I Want to Do Everything

I wanted to focus on anxiety from a student’s perspective, so I talked to some people I know who have anxiety. I turned to some of my best friends for them to tell me their stories.

One of my best friends, Kara, got diagnosed with anxiety about a year and a half ago.

I asked Kara what made her realize her anxiety. She told me that it’s always been a problem for her, “I remember being in 5th grade and I’d just cry about tests thinking I was going to fail them, but it was the 5th grade.”

In college it became a bigger problem. Kara wouldn’t cry about tests anymore, but it would feel like she couldn’t focus. While studying her brain couldn’t shut off with outside worries. She would also get bouts of anxiety whenever a sickness came. Kara is the type of person who seems to get sick a lot, and doctors can never really pin point why. This also played into part of her stress problems.

“I want to succeed, but I want to do everything. I want to make my parents proud, and Marquette is so expensive.”

This is what Kara says gives her the most anxiety about school. She’s in the Pre-Dental Scholars program at Marquette, an advanced program that lets students graduate undergrad in 3 years and have acceptance into the School of Dentistry automatically. While that’s an amazing opportunity for her it puts a lot on her plate. If she gets below a B in any of her science classes she gets kicked out of the program. It’s hard to balance that while also trying to enjoy the fun parts of college.

Before coming to Marquette Kara had a passion for music. She played flute from a young age, and tried to bring it into college with her. She joined the orchestra here, but it started to become so much with her studies. Kara eventually made the choice to give up music so she’d be able to focus and succeed in school. This sent Kara into a big questioning of herself.

The anxiety was getting bad for Kara. She felt like all she was doing was focusing on school, and studying, but it was getting to be too much. That’s when she sought out help from a doctor, and now she’s really seen an improvement.

To help with her anxiety she likes to listen to music that will calm her down and bring her spirits up, her favorite is Celtic Thunder. She also recommends doing mindfulness exercises like mediation.

When the anxiety gets really bad, however, Kara’s biggest suggestion is having friends you can be open about it with. To her it’s really important to have a friend that you can tell those feelings to and get them out as they’re happening.

Kara encourages that you don’t try and hide your emotions. This is something many students are doing now a days. Boston University published a really helpful article where their director of Wellness and Preventative Services called it the “game face” students like to put on, “But that’s not how they’re feeling…they feel really alone, isolated, that no one else feels like they do. And that’s just not the case.” The article can be found here which includes more helpful tips for how to handle anxiety and when to seek help.