Mental Health: A College Student's Battle

Mental Health: 

A College Student's Battle 

        In this day and age, people are more willing and accepting to conversate about the things that trouble them and mental health is one of the things on that agenda. Mental health can affect all sorts of people, young and old, but young adults are the demographic that are the most affected -- specifically college students. This group of people experience the rigorous nature of college courses and are expected to adapt to adulthood simultaneously, which can cause, perhaps, the most psychological obstacles in their lives that they've ever had. This issue is one that may be attainable over time but can also be preventable or controllable through various means. But before we get into that, we must define mental health and all of its characteristics.

What is Mental Health?

 

   According to mentalhealth.gov, mental health deals with our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. These three attributes affect how we think, feel, and act and can determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Many people believe they aren't affected but in reality 1-in-5 American adults experience a mental health issue which can evolve into a consistently pessimistic lifestyle.

Signs that you may be Affected:

• Eating or sleeping too much or too little
• Pulling away from people and usual activities
• Having low or no energy
• Feeling numb or like nothing matters
• Having unexplained aches and pains
• Feeling helpless or hopeless
• Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual
• Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
• Yelling or fighting with family and friends
• Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
• Having persistent thoughts and memories you can't get out of your head
• Hearing voices or believing things that are not true
• Thinking of harming yourself or others
• Inability to perform daily tasks like taking care of your kids or getting to work or school 

        (mentalhealth.gov)

    

   

    According to activeminds.org, a website which informs us about mental health and the different demographics it affects, states that suicide is the second most leading cause of death among young adults, partially because mental issues. The image below provides more statistics from the website which tells us more about how mental health issues affect students.

    I believe that on top of all the coursework that college students endure, their private lives can affect their mental state both positively and negatively. College work is not easy. It demands more time and attention than any other work one may have previously done, and its intensity varies depending on one's major. This deep attention that college work requires may already be hard to maintain especially if one hasn't dealt with that kind of intensity before. Moreover, some students take on part-time jobs while they go to school, some partake in sports, some have children to take care of, and some just have a hard time with school in general. All of these things coincide with each other and overwhelm college students and gives them a hard time to say the least. They have to make the right decisions and manage their time and rationalize their thoughts which can be too much for them to handle on their own. This makes mental health a serious conversation topic amongst college students.

    As a college student myself, I can't say that I've never felt overwhelmed and utterly lost at times. I'm a third-year Animation major student and my courses get more and more demanding as the semesters come. On top of that, I work a part-time job at Panda Express, which contributes to my bills each month. Each assignment requires more and more time and my motivation to finish those assignments is slowly diminishing as the semester progresses.

    I believe that thinking about everything that I have to do and not taking things incrementally is when I start to feel troubled and oppressed. Taking things slow is what's been helping me accomplish the things that need to be done and preparing for the next ones. Finding and managing my time has also helped me immensely. Overall, my mental isn't as healthy as I'd like it to be, but I'm slowly managing as time rolls over.

    I chose this assignment because I've talked to a plethora of students at CSULA, most of which have told me about their well-being not "being" where they want it to be. We can all relate to each other on how difficult our coursework can be and how we're feeling, which is why I believe we can all get help. Mental health issues impedes on the things we want to accomplish but we can help get us through it together.

Works Cited

• What Is Mental Health? (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health

• Statistics. (2020, October 08). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.activeminds.org/about-mental-health/statistics/