Mental health is a profoundly serious topic. It affects how we think, feel, and act, it helps to determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make decisions. Mental health is important at every stage of someone’s life and should never be ignored. Some examples of common mental health issues include anger, anxiety, depression, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and borderline personality disorder (BPD).
College students are especially prone to suffer from bad mental health. They can be stressed out from schoolwork and exams, they can be depressed because they don’t like the school they picked, and they can suffer from anxiety when they are under pressure. The list goes on and on, and it can vary from person to person. Some students may not suffer from any mental health issues, but other students might have a much harder time.
Even though college is an educational experience, it’s still supposed to be fun and enjoyable. You might feel so stressed out because you have a paper due at 11:59 p.m., math homework, science homework, and what feels like a million other things on your plate. The number one thing you can do to avoid feeling stressed and overwhelmed by your workload is to organize and plan ahead.
If possible, you should try to spread your work out so that you’re not bombarded with five hours of schoolwork in one night. Having to do too much work in a short period of time can feel impossible and cause stress, but it can be avoided with proper time management skills. Using a planner to map out when you want to do your work and study can make a huge difference and can help ensure that you aren’t overworking yourself by leaving everything until the last minute.
Spreading your work out throughout the week can also give you time to see your friends and just hang out. When you do a little bit of work at a time and slowly chip away at assignments before they build up it can feel like you have more time to do the things you truly enjoy. Students can easily get depressed if they feel like all they do is schoolwork and have no time for themselves. It can be hard to properly budget your time if you’re leaving all of your work until the last minute.
Taking some time to yourself during the school year might sound impossible with all the work you have to do, but it can be done! Planning my work out helps me make sure that I’m leaving enough time to do things I enjoy and not spending all of my time on school. This gives me time to get my nails done, get my hair done, and go out with my friends, all without having to worry about school.
Some college students will opt to blow off their schoolwork because they don’t care and would rather spend the time doing things they enjoy, but there are consequences to that. Their grades can suffer as a result and that can lead them to be stressed out.
Monmouth University has resources for college students who are going through a bad mental health period, which I think is a very important tool to have and utilize. College students are prone to stress, anxiety, and depression due to their immense workload. The University does a good job of recognizing this issue and doing their best to address it. They provide us with counseling and psychological services that allow students to meet with clinical psychologists, social workers, professional counselors, and graduate-level interns under the supervision of professional staff to talk about their problems.