According to the American Psychological Association, 41.6 percent of college students suffer from anxiety. Anxiety is described as a feeling of nervousness or worry about an event that’s outcome has not yet been decided. This is the technical definition of this mental illness, but it does not fully describe what this mental illness is really about.
At the age of 12, I began to have feelings of uneasiness and worry even when I did not have something to worry about. I had these imaginary fears about people, places and events that did not exist. It caused me to believe that I was going insane and the way I dealt with this was secluding myself from my family and friends because I felt like they were already judging me.
Finally, after taking an advanced placement psychology class during my senior year in high school, I realized that I was suffering from anxiety and depression. At the end of m freshmen year, I began to figure out ways not to rid myself of my anxiety, but to manage it.
Just as I did, you can manage your anxiety. Here is my advice for conquering anxiety on campus:
Figure out if you have anxiety.
The first bit of advice I can give is you need to do is figure out if you if you have anxiety.
According to Boston University, you may have anxiety “when your mood state interferes with your ability to function at school, like when you’re finding you can’t get to class and you don’t want to hang out with your friends or teammates.”
Accept anxiety.
The second one is realizing anxiety is not going to fix itself or disappear. You cannot rid yourself of anxiety, but with proper help, you can manage it.
There are levels to anxiety. During high levels, you will second and triple guess yourself. During low levels, you will feel what is considered normal.
Eliminate unnecessary negativity.
The third one is to eliminate small things that will build up and will possibly give you more anxiety. This includes homework, appointments or even something such as making your bed in the morning.
It is not worth it to let unimportant things bother you. If it does more harm than good, eliminate it.
Surround yourself with positivity.
My fourth piece of advice is to surround yourself with people who have positive mindsets.
There are people who will not understand what you are going through. These people will try to make you feel as though you are just overreacting or being emotional.
Recognize when you need help.
The final piece of advice that I can give is recognize when you are no longer able to manage your anxiety yourself.
There may come a time where these tactics start to fail and you find yourself being eaten alive by your negative thoughts. If there is even a glimmer of doubt in your mind that this becoming to much for you to handle, that is when you need to reach out.
I myself I have reached out to the counseling and psychological services on and off campus. I have my days where I can barely focus because of all the thoughts running through my head; however, I am proof that you can make it through college with this mental health illness and I have faith that you can do it, too.
