College can be one of the most exciting and rewarding times in an individual’s life, opening the door to pursue new knowledge, prepare for a future career and experience life in a new way. It can also be a very challenging time for students, especially those who may be at risk of developing or have already been diagnosed with a mental illness.

The onset of depressive illnesses tends to peak between the ages of 15 and 24 – just as academic pressures are mounting and students are adjusting emotionally to complex life changes. The challenges of college – leaving home for the first time, learning to live independently, forming new relationships, sleeping irregularly, and being confronted with greater access to alcohol and drugs – can be overwhelming for many students.

Living with depression and anxiety in college is a much bigger problem than you might imagine. If you can relate to these signs, please reach out for help:

1. Making Decisions

You get so anxious that your mind fogs and you don't know what to do. This is especially put into affect with deadlines or party invites. It hurts.

2. Activities

These are the most stressful. You can't find the energy to go out or an outfit you feel good in. You don't want to drink or you know you'll drink too much. Maybe you're the "DD" and you can't handle the responsibility of making sure your friends stay safe all night because if something goes wrong, you'll only blame yourself.

3. Sleep

You can't seem to get more than a blink of rest..or maybe you've been laying in bed for two days. You've missed class and you know you can't make that up, which only makes you stay in bed longer, phone on silent, Netflix asking you if you're "still watching?" for the 5th time.

4. Thinking

You sit in class, listening to your professor blab on about parapsychology, when all you can think about is your past failures or how you'll never get your degree. You constantly tell yourself you're not smart enough because you never have the energy to genuinely apply yourself. You feel like you're floating and it never seems to go away.

5. Head & Tummy Aches

It doesn't matter what you eat, everything upsets your stomach. You've had a migraine for 3 days and no amount of Advil will make it stop.

6. Appetite

You eat everything in sight one day and just a few chips or a single muffin on the other. Even when you're not hungry, you're hungry. When you're starving, nothing sounds good, so you just crack open a soda to keep you up and moving.

7. Emotions

Your significant others voice seems to be the only saving grace you have, then you hate them for not cleaning out the sink like you asked. You see a sappy dog video on Facebook and you lose it with tears. You feel nothing and everything all at once.

These signs and extremely real feelings of depression and anxiety in college are all too real for me and many others. Know the signs and reach out to your campus counselors for help and support!