How Anxiety Affects College Students

By Salimah McCullough | Published by March 16, 2018

Midterm and finals come around twice a semester and can bring on a lot of additional anxiety and stress to college students.

College is a stressful time for many and with all of the homework, exams, and papers, it can sometimes be difficult to balance all of the work. On top of having school work, everyone faces things in their lives that are also time consuming such as extracurricular activities, relationships, jobs, internships, and everything in between. With having to deal with all of these things, it can contribute to a person’s anxiety.

According to several news outlets, millennials have become known as the “anxious generation.” Many studies support this by showing that levels of anxiety have grown among the millennial generation.

A study done in 2013 by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) showed that 41.6 percent of students stated anxiety as the top presenting concern among college students and that 85 percent of college students reported feeling overwhelmed by everything they had to do at some point within the past year.

Many students have to face the feeling of being overwhelmed quite often throughout their college years. Kean sophomore and accounting major, Brianna Daquino, mentioned that she feels this way especially during midterm and final season.

“All of my classes have a final, tests, or a project [due] at the same time which can get very overwhelming, leading to more stress and anxiety in my life,” said Daquino.

Different events in a college student’s life can cause higher amounts of anxiety. They may have to deal with classes, exams, relationships, jobs/internships, sports, clubs, etc. Learning to juggle everything can be stressful to many.

For some college students, their biggest source of anxiety does not stem from their classwork, but it comes from the thought of what they are going to do after college.

“My biggest cause of stress and the thing that brings me the most anxiety is my future and life after college. The uncertainty of being able to get a career after college and the thought of failing is very stressful,” said Daquino.

Another study that was done by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors showed that “anxiety is the top presenting concern among college students (41.6%), followed by depression (36.4%) and relationship problems (35.8%).”

Learning how to deal with anxiety can also be a challenge for many students as all college students have different ways in which they cope with their anxiety.

“When trying to deal with my anxiety, I find ways to de-stress such as watching my favorite tv shows or hanging out with my friends,” said Daquino.

 

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