By Pan Haotian (24A01B) and Darren Wong (24S03C, Peer Helper)

Your resident Aunties and Uncles are back with our Ask Aunt Agony and Uncle Upset column, this time as a collaboration between Raffles Press and Peer Helpers’ Programme (PHP)! Ever wanted to rant about that someone you just can’t stand? Overwhelmed with too many feelings? Submit your confessions to https://tinyurl.com/RIAAUU and we’ll give them our best shot. This column will be published at the end of every month.

What should I do if my stress is making it hard for me to eat and sleep? I don’t know how to reduce the stress because it is how I feel and it is hard to change.

Stressed-Out Sebastian

Dear Stressed-Out Sebastian,

“Stress” may be the 1740th most common word in the English language (thank you, Google), but it’s likely the most common word in any Rafflesian’s vocabulary. For many of us, stress is no longer an exception in an otherwise peaceful school term: it’s the new normal. Yet we need to remember that just because something is common doesn’t mean that it’s normal, and behind the commonplace complaint of stress hides entirely unordinary symptoms.