College and stress are two words that go together hand in hand. No matter what, it is virtually impossible to go through the college experience without feeling an ounce of stress. The thing is, a little bit of stress in your life is normal and manageable. Where it becomes an issue is when that little bit turns into an abundance.
As a rising junior in college, every passing year seems to bring an increasingly heavy work load. With the advancement of technology, teachers across the globe are expecting more of students. They assign more work with the assumption that it can be completed because of all these new “resources,” while often forgetting the stress and pressure these expectations can have on students.
The syllabus is one of the clearest cut ways to receive your expectations for a semester or year. Sometimes, you get lucky. Other times, you get caught in a mountain of work. A teacher will assign a textbook reading, plus a couple of articles which can span anywhere from 20-100 pages, as well as a written assignment all to be completed within a couple of days. They then slap a grade on it and give you another one, and another.
Many times, teachers pile on the readings because they think that all of their students are using artificial intelligence to scan and read for them. Somehow, this translates to giving more work. While there are plenty of students who use AI, there are just as many who don’t.
This is where the stress comes in. This can look like: sleepless nights, bad eating habits, procrastination, persistent worry, and even skipping class. For the students who do all the work without the help of AI, they are getting piled on with more to do than they can handle.
On top of studious stressors, students also deal with social pressures. Peer pressure and social anxiety are two of the most popular forms of stress I’ve seen in my fellow college students. Especially when it comes to “taking a load off,” students can easily get carried away or pressured to get carried away with drinking. This can cause them to lose control over their workload and their social lives, which leaves many struggling in need of resources.
Because of these concerns, mental health resources on campus are incredibly important. They can help students manage their stress and anxiety that they find from classes with difficult workloads or anything going on in their personal lives. Resources are vital for the health of students, and a lack of access can be detrimental for student mental health.
In this respect, school resources are very important and helpful, but also difficult to find time for. While it is highly beneficial to have mental health resources on campus that help students experiencing stress and anxiety, most students cannot find the time to utilize these resources, or their only time is when these offices close. For students who are also part-time workers, finding time to get help is nearly impossible.
This is why it is important to have more resources open at night or early mornings and available to more students. When mental health offices are only open during the school day, it makes it pretty difficult for students to find time between classes to go in for long enough to get the help they need.
Another factor that is important to recognize is age. While college students are adults, and thus, treated as such, between a person’s 20s and 30s, the frontal lobe is still developing. This doesn’t mean that college students should be thought of as children or treated like it, but it is important to have the necessary resources for people who are still in development to have access to the correct care.
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center provides quality mental health care to people from birth to age 24 regardless of ability to pay, serving as a beacon of hope for students throughout Nassau County. Services are offered both in-person at three locations or via telehealth, with appointments as late as 9:00pm. There is no wait list, as they know that access delayed is access denied.
More colleges should run by this example. Care should be included in the college experience, especially if the school is one of the stressors responsible for mental health challenges. It should not be expected of students to have an impossible workload that only a computer can handle. It defeats the purpose of telling students not to use AI if that is the only thing that can complete the assignment in time. Instead, a manageable workload that doesn’t need to be scanned should be the norm, and free care early morning to late at night should be installed everywhere.
Many schools are getting better at having resources available, but a big issue is the ratio of students to care providers. A school may have 15 therapists available, and that seems like a great number, but when you have a school with over 40,000 students, 15 doesn’t seem so great anymore. Fixing these ratios so that students don’t have to wait to get care should be a top priority because access delayed is access denied.
School is supposed to be challenging, but it was never meant to be impossible.
If you are having a hard time dealing with school or other challenges, call the Guidance Center at (516) 626-1971 to get connected with the help you need.
