From The Campus: Students Open Up About College Stress, Experts Share Insights

For Students College can be a doorway to many different experiences. They get to learn new things and take their first steps into a career of their choosing. But college can be a stressful ordeal, both physically and emotionally for a lot of students.

Mental health is very important not only for college students but for every human being. However, as college can be a stressful ordeal for many students, it is important to take care of not only physical but mental peace as well.

The Free Press Journal asked a few students and a student counsellor to better understand mental health and how college students cope with stress, trauma, anxiety and many other issues that are common in their lives.

Students’ perspectives

When students were asked what really causes them to go through a lot of emotional stress in college, the answers ranged from anxiety due to assignments and submission dates to loneliness due to living in a secluded area. 

Aaliah Sayyed, a fourth-year psychology student, told this correspondent, “The most stressful thing about college is the assignments I would say and sometimes the lack of communication from the college about coursework or exams.”

When asked about how they cope with the stress they go through, students listed different approaches—from being around friends, listening to music, watching movies and other positive coping mechanisms. However, some of them also mentioned how some of their peers have other negative methods of coping like substance abuse, highlighting how it can be very dangerous and addictive. 

Sheena Gadhvi, a second-year psychology student, says, “ Friends for sure! I love spending time with my friends, it definitely makes you feel lighter about stressful situations you might be going through, I also like watching movies and sometimes treating myself to fun food.”

When asked about what resources the colleges provide to help students cope with the hard times, all of them mentioned having a campus mental wellness clinic. Ayush Bhavsar a third-year cinematography student from Whistling Woods International, mentioned, “Our College started this initiative, that I think should be in every college, which is the concept of a calm corner, which is a room dedicated to de-stress, it has AC for soothing, even a massage chair, video games, things which relax you in between large assignments.”

A counsellor’s perspective

To gain a better understanding of students’ issues, the correspondent spoke to Father Francis De Melo, who heads the Wellness Centre of St Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

When asked how many students approach them each month, he mentioned, “We have three counsellors who take around five sessions each day totalling around 120 cases a month. Of course, not 120 different students as one student normally come for about 10 sessions.”

He then continued to enumerate the issues that college students talk about during their sessions. “One is personal mental health problems, depression, panic attacks and anxiety, 80% of which is related to parents and relationship with parents, in which we have called parents for sessions—not individual counselling but sessions with them.”

He also mentions helping students reach their full potential through aptitude counselling. According to Fr De Melo, several students, who don’t have psychological issues, operate far below their level and they want to do aptitude testing to understand what they could do better to enhance their performance.

When asked if all the children’s issues are discussed with their parents he denies it. “No, that we never do. Only when the issues are about the parents, they are called,” Fr De Melo told the FPJ.  

“We do not give any details of the student's issues even to other counsellors, there is total confidentiality between the psychiatrist and the student,” Fr De Melo adds.

Then when asked to describe how negative emotional stress impacts students, he said, “It emotionally impacts a student because most of them have this problem called overthinking. Many of these students’ brains work at high speeds, and they needlessly repeat the same steps of overthinking.”

When asked what the counsellors do to help students overcome emotional stress, De Mello said, “We can’t stop a student from feeling anxious or overthinking, but we can teach them how to quieten the mind by feeling the body, controlled breath exercises and activities like yoga.”