Upon entering college, so many things change. It can either be an amazing experience or a traumatic one depending on the person. However, contrary to most people’s opinions it is not the college experience or schoolwork that stresses out the students but that they change from being a “kid” to an “adult.”
According to the December archives of General Psychiatry, almost half of this country’s 19 to 25-year-olds have the symptoms of at least one psychiatric disorder.
The study, which was conducted at Columbia University and went through with the help from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, found “more alcohol use disorders among college students, while their noncollegiate peers were more likely to have a drug-use disorder.” Over everything else, most students agree misery is the number one problem, whether in college or not.
In America, people are depressed and anxious and it is because of the reality of becoming an adult and preparing for their future. They ask themselves constant questions of, “Who do I want to be?” and “When will I find someone to love?”
Questions like these leave students stressed and worried about the life they want to have over the reality of the life they will have, due to money and social pressures.
“What stresses me out is knowing that I am on my own. With that, I put so many more responsibilities on myself, especially with school. There is no one to yell at me anymore if I get a bad grade or do something stupid-it is all on me,” sophomore secondary education major Megan Hardy said.
“The hardest pressure about being considered an adult is being yourself. In this world, you have to be this person and often we forget who we are. It is about living the good life, at the end of the day if you can’t stare at the person in the mirror and be happy, truly happy, then what is the point of living,” junior philosophy and religious studies major Julian Maliszewski said.
“The thought of starting a career that I will have for the rest of my life and having a family to support really makes me stressed out,” sophomore psychology major Kristen Mastrogiovanni said.
Whether it is stress outside or inside the classroom, money, social issues or finding romance, these are all problems that concern students between the ages of 19 to 25 years old. According to a Los Angeles Times article, it is not the academics that hurts but is the emotional problems concerning love that cause the biggest despair.
“Emotional problems were more than twice as common among students who had recently had a major loss?typically a romantic breakup?than among those who had not,” Columbia University psychiatrist Dr. Mark Olfson, who led the research for the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, said.
Making decisions and changing into the real world is what has many students anxious and the only thing to do is take one day at a time. Realizing that with growing up and this economy, students need to be aware that this is a time everyone is going through.
