By NICOLE SHANLEY
College students around the globe are among the highest stress levels when faced with regulating the proper balance in their lives, studies show.
Stress among college students has always been a huge concern, but has grown rapidly over the last few decades, as found in a recently study done at The University of California, Los Angeles by their Counseling and Psychological Services. With all of the pressure and expectations that college students have to live up to, it is no surprise that they feel this way.
Between leaving their families at home, feeling intense pressure to obtain high grade point averages, focusing on future career plans, taking exams, trying to establish and balance a romantic and social life, dealing with high tuition costs and even sometimes working a job during the school year, they have very little time to focus on themselves and their health.
Sarah Powers, a recent graduate of Montclair State University, not only finished with her master’s degree but also balanced working 40 hours per week at her job, all throughout her college years. Although this put immense amounts of stress on her, she still was able to find the proper balance with the help of her weekly stress reducers.
“Without my meditation each morning and my daily trips to the gym or the yoga studio, I don’t think I could’ve handled all of the stress college brought among me, it really is tough,” says Powers.
“Mental health disorders are the most common health problems on college campuses outside of colds and allergies,” says Jerald Kay, chair of the department of psychiatry at Wright State University in Ohio and author of the book “Mental Health Care in the College Community.”
Promoting student’s social and emotional well-being is crucial, experts say.
Forty million U.S. adults suffer from some form of an anxiety disorder and at least 75 percent of them experience their first episode of anxiety by age 22. In a 2008 study, 80 percent of college students said they frequently experienced daily stress. In addition, 34 percent have felt depressed at some point in just the last three months. On a much more serious note, 9 percent had seriously considered suicide in the past year.
(AUDIO: Listen to Jessica Nacincik, student of The Ramapo College of New Jersey speak on stress related depression effecting college students.)
Some colleges are taking the initiative to redesign areas of campus solely for students’ downtime. College counseling centers are becoming more and more popular as they update their resources and available assistance for treatment. Some basic but key stress reducers that can help are yoga, meditation, napping, walking and even a simple deep breath.
“I’d say I get a lot of anxiety with work, school and sorority life. It’s just a lot of responsibility. Each one on its own is a job and just thinking about juggling all three at once gives me stress,” says Monica Fesser, a UCLA student.
Some of the benefits of meditation and other stress reducers include better immune function, less illness and physical complaints, more energy, feeling more relaxed and even sleeping better.
These stress reducers are crucial in surviving college. Campuses should take immediate action to better their counseling centers if they have not already, as well as dedicate locations on campus strictly for downtime and relaxation. With these unhealthily high stress levels building up, we absolutely have to be taking the time to get them back down.
For more information, visit www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/us/more-college-freshman-report-having-felt-depressed.html?_r=2
As a college student, this is definitely a story that grabs my attention. It’s informative and relatable and you did a good job of providing interesting statistics and personal anecdotes from students who deal with stress at school. I think students who feel stressed want to know that they aren’t alone.