Today, college and university students are more stressed than ever before. 73% of undergrads report having some sort of mental health crisis during their academic journey. While in some situations, stress is an indispensable part of life (with positive effects in some instances!), being under too much emotional pressure for a while can be harmful to your health and well-being. As a parent, you don’t stop worrying about your kids even when they leave home, and it makes sense. But there’s something you should know about stress to help your worried student reconnect with emotional stability.
Types of Mental Health Issues
Piecing together findings from different sources, the relationship between mental health issues and stress is complex. However, stress is known to significantly aggravate the course of mental health disorders. Traditionally, psychiatrists propose three forms of mental health issues:
- Anxiety disorders. This group of disorders covers post-traumatic stress disorders, social phobias, panic disorders, specific phobias (for instance, claustrophobia and aerophobia), and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorders).
- Eating disorders. Known for severe physical and psychological consequences in males and females, eating disorders are bulimia nervosa, anorexia, pica, rumination disorder, etc.
- Autism. Often classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder, autism affects how people learn, communicate with others, behave, and express their emotions.
- Mood disorders. Anger, elation, intense sadness, or/and extreme happiness (or both) are the key symptoms of a mood disorder. Certain mood disorders in students can affect their ability to progress well in college.
- Personality disorders. People with personality disorders tend to feel, behave, and think in a way that causes distress, differs from how other people do that in a particular culture, and lasts over time.
- Psychotic disorders. People suffering from psychotic disorders experience hallucinations and delusions that, in turn, cause loss of contact with reality.
- Dementia. A mental issue that usually includes a set of symptoms like loss of problem-solving, memory, language, and other thinking abilities, each being a life-limiting condition.
Causes of Mental Health Disorders Among Students
Why are undergrads stressed? Among the most common causes of mental health issues are as follows:
- Money. 67% of respondents admit that financial issues affect many aspects of life, including physical/mental health and personal relationships.
- College routine. As students progress through college and take more advanced courses, participating in class becomes more challenging and causes stress, as a result.
- Not getting enough sleep. 35% of college students have a poor sleep schedule. This can lead to their inability to focus and learn effectively.
- Handling family drama. No family is perfect. That is why 54% of students report all the imperfections of their families to create an overload of stress on a regular basis.
- Health issues. 35% of college students name the other factor that may lead to stress – physical health. Young people with, and at-risk for, major health issues encounter loads of barriers to achieving college success.
- Homesickness. For many undergrads, being on their own in an unknown environment gives way to stress upon realizing how far their loved ones are.
Both professors and undergrads need to recognize what the triggers are, and what they can do to combat everyday stress successfully.
Students Struggle But Don’t Look for Help
9 in 10 undergrads have experienced negative mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. While they are still reporting mental health issues caused by the new-era plague, they usually don’t seek professional help. The latest figures show that 67% of people 18-24 with anxiety or depression do not seek treatment. Instead of taking advantage of counseling center services on campus, young people become isolated hoping it will pass by itself.
Ways to Cut Off Stress in College
Since stress is inevitable, you have to learn to battle it and improve your experience while in college. Here’s how:
- Eat a well-balanced meal. Good eating habits will help you prevent dramatic weight gain or weight loss.
- Get enough sleep. Almost 1/3 of undergrads report having felt so depressed that they had trouble functioning. Stay away from studying through the night to get an essay done or prepare for a test. Let your body recharge by turning down the lights and racking up eight hours of sleep.
- Exercise daily. Regular workouts reduce stress and boost overall health.
- Take a time-out. 64% of young people drop out of college because of mental health issues. If you catch yourself wondering where all your ambitions and motivation are gone, it’s probably time to take a break.
- Limit alcohol and caffeine. Avoid caffeine and alcohol since both may worsen stress symptoms.
- Take deep breaths. Deep breathing is one of the ways to relieve stress and better focus on what you are doing.
- Slowly count to 10. If you feel stressed at the moment, start counting 1,2,3… up to 10 to interrupt the stress episode.
- Learn what triggers your anxiety. Identifying triggers and developing coping mechanisms are a must to reduce stress levels. Often these are piling writing assignments that cause stress. In this case you might want to consider a website that writes essays for you – you could use these as samples for your personal work and thus save a lot of time.
- Talk to someone. Don’t wait until stress becomes too much to handle – reach out to the one you trust to get that off your chest.
- Get help online/on campus. A mental health professional will help you put things into perspective and manage stress efficiently. Alike, paper writing help from peers or professional services will help you feel more comfortable.
With the right frame of mind, effective strategies, and professional support, college students can conquer any of the existing stressors and make sure that their college years will 100% be the best.
