What It's Like To Live With Depression & Anxiety In College | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Health and Wellness

What It's Like To Live With Depression & Anxiety In College

It's a never ending cycle.

15
What It's Like To Live With Depression & Anxiety In College
Huffington Post

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!

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Drake
Hypetrak

1. Nails done hair done everything did / Oh you fancy huh

You're pretty much feeling yourself. New haircut, clothes, shoes, everything. New year, new you, right? You're ready for this semester to kick off.

Keep Reading...Show less
7 Ways to Make Your Language More Transgender and Nonbinary Inclusive

With more people becoming aware of transgender and non-binary people, there have been a lot of questions circulating online and elsewhere about how to be more inclusive. Language is very important in making a space safer for trans and non-binary individuals. With language, there is an established and built-in measure of whether a place could be safe or unsafe. If the wrong language is used, the place is unsafe and shows a lack of education on trans and non-binary issues. With the right language and education, there can be more safe spaces for trans and non-binary people to exist without feeling the need to hide their identities or feel threatened for merely existing.

Keep Reading...Show less
Blair Waldorf
Stop Hollywood

For those of you who have watched "Gossip Girl" before (and maybe more than just once), you know how important of a character Blair Waldorf is. Without Blair, the show doesn’t have any substance, scheme, or drama. Although the beginning of the show started off with Blair’s best friend Serena returning from boarding school, there just simply is no plot without Blair. With that being said, Blair’s presence in the show in much more complex than that. Her independent and go-getter ways have set an example for "Gossip Girl" fans since the show started and has not ended even years after the show ended. Blair never needed another person to define who she was and she certainly didn’t need a man to do that for her. When she envisioned a goal, she sought after it, and took it. This is why Blair’s demeanor encompasses strong women like her.

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

20 Feelings Anyone Who Loves To Sing Has

Sometimes, we just can't help the feelings we have

1206
singing
Cambio

Singing is something I do all day, every day. It doesn't matter where I am or who's around. If I feel like singing, I'm going to. It's probably annoying sometimes, but I don't care -- I love to sing! If I'm not singing, I'm probably humming, sometimes without even realizing it. So as someone who loves to sing, these are some of the feelings and thoughts I have probably almost every day.

Keep Reading...Show less
success
Degrassi.Wikia

Being a college student is one of the most difficult task known to man. Being able to balance your school life, work life and even a social life is a task of greatness. Here's an ode to some of the small victories that mean a lot to us college students.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments