Pressures of college life overwhelm students
By Colleen Snyder
At the beginning of the year, I found myself feeling extremely overwhelmed with the prospect of graduating. My problem was not so much that I was afraid to graduate but that I was nervous about what would happen next. This anxiety was affecting my happiness, my school, my work and even my relationships. When I exploded at my boyfriend after he asked me about graduate school, I decided to see what the Counseling Center could offer me.
My point is that no matter how insignificant or relative your problem seems to be, if it's affecting your life, it's a real problem. I think a lot of times students write their problems off as something they need to get over instead of something they need to work through. College presents a wide variety of problems and to survive four years not affected by any of them would be amazing but ultimately unrealistic.
In fact, around 30 percent of college freshmen report feeling overwhelmed a "great deal of the time," according to the National Mental Health Association. This is not just a problem with freshmen, however. In 2001, psychologist Robert Gallagher of the University of Pittsburgh conducted a survey regard-ing mental health on col-lege campuses. Eighty-five percent of the colleges surveyed reported "an inc-rease in the past five years of students with severe psychological problems."
Larry Wolfe, Ph.D., the director of Health and Counseling at Santa Clara, notes a similar trend on our campus, saying that "we have seen a steady increase in the number of students ... since 1996-97, when we saw 410 students, to the last two years when we saw 500 students each year."
"It is very typical for students to experience feelings of stress, being overwhelmed, lonely etc as they transition from high school or [as a result of] break ups in relationships," said Wolfe. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Web site points to the various pressures that accompany college life: the often overwhelming emphasis on getting good grades, trying to balance one's finances for the first time, assuming responsibility for one's own social life, sorting out the many new ideas and lifestyles that may present themselves in one form or another, realizing one's sexuality and of course, the general anxiety about graduating and what to do next.
These are real issues affecting real people, and it's okay to seek help. The increase of students seeking help is most likely proof that our society is becoming more accepting of mental illness. Ten years ago, most people would squirm at the thought of classifying people who feel lonely, anxious or depressed as suffering from some degree of mental illness.
Sometimes just feeling bad cannot be explained by one particular cause, and this is when they become the source of much anguish. "The stigma around mental illness and just feeling bad has been reduced in recent years.
"The media, especially television has had a lot to do with normalizing the struggles that we humans go through," said Wolfe. "Talk shows, better medications and more effective therapy have all helped to relieve unnecessary suffering."
The free counseling services offered to all students at universities makes it even easier to alleviate this suffering. At Santa Clara, the counselors promise to "listen and help you to understand yourself better and support you in identifying ways of reaching your own goals," according to the center's Web site. It is important for students to understand that there are caring professionals ready and willing to help sort out whatever issues they may be facing and that it is a brave and intelligent act to accept one's limitations and to seek out help.