functioning.

Basically, I’ve found myself stuck in a perpetual cycle of sacrificing one crucial thing in order to do another, such as trading off food for sleep or sleep for an assignment I know I won’t have the energy to complete in the morning.

A third bad habit is that I’m simply bad at taking care of myself, and undoubtedly this is, to some extent, my own fault. This is most evident in that my diet staples range from string cheese, Goldfish, Cheerios to any sort of microwavable soup and macaroni and cheese.

This, essentially, has been the cause of my burnout.

However, I don’t think it would be entirely fair to myself to just attribute this to a development of bad habits, as one of the physical side-effects I’ve developed from attempts to transcend these obstacles is hypothyroidism.

Thyroid.org defines hypothyroidism as an “underactive thyroid gland,” meaning, “that the thyroid gland can’t make enough thyroid hormone to keep the body running normally.”

While I was initially surprised and alarmed at this development, when I learned that this can be caused by the very behaviors that led to my burnout in the first place, everything started to make sense.

Towards the end of last semester, I believe I probably pushed myself over the edge physically during finals, and thus, the hypothyroidism developed.

My hormones aren’t functioning properly because I am not. It’s almost funny that the same symptoms of hypothyroidism only contribute to and perpetuate my own dysfunctional patterns in the first place. But, I suppose that I can at least take solace in the upcoming spring break and have a week to relax.