Mental Health is not a new topic among college students or even at NSU. We hear constantly about the resources that are available to us, namely Henderson Student Counseling. We host Suicide Awareness Walks and when exams are around the corner we hold events to “destress” from all of our exams. Yet, we still have students that feel entirely overwhelmed with their school work and personal lives. If I had a penny for every single time I heard a student say “I’m so stressed” or “I’m so done” or something to that effect— myself included— I would be a billionaire by now. So we see these problems and hold all of these events and resources to support students feeling this way but nothing has changed. Why?
Honestly, it can be a number of things but I think a majority of it has to do with not actually fixing the problem. Yes, we can host 1,000 events to support students on the topic but that is not actually going to do anything if students aren’t getting the help they really need from it. If anything, hosting all these events with no real change just makes it seem like it’s a buzzword that can be thrown around just to say you care when in reality, you might not as you are not directly affected by these issues. But I beg to differ. Mental health issues are only something a select amount of students deal with.
According to a survey conducted by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 85 percent of college students reported they had felt overwhelmed by everything they had to do at some point within the past year.
I think it is safe to say that 85 percent is a majority of students. If that’s the case, then this is a huge problem that needs to be spoken about truthfully and openly and not just giving students a pamphlet at orientation. As I wrote this article you are reading, I’m sitting at home in New York the week after spring break that I requested from professors to take off to take care of my own mental health. Something that was not planned but became necessary after bottling up all my anxiety and stress until it blew up during a lab class where I had a panic attack in front of 30 of my classmates because I couldn’t figure out how to figure out simple math. It was my breaking point.
The only thing that is comforting in this fact is that I know I’m not alone. Through my job and through my college experience I’ve met plenty of students from all backgrounds who have told me of their own personal struggles with mental health and how their college experience has been affected by it. We see it on social media as well. Taking a “mental health day” to recollect our thoughts or doing meditation or going to counseling are some suggestions that are found online but I think that there is still a stigma surrounded by asking for help. Going to a therapist or some other mental health professional makes your situation real and I think as college students I don’t think we like to admit that there is a problem. At least with our generation, we want to do everything ourselves and succeed at it. We want to have an awesome social life, amazing grades, a great job, a good career path and great relationships with people, just to name a few. But we can’t juggle all of that on our sometimes and there is nothing wrong in admitting that.
If you are able to handle all of those things with ease then I’m proud of you and good luck in your future endeavors. But if it comes to a point that you know you can’t handle all this on your own on top of any personal struggles you may be facing then don’t be ashamed to ask for help or guidance. The more open and honest we are about this issue then the more help we will receive in the long run. So let’s talk.
