In the past two years, I have written several articles on the college mental health crisis, and here I am again writing another. This time, there is a lot more added to the crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in feelings of loneliness, anxiety, fear and sadness, mainly as a result of self-isolation and quarantining. With this, the symptoms of mood and stress-related disorders can increase in severity.
We need to acknowledge that this is a very stressful time and that it is okay to take time to help yourself. At a time like this, self-care is extremely important. Remember to take care of both your physical and mental health as one can impact the other. Make sure that you are getting enough sleep and try to stick to a relatively stable sleep schedule. Get some physical activity and go outside regularly. Trying to maintain or resume your normal pre-COVID-19 routine can make you feel more comfortable and less anxious. Stay informed, but also know where your boundaries are with watching coverage. If you only feel comfortable checking the news for COVID-19 updates once a day, that is completely fine. Maintain the connections you had prior to quarantine. Keep in touch with friends and family; they can be an important support system that you can use to cope with any mental health issue that you are experiencing.
During stressful times like these, we need to talk about mental health. We cannot just push it under the rug and say that we will deal with it another time. The stigmatization of talking about mental health issues only makes these feelings of loneliness, anxiety, fear and sadness worse. For people to properly cope with these mental health struggles, they need to be able to talk to someone about them. We need to end the taboo of talking about mental health. Talking about mental health is an important part of working to end the mental health crisis that we are currently facing.
This mental health crisis is something that we as college students can work to solve together. If you know that one of your peers is dealing with mental health issues —whether they are anxious, depressed or any other problem— try to encourage them to seek help or find someone to talk to. If you are experiencing your own mental health concerns, try reaching out to the Center for Student Counseling and Well-being, formerly known as the Henderson Student Counseling Center. The center has many certified mental health counselors well equipped to help any student.
