Stress Among College Students And Mental Illnesses

Mental disorders are as common among college students as same-aged non-students, and these disorders seem to be growing in amount and severity. It is not unusual for undergraduate students to experience varying levels of anxiety, depression, and stress during their matriculation; some college students experience academic stressors as well as non-academic stressors. Non-academic stressors could include seemingly obvious issues like moving away from family for the first time or some issues that may be harder to recognize like private health concerns. Dr. Richard Kadison, chief of mental health services at Harvard University and author of “College of the Overwhelmed” reported that almost 50% of college students are likely to suffer some degree of

Leaving High School, I thought I was prepared to go into college. I knew how difficult college was going to be. So i told myself I would do my homework the day it was assigned, I would go to the tutors if i needed help, and I would study more to succeed. But one thing I did not prepare myself for was, how to overcome stress and anxiety. According to an article, “Stress in College: Experts Provide Tips to Cope” by Megan Reed, “…30% of students reported that stress had negatively affected their academic performance within the past year, and over 85% had felt overwhelmed by everything they had to do at some point within the past year.”(National Health Assessment) This report really captivated me because 30%

Mental health is a serious topic that is often not taken seriously. Due to my own struggles with depression, I have experienced the impact mental illness can have on a student’s life. Mental illness can make everyday life feel unbearable and can have just as serious of an effect on a person as a physical illness. The causes of increasing mental health problems in college students are numerous, and it will take work from both students and universities to overcome this problem, but change is necessary for the health of U.S. college students.

If you ask any current college student how their experience at school is going, you are likely to hear about the struggles they face with heavy course materials, difficult exams, and other criticisms about being a student. With that, college students are put under so much pressure that some may not be able to mentally stay on their game and may develop depression and anxiety as a cause of this crazy lifestyle. “Researchers have reported that almost half of college-aged individuals may experience mental health problems” (Jennings). When it comes to receiving help for these developing mental illnesses most universities offer a variety of resources to help students better themselves. These medical resources

In a study at a Midwestern university whose participants varied in age, sex, their year in school, major etc., it was reported that the top four sources that cause stress in college students are from a change in sleeping habits, change in eating habits, the academic challenge of school work, and new responsibilities. Freshman specifically is more prone to this stress because of the new transition into the college lifestyle. Starting out as a freshman and already having a mindset of having too many responsibilities can set up a student to be unsuccessful right off the bat. They are not used to being away from home and being independent. They have never been held to the high

Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. Stress is something you cannot avoid in college and every student experiences. College creates a great amount of stress than high school with more responsibilities, assignments, expectations from others to succeed, and tight time schedules. Stress presents itself in college careers, created by various factors, but what are the effects of stress on the college students?

The most obvious stressor that comes with the life of a college student are their grades. Since students are transitioning from living at home to living on their own, they don’t have anyone to remind them to do their homework or check their grades. This is significant to students for many reasons. As Zinsser said “The transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security.”(450). Nowadays there are rigorous graduate programs that run a tight ship making sure only the best of the best get in. “A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline...”(Zinsser 450).

Imagine that you are the first one in your family to be accepted to and attend a college or university. Or that you are only able to go to college because of a scholarship, or multiple scholarships. Or that you had to take out loans to be able to get a higher education. Or any combination of those scenarios. Now imagine your family and your friends being extremely proud of the fact that you made it to college. Everyone counting on you to do an excellent job and succeed and make something of yourself. That is a lot of pressure, right? College students are weighted down by enormous amounts of pressure coming from many various sources. Family, academics, finances, work, and social interactions all contribute to a student’s life and mental health and there should be more awareness of this.

When attending college majority of all students experience some kind of stressor no matter how old. For the young kids who may have the privilege to go to college straight out of high school think they got it good and don’t have any worries. They have it wrong, especially coming straight out of high school kids have the stress of making sure grades are maintained with excellence which should be in connection with career aspirations. Other stressors for some who having to deal with high cost for tuition, having a job while in school, fitting in with new people and the stress of finding a career job after collage. As for the students who chose to attend college later in live with established responsibilities stressors are a little more demanding.

Depression and anxiety among college students is something that experts have focused on for the past twenty years. The information they have been gathering ranges from the different stressors of college life to the effects of one's culture on how they deal with depression or anxiety symptoms. They have identified a few core characteristics of depression and thoughts of suicide. These are both serious concepts in which people need to seek help for. It is important for students to reach out to friends, family, or professionals to support them during this time. Many campuses offer counseling centers which are seeing many more people over the past few years.

It is important students deal with stress. For those students who do not deal with stress, it could result in feelings of nervousness, unnecessary worrying, and lack of sleep (Ross et al. 1999). Certain levels of stress can either enhance or decrease performance. A reasonable amount of stress may be crucial in order to encourage an individual to get the job done (Ross et al.). Oman et al. (2008) also found that a certain level of stress may increase performance. Those times when stress pushes you to study hard or cause you to spend more time on a class project can be helpful. However, too much stress may drastically slow down academic success for a college student by impairing memory, an important component of learning (Lumley & Provenzano, 2003). Certain levels of stress are normal, but students need to learn how to manage their stress when it becomes overwhelming (Larson, 2006). The level

The first type of stress that college students experience is academically. The workload is more than the high school workload which means there's no more hand-holding now from both teachers and parents. Throughout high school you're giving do-overs however in college do-overs don't exist. Between trying to get your schedule organized, difficult classes, and the hard test to pass. Both new and returning students stay up almost every night studying long and hard for hours.

Many people experience stress as they combine busy lives and the demand of study while also trying to save time for family and friends. Stress had become the most popular pressure for the college students. Stress is usually caused by something that is out of the ordinary from everyday life, things like tests, family problems or loss of job. There are many thing causes stress for college students such as academic, family, peer pressure and physical change.

Anyone who has taken college level courses knows that it can become extremely stressful, but what are the effects on the human body and mind when under so much stress? According to a mental health study in 2008 8 out of 10 students in college say they have sometimes or frequently felt stress in their daily lives for over 3 months. An increase of 20% from a survey five years earlier. (Wu, 2000, para. 1) It is important to know the signs of being stressed and how to help yourself with reducing the amount of stress you experience. There are many things that can be done to reduce the amount of stress college adds to a student’s life. Keeping yourself healthy and mindful is key to the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. Nurses can play a big role in educating college aged students on the signs of stress and activities that can be done to reduce the feeling of stress.

College students generally do experience stress during there semesters. According to New York University Stress Can affect a student's physical health, emotional well being, and academic success. Also, “College Students experience stress, related to changes in lifestyle, increased workloads, new responsibilities, and interpersonal relationships.”A Student stress survey was conducted by academia.edu to further support this claim. The results of the survey were astonishing they found the top five sources of stress for that sample which were change in sleeping habits, vacations/breaks, increased workload, change in eating habits, and new responsibilities. Stressors that students face throughout college is a new environment, new responsibilities, which include deadlines, well written work, exams, and time management. Time management can be a crucial stressor in college because if a student doesn’t manage their time well, then it can lead to low grades or academic failure because their work was rushed. This also ties in with sleeping habits, with poor time management students get poor sleep because they might be studying for an exam the night before. Stress can be critical to a student's academic success, According to New York University “six in ten college students report having felt so stressed they couldn't get their work done on one or more occasions.” This can also affect their well being because it can increase eating habits, causing them to overeat which is unhealthy.