Are you a student who’s been struggling with their mental health issues recently? Have you been finding it difficult to complete your assignments? Has COVID-19 and online classes dramatically affected your mental well-being?
Students nowadays experience a lot of hardships that can cause their mental health to worsen – keeping up their grades, juggling their workload, and increasing pressures to excel, to name a few. While their mental health issues can vary, student mental health is a prevalent issue nonetheless.
The rest of this article will cover the most common mental health issues, as well as some student mental health statistics.
Most common mental health issues suffered by students
Being a full-time student is not easy. Failing grades, difficult classes, competition among peers, a huge workload, or little time to relax can contribute to poor mental health in university students. COVID-19 has also disrupted the lives of many students, possibly causing their mental health issues to worsen. This is why it’s important to manage your mental health.
Depression
Students can struggle to get out of bed in the morning, or finding any motivation to complete the simplest tasks.
Depression can have a further negative impact on students’ schoolwork, which can cause their mental health to worsen.
Anxiety
Students can experience many forms of anxiety – whether it’s generalised anxiety or social anxiety, for example.
You may be feeling anxious about the future, like an upcoming test or exam. Others may also feel anxious about social events, such as going to parties.
Eating Disorders
Students may end up developing an eating disorder due to body dysmorphia. They may also develop anorexia or bulimia as it offers them control in their lives.
Addictions
More often than not, students end up abusing drugs or alcohol – either as a coping mechanism or pressure to fit in.
Sleeping issues
Students can also experience a disturbance in their sleep, such as little to no sleep. This can be due to staying up too late due to school or failing to switch their brain off.
Shocking student mental health statistics
- In 2015/6, over 15,000 first-year university students said that they had a mental health issue they were struggling with, compared to 3,000 in 2006.
- Student suicides have increased by 79% from 2007 to 2015.
- The Office of National Statistics conducted a survey on students in late 2020. Out of 2000 students, they found that 57% had experienced a decline in their mental wellbeing during the autumn term. 63% felt that the pandemic posed a big risk to their mental or physical health.
- The Insight Network and Dig-in found that the most common diagnoses were depression and anxiety (at 12% and 11%).
- Out of 21,000 students across 140 UK universities, they found that more than three-quarters hid their symptoms due to fear of repercussions.
- They also found that university year was significantly correlated with reports of mental health difficulties, with many increasing during their last year.
- A 2016 YouGov study found that almost half of their student participants say they find day-to-day tasks difficult.
- Studying, leaving home, isolation and student debt are key concerns among students.
Students nowadays not only have to overcome the challenges that come with education. They also face the added difficulty of doing it all during a pandemic.
Mental health issues among students have been on the rise for a while now, like anxiety and depression.
But now more than ever, some may find that student therapy is worth considering.
SupportRoom
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We believe that nobody should suffer in silence and that therapy support should be immediate and accessible.
At SupportRoom, we offer our patients confidential, professional mental health support for individuals and businesses.
We connect people with licensed professionals, where we provide round-the-clock support via multiple formats – including unlimited messaging and video.
Our EAP solution also provides detailed analytics to help organisations improve mental health within their workplace, and understand why their employees may suffer from mental health issues.
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Gain FREE access to Heartbeat
Get a free Heartbeat Survey.
Let us uncover the true state of your team’s wellbeing with a free mental health survey for your entire organisation.
Gain valuable insights to see how you can better support your team’s mental health and performance.
No pitch. No credit card required.
