Ever feel overwhelmed with so many responsibilities that it affects your everyday livelihood? If you’re a college student, you’re not alone. In today’s society, one and four college students will be diagnosed with a mental illness while 40% will fail to seek help.
There are many factors to the rising numbers of mental illness for college-aged adults. At a time where collegiate competition is at its peak, college students are on average only receiving 6 hours of sleep per day . This is a direct result of high demands from professors and other extracurricular activities that consume a lot of time and effort.
On top of many academic priorities, college students face unseen before social pressures that may cause them to develop habits that could be detrimental to mental health. In college, binge drinking is at its all-time high due to the increased availability of alcohol and the lack of knowledge about alcohol abuse. It is believed that about 30% of all college students meet the criteria of alcohol abuse in the United States. This is excluding many other substances that also have debilitating effects on one's mental health.
Other social pressures include sex-related pressures as well, particularly when drugs and alcohol are involved. Every year, 96,000 students are sexually assaulted with an influence of alcohol or date rape drugs. This is largely due to the high levels of binge drinking on college campuses in America, as well as newly adapted “hook up” culture that glamorizes spontaneous and random sex with unfamiliar partners. Also, social pressure and coercion play an effect on victims not wanting to let down a partner of theirs.
All these factors lead to a high risk of mental burnout for young minds experiencing adulthood for the first time. The combination of academics, alcohol, and drugs, and social pressure makes 18-24-year-olds more susceptible to anxiety, depression, and eating disorders more so than any other age group. For every year you are in college, 33% of your fellow female colleagues and 27% of your fellow male colleagues will be so depressed at one point in the year that it will be too difficult or them to function.
Being someone who deals with a lot of anxiety and depression at times, it is vital that our universities provide proper facilities for those suffering from mental illness. While George Washington University has a fantastic health clinic, most college students around the country do not share the same luxuries as we do here on campus.
Even while having an up-to-par health clinic, many students still struggle with mental illness due to the backlash many think it would bring, as it may appear as a weakness to some. For those students, just know that you are surrounded by so many people undergoing the same circumstances as you. Always feel free to express your emotions to a friend or counselor.
I promise you’ll feel more relieved after coming out and expressing your feelings than if you hadn’t done so at all. A world without mental illness is not possible but let’s strive to look out for one another and create a safer environment.
