Ninety-percent of female college students reported feeling overwhelmed by all they had to do in the previous 12-months (15-percentage points higher than college men).
–Statistics courtesy of the American College Health Association's Fall 2015 National College Health Assessment
Seventy-four-percent of young women between the ages of 13 and 21 say they feel the pressure to be perfect, according to a Seventeen/Yahoo survey.
Stress, anxiety and sleep difficulties are the biggest life issues that American college students say affect their studies.
–Statistics courtesy of the American College Health Association's Fall 2015 National College Health Assessment
These are some statistics that I found on Campus Calm websites that she had collected for an article she wrote.
What scares me from personal experiences and from what I hear talking to women at school is that we are all stressed out. We are becoming so anxious that is affecting our physical, mental and physiological health.
I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder over six-months ago. Before I was diagnosed I made myself so anxious about little things like little things such as being 15-minutes early to everything, driving, what clothes I wore, how my hair looked that I was making myself sick. I would be awake all night trying to stifle the emotions I had of feeling inadequate. From feeling like I wasn't a good role model because I had to take a break from school first semester, and feeling like I didn't live up to anyones expectations of me.
I learned that I had to forget about what I thought everyone else was thinking of me and listen to the truth that never changes. I had to let go of thinking that I could do everything by myself, and realize that I am surrounded by people that can help me and empower me.
When we decide to let our negative thoughts about others thoughts on us crumble we choose to release our anxiety from ourselves.
It is daily struggle to not assume that others aren't criticizing our every move. What I have learned is that if someone really has an issue with you that is worth you hearing, they will usually come tell you. What we don't hear with our ears, or see with our eyes, but hear from the negative voice inside our head can be false. I'm not saying that our beliefs are not true, what I'm saying is that sometimes we can make ourselves anxious with what we assume is true even though its never been addressed. We need to let go of what we think others believe of us and live in what we know for a fact is truth.
We also need to feed ourselves with positivity.
If there is a friend in your life that is negative all the time that puts you down you might need to distance yourself. There are truly people in the world that want to encourage them. When you find those people, be honest with them, they are your crew. They are there to help not harm. Most of the time parents can be encouraging as well as some professors, teachers, and significant others.
Most importantly, we need to believe in ourselves.
Lets not be worried about what we have to do, but know that we can do it. Lets realize that we are capable of excellence, and that if we can survive day to day that our anxiety has already lost the battle.
