The way how quickly education develops now and what challenges young people have to face in order to achieve results is simply incredible.
Even though it's very important to go to college and get a higher education, it has negative sides. Lack of free time, mental pressure, physical exhaustion, facing challenges are the problems that every student has to deal with during 4 or 5 years of studying. In this article, we would like to talk about college student mental health in detail and provide some tips on helping yourself while trying so hard to get a degree and prove that you are worth a good job in the future.
5 most common problems students have to deal with that impact on mental health
1. Binge drinking
It may sound weird but one of the problems that a lot of students face is an excessive amount of alcohol. As you know a lot of people think that alcohol helps to cure stress but it does the opposite. A big number of students find happiness in drinking while going out, meeting with friends or looking for partners. How does college affect students that they need to consume alcohol? Drinking helps to release stress and feel happier just for some hours, however, it feels disgusting the next day. Still, this feeling doesn't stop about 40% of students to look forward to drinking again and forgetting about stress in college, difficulties and low grades.
2. Depression
Another common problem is college depression especially if you are planning to study abroad and live far from your family. A big percentage of students find it really difficult to adapt to a new environment, not getting support from their family and friends who they got used to seeing and talking to often. A new environment, food, bed, and people can affect your mood and if you can't deal with it, the suffering can become worse and lead to depression.
3. Weight gain
Changes and stress affect us in different ways. Weight gain is one of the main issues in colleges. A new routine, stress, and lack of time lead to young people forgetting about diet and exercise. A lot of students quickly gain weight because they eat on the go not choosing healthy products. Since food is a comfort zone for a lot of people in general, students often use it to overcome stress and comfort themselves. For a lot of them, food becomes the best friend. Unfortunately, weight gain affects health, self-esteem and causes mental issues that stop young people from achieving the desired goals.
4. Lack of sleep
One of the biggest problems that harm mental health is sleep deprivation. Having a bad night sleep affects mood and productivity the next day, isn't it? So what do you think will happen if you don't sleep well for weeks, months or even years? Thanks to services that provide essay writing in AU and other countries, students can rest their mind and sleep for longer. Students always stay up late trying to complete papers and prepare for exams because they are very scared to fail and lose an opportunity to become specialists in various fields. Lack of sleep causes weight gain, memory loss, and affects not only mental but physical health.
5. Hesitance
Back home, a lot of youngsters feel comfortable and confident. However, when meeting another 30 young people with good knowledge in different departments and skill in various fields, you can lose your confidence and doubt whether you are worthy. Trying to prove that you are smart, better than someone and always competing causes mental exhaustion not allowing you to move on, show good results and achieve your goals.
The ways to walk past such states as stress in college, you have to know about them. Learn as much as you can what to expect when studying in college. Perfectionism is a great thing but it also kills. You have to understand that studying in college is not the final goal, it's only one step on the way to reaching your goal.
Conclusion
Nowadays, colleges cooperate with students in the way to recognise what problems they face trying not to ignore a single person. More and more colleges and universities implement diverse approaches such a traditional presentations, discussions, role plays, videos, and student testimonials to recognise mental illness symptoms from the start and help young people to overcome small issues that can turn into bigger problems in the future. The topic of college student health becomes broader and promises to bring positive results making education for young people easier and more satisfying.
This article was kindly written and contributed by Sandra Larson.
About the Author
Sandra Larson is the associate education manager at a mental health centre. She writes for the online magazine that the company issues and helps young people, in particular, to overcome challenges in colleges. She also consults on education programs to help students learn less but more effectively.