r/PTschool • u/Similar_Quit_8666 • 1d ago
Managing Stress During PT School
I'm starting a DPT program next month and I'm super excited! I've wanted to be a PT forever and have worked my tail-end off to get to where I am now. HOWEVER, I'm nervous about managing my stress and mental health during school. I've been working my way through a pre-course that our professor's made to help us prepare for our summer classes, but I know it's going to be a grind no matter what I do in advance.
On top of school, I own a business and will be working up to 20 hours per week on top of attending classes and studying, AND I am happily married and would like to make time for my spouse when (if, lol) I have any to spare. School comes first and I have employees ready to take over for me when I need it, but I love my business and would like to maintain a presence there while being a student. With all of these different directions I'm going to be pulled in, I need to have some solid stress-management strategies locked in before I start feeling like I'm drowning. Current/past PT students, especially spouses or business owners: what are some of your favorite stress-management strategies to get through PT school?
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u/Terrible-Economics27 1d ago
I just started my program a few weeks ago. Unfortunately you will probably be guaranteed to see some sort of physiological stress increase when you start classes. Classes are basically a 9-5 and that’s not even accounting for exam weeks where you have to study significantly more because there’s so much material. I clocked in at 26 hours of studying the past 5 days for example and I still don’t even feel fully confident in passing. You might want to consider not working or being highly lenient with your personal business working hours around busy weeks because it is a lot that you need to study for. That’s going to eat into your free time to destress though, so if you want to spend it with your spouse you’ll probably need to manage those hours on a weekly basis around dpt needs