College Students’ Stress, Anxiety & Depression Essay Example
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) considers anxiety as the most prevalent psychiatric illness among children and adults. The anxiety that interferes with the day to day living of an individual develops to become a disorder. It defines depression as a condition where a person becomes disinterested with life, feels unmotivated, hopeless and discouraged. Students in college are likely to suffer from and hence exhibit symptoms of both depression and anxiety.
A behavioral medicine clinician report dated 2016 at Boston University notes that the number of students seeking help relating to depression and anxiety disorders has significantly increased. Students face challenges in college that cause them stress which eventually affects their learning experience negatively. Stress, anxiety, and depression among college students will result from the multiple tasks that they should perform while in college.
A large number
...of college students, for instance, will try to balance between college, family, friends and work. Stress anxiety and depression among college students result from their unhealthy habits, tough courses, financial constraints, relationship challenges and inability to balance between work, family, and education.
College work is usually demanding and takes a lot of a college student’s time to excel which eventually causes stress (Zajacova, Lynch, & Espenshade, 2005). In cases where the student underperforms, he or she develops the fear of falling behind or not completing studies. Such students who underperform may develop low self-esteem and may turn to drugs as a defense mechanism.
Different colleges have set up strict measures and procedures of dealing with students that underperform. In most instances, the college warns and eventually expels the student without considering the challenges the student face in education. In som
cases, the low college grades may result from the inability to finance the education or access the necessary resources properly. In other instances the low grades may result from mental health challenges that make it difficult for the student to cope with the environmental challenges. Some students are also parents and will try to commit part of their time to f their families.
Some college courses may turn out to be challenging than students that apply to such courses may develop stress in the learning process. The realization of the challenges involved in completing a particular cause may, therefore, make the struggle to complete such courses.
In other instance, students are forced to pursue causes by their parents who in most cases increase their burden in college. Pursuing a course that one commits no time to or that which no interest is present ends up frustrating the student. Students will suffer from fatigue and develop when pursuing a course professions they would do not love. It is only through interest and passion that causes in college will appear friendly.
In Degges-White & in Borzumato-Gainey (2014), viewed college friendship and relationships as significant in contributing or reducing stress levels among college students. Relationships that college students create and maintain in college may be a source of stress and anxiety. Young college students may be out and ready to try relationships that cause stress to the lives in college. In cases where a student attracts friends that are not committed to studies but are concerned with other habits that demand the use of resources, the student is forced to acquire such resources to develop the feeling of belonging to the
group.
Other students will feel lonely and lack the friend that will help them go through trying moments. With no friend to empathize with or share challenges with, students may eventually develop depression that negatively affects their wellbeing. Finding genuine friends becomes a challenge in an environment with individuals having different personalities. Some friends in college are exploitative leaving one struggling at the time of challenges. Other students start love relationships in college that negatively affect their wellbeing. Such relationships, for instance, may be short-lived living the student troubled over the next course of action to take.
Robotham (2008) argued that some students face the challenge of raising tuition fee in college which causes stress and anxiety. Stress develops among such students when they are not able to raise the required amounts to continue with their studies. Anxiety develops as they watch other students they joined classes with complete studies as they struggle to raise finances. The upkeep of students in college is relatively expensive making it affordable only to a few students that will comfortably manage the high expenses.
Students will try to find jobs that will finance their education and in most cases end up in low paying jobs due to their partial commitment. They, therefore, spend much time shifting between classes and work. Fatigue results from the lack of enough rest among students that combine both work and education. They end up stressing their minds and developing depression when unable to meet the goals set at their workplace and college.
Sharing work time with classes makes them underperform at both the workplace and education, receiving much pressure from their bosses and teachers and eventually developing stress. Research
published by Fogle & Pettijohn (2013) on the open journal of medical psychology showed that the lifestyle of the student, ways they handled stress, educational demands, and daily hassles contributed to high-stress levels among students.
Fogle & Pettijohn (2013) argued “poor self-care habits, educational demands, daily hassles, and perceived control over stressful situations” were causes of stress among college students .College students take little or no time for physical exercises which are likely to help them reduce body tension and consequent anxiety. A very small number of students in college are active in sports that will make them engage in physical exercises regularly.
They, however, spend much of their reading with the pressure of achieving better grades. Students will for instance sacrifice part of their sleep to take part in group discussions or research on difficult topics. They will then indulge in unhealthy lifestyles that include eating unbalanced diets and using drugs that will cause negative harm to the body. Continued use of substances, for instance, will make the body unable to adjust normally.
Inability to access a good diet will weaken the body and hence impact negatively on the mental health of the college student. Lack of enough sleep among students leads to mental fatigue and depression as they struggle to generate better grades. A large number of college student fail to realize the importance of physical exercise to their m mental health. The additional time that students take in performing educational tasks increases their stress levels they lack sufficient time to relax their bodies.
The kind of support that a student receives while in college has an impact on how he or she will overcome the different
causes of stress and anxiety. Family and friend support, for instance, play a significant role in helping a student successfully deal with stress, some colleges have set up a department that helps students deal with stress, anxiety, and depression although only a few students affected tend to seek the services.
Students will overcome stress by dealing with financial issues, balancing time between educations and performing physical exercises and eating healthy diets. Some students develop anxiety from the anticipation of missing a job upon graduation. Such anxiety will develop from the observation they make from the existing unemployed friends and graduates. They find it stressful and depressing to think of the time and resources they spend on education with very few chances of securing a job.
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