Anxiety: The True Downfall of College Students
Intro
I remember the moment I got home for summer break and plopped into my bedroom my brain bouncing off the walls of my skull. I had been through hell and back trying to get everything balanced- from school work, to my job at the theater, my social life etc. It turned out I had to deal with a lot of anxiety during my previous year of college. Everyday I would wake up with the nervous feeling within me fearing the whole day of an average time at college.
Every lecture I went through, every step I take on campus, every second of my friends talking- I always feel my molecules shivering in the cold. Eventually there would be a moment I would stop focusing and eventually stop functioning as I break down. I would later turn to the counselor who would recommend me to see a therapist soon.
Now I’m not the only college student who had to go through anxiety trip through school. In fact college seems to be one of main factors of anxiety and eventual depression. Imagine the daily things a college student would have to go through- poor grades, an interview coming up, troubles with loved ones- the amount of every day conflicts we as college students go through.
Glass People
One of the prime examples stems from a fictional example in the form of a student movie called Glass People directed by John Berardo and Brian Frager. Glass People centers around the daily life of a burnt out college student named Matt.
From the beginning of the film, Matt would be seen with a deer in the headlights look as he attends classes and other engagement. He is overwhelmed with the pressure of midterms, the interview he is about to take, his social life and the relationship with his girlfriend, Kelly.
As we see Matt wake up after an row with Kelly, he starts his day with a metaphorical shattered face resembling his fear of everything. From the moment he gets into the bathroom, Matt is always seeing himself broken and bruised which resembles all his anxiety with his engagements to various activities.
Eventually Matt decided to see a counselor regarding his anxiety attacks to figure out his problem. Much to his relief the counselor seems to understand his pain and assured him that anxiety was a natural thing among college students. She recommends Matt to see a therapist to handle said anxiety and encourages him to see her more often. For starters, he cancelled his interview and postponed it to get himself mentally prepared .Eventually Matt ended up reconciling with Kelly and no longer has the scary visions of being damaged.
What Berardo and Frager attempted with their film is to show the struggles with anxiety that students like Matt face everyday. Similar to Matt, college students struggle with their past, present and future regarding where their life will be once they graduate. Now how would we be able to take a real life event separate form a movie to show how these things happen? Also have their been any type of coping exercises to help control if not eliminate the anxiety?
Obsessed with Control
This comes from college student writer Melissa Binstock who was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder. From the age of eight, Melissa had a long battle with her OCD having to deal with uncontrollable movements with her inability to read. She eventually spent most of her time trying to arrange everything making sure she was prepared to handle her assignments. Without said rituals she wouldn’t be able to focus and eventually handle her anxiety.
Eventually Melissa’s OCD affected her personal life- from the clothes she’s wearing to the food she’s eating. This eventually affected her during college as she was attempting to find a way to eat and dress up the way she was used to while trying to balance school life at the same time.
It got to the point that Melissa decided to find a method with her OCD. Luckily she found the opportunity during a lecture of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), in which she could find a way to handle her obsessions. Further more her psychology professor happened to be a licensed therapist and offered to provide support and guidance for Melissa. Eventually Melissa practiced a method called Exposure and Responsive Prevention (ERP) in which she practiced handling anxiety provoking activities to the point she grew immune being out of her comfort zone. While Melissa isn’t 100 percent free of anxiety, she is able to handle it better than how she started.
With the correct methods, students and youth like Melissa are able to find coping mechanisms in order to deal with anxiety. Sometimes something as difficult as being in an unfamiliar environment could pay off in the long run. While it isn’t the end all be all regarding anxiety, it can be a solution that can help in the long run. When it comes to handling her anxiety, Melissa was struggling with her disorders when she was trying to manage her school life as well as personal life. However after some consoling and some practice she was able to control whatever insanity came in front of her.
College: The main cause of anxiety?
Is it possible to say that college is the root of anxiety for all the students. Well considering the stories of both Matt and Melissa its safe to assume so. What do both of them have in common? The answer- the both struggle with every day lives of college. So how can we determine how college affects students psychologically. Well according to the statistics from an article by Inside Higher Ed, it is shown that more than 62% of students left college due to their mental health problems. Under a survey by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) it is revealed that depression has been one of the major issues for the student with mental issues.
Eventually most of these students withdraw due to said mental health problems without the support of the college. In fact, 45% of these students didn’t receive academic accommodations or even mental health services in general. Because of said lack of accommodations, some of the students either slumped within grade point or even drop out of college. Even if some students who got the help or accommodations, they had found them unhelpful, in which the staff focused more on the physical aspects of the anxiety rather than focus on the needs of concerns.
This is very concerning regarding the future of potential college students, as we saw from Matt and Melissa. They both had been hugely affected by depression to the point where they couldn’t function. Is it possible that colleges are too ignorant to see the pain that these students are going through if it is not physical pain?
A talk with an Expert:
How can we determine how severe anxiety can affect these students? What can we see with how anxiety functions in the daily lives of these students? Well in enters Jason von Stietz, a counselor who happens to work at Whittier College’s counseling center. Jason has been kind of enough to give an interview for us.
Here Jason explains his personal experience understanding those with anxiety and eventual depression. It’s interesting to see someone see the truth within anxiety. Compared to the other counselors previously mentioned, it seems that he has a bigger understanding with both the physical and psychological effects of anxiety. It really does raise a big question- if a small school like Whittier has awareness of anxiety within the students, why can’t big universities?
Test Anxiety:
One of the things that Jason has listed as a common factor regarding anxiety is test anxiety. It’s common within students who have a fear of failure. The main causes include fear of failure, lack of preparation, and poor test history. Students who feel like they have had a poor record regarding their academic scores really feel the pressure especially when it comes to a test. Say if a student was in their final year of college and all they needed was one class to graduate. Eventually they fear that they would fail said class and thus they would lose focus and have a meltdown. Problems like these are common within students who must pressure themselves with getting a grade to pass a class. It eventually leads to the student either dropping out or withdrawing themselves from said class.
