Twenty-year-old college student Isabel is used to working hard. She completed high school one year early and worked three jobs the majority of 2021. But, she felt like she was “sinking” when she entered college that fall.
The first semester, she was aware that she wasn’t feeling like herself because her once-bubbly demeanour had changed and she was crying much more frequently than usual.
A Spanish exam was the turning point for everything. A film about prejudice in her communities was being watched by other students when Isabel, who identifies as both Latina and Black, overheard it. As her negative feelings intensified, she was forced to leave before completing the test.
Isabel claims she pleaded with her parents to let her stay on campus, but they insisted that she travel the three hours home, and she quickly withdrew medically.
According to a recent survey, many college students experience mental health issues, and an increasing percentage of them have thought about leaving their programmes.
According to a survey released on Thursday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, a private, independent organisation focused on creating accessible opportunities for post-secondary learning, two out of five undergraduate students, including nearly half of female students, say they frequently experience emotional stress while attending college.
She continued, “Then I just started getting a full-blown panic attack.” “Everywhere my thoughts was racing.”
The poll discovered that more than 40% of students now enrolled in undergraduate degree programmes had thought about leaving in the previous six months, up from 34% in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most frequently claimed reasons included emotional stress and individual mental health, significantly more frequently than others like financial constraints and the difficulty of the courses.
The early years of adulthood are generally a sensitive time for mental health, and the big changes that frequently accompany attending college can be additional stressors, according to experts.
The college years are a very epidemiologically vulnerable time, according to Sarah K. Lipson, an assistant professor at Boston University and principal investigator with the Healthy Minds Network, a research organisation specialising in the mental health of adolescents and young adults. “About 75% of lifetime mental health problems will onset by the mid-20s, so that means that the college years are a very epidemiologically vulnerable time,” she said.
“And last, the transfer to college brings with it a fresh sense of independence for many teenagers and young people. Now that they have reached this new level of independence, which also involves greater independence over their decision-making with regard to their mental health, they may be exhibiting the early warning signs and symptoms of mental health disorders.
Young individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 are disproportionately affected by mental illness, which affects an estimated 1 in 5 adults in the United States. Since several years ago, more college students have reported experiencing anxiety and depression; the Covid-19 pandemic has only made things worse.
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of federal statistics, half of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 reported having anxiety or depressive symptoms in 2023, compared to about a third of all adults.
How to stop the “shame spiral”
College students’ mental health is crucial, according to experts.
According to Lipson, it “predicts pretty much every long-term result that we care about, including their future economic earnings, workplace productivity, as well as their future mental and physical health.”
It took some time for Isabel to recognise how much she was fighting with her mental health.
“Feeling overwhelmed and like I had space to even remember to eat was the number one thing I struggled with,” she said. You don’t know how to take care of yourself, they said. But that wasn’t the case; in addition to the five papers that were due and the assignments, I also had to work and attend [class]. I then needed to find some time to sleep. I was drinking an energy drink the majority of the time. And if you have a social life, God forbid.
Many students expressed that they had other expectations for their lives than this. This isn’t the schedule they had in mind, according to Julie Wolfson, director of outreach and research for the College ReEntry programme at Fountain House, a nonprofit organisation that serves people with mental illness.
“They observe how their friends go on to finish school, graduate, and obtain their first jobs. But they feel entrapped and as like their life is falling apart in front of their very eyes.
The “shame spiral,” as Lipson described it, may begin.
Therefore, assistance is urgently needed. According to a fall 2021 poll by the Healthy Minds Network, 1 in 7 college students reported having suicidal thoughts—an increase from the previous year.
Yet experts in mental health emphasise the significance of putting one’s own needs ahead of the established quo.
According to Marcus Hotaling, a psychologist at Union College and the president of the Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors, “there’s no shame in taking some time off.”
“Come for a semester. Consider a year. Whether you choose counselling or medicine, get better so you can return to school stronger, more focused, and, most importantly, healthy.
They also exhort universities to reduce this pressure by establishing procedures that make it easier for students to transfer.
Yet experts in mental health emphasise how crucial it is to put one’s own needs before the current quo.
As president of the Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors and a psychologist at Union College, Marcus Hotaling asserted, “There’s no shame in taking some time off.”
Consider a semester. Choose a year. Come back stronger, a better student, more focused, and most importantly, healthier once you get healthy, whether it be through treatment or medication.
Additionally, they exhort universities to create procedures that streamline the return process in order to help alleviate this burden.
Increasing support
Each person’s approach to managing their mental health is unique, and experts disagree that taking a break from education is always the best option.
According to Ryan Patel, senior staff psychiatrist at The Ohio State University and chair of the American College Health Association’s mental health section, making that decision can be aided by tracking progress through self-assessments of symptoms and functioning indicators, such as class attendance and completing assignments.
It could be wise to consider going back to school if we’re making progress and you’re getting better, he added. Yet, “I think the differentiating point happens if you’re doing everything you can in your daily life to better your mental health and we’re not making progress, or things are becoming worse despite best efforts.”
The student’s support system, including their access to services and treatment providers, is something to consider as well, he added.
According to specialists, it took some time to clearly define the issue and make the argument for paying more attention to college students’ mental health.
Yet, as the need for services grows, college counselling centres are finding it difficult to keep up with demand, and the dearth of mental health specialists doesn’t end at the campus perimeter.
But, according to experts, institutions are ideally situated to provide students with a close-knit network of support. To expand the “community of care,” it is necessary to have support to take use of such framework.
According to Hotaling, “colleges have an educational goal, and I would argue that this duty extends to education concerning health and safety.”
He suggested that college staff members receive training in identifying urgent worries or dangers to a student’s safety. Nevertheless, they must also be aware of the variety of mental health issues that students may experience and be able to point them in the direction of the right support system.
Isabel just completed Fountain House’s College ReEntry programme, and she is now enrolled again at a college that is a little closer to her home and where a close friend from high school also studies. Knowing that she has a supportive social group and an academic programme that supports her career goals—to become an art curator—helps her.
This time around, things are still difficult, but she claims she feels like she has the tools she needs to deal with them. “There is always work to be done on this foundation I am laying. Every day, there’s like a crack, she remarked. “I feel like I was looking for a screwdriver when I needed a hammer when I was trying to figure things out. Now, I don’t know that I can handle it, but I do know that I have good coping methods, helpers, and tactics. That gave me the courage and endurance to try it again.
