Stress in College at All-Time High: What it Means For You As a Student & How to Handle Stress

If you’re feeling down, you may want to attribute your sadness to something other than the weather outside—a recent study performed at UCLA deemed that more college freshmen than ever were feeling overwhelmed, with higher levels of both emotional and physical stress.

The study was not conducted on UCLA students alone, but on more than 200,000 freshmen at 279 four-year colleges around the nation.

Only little more than half the students surveyed (51.9%, to be exact) rated health “above average”, dipping 3.9 percentage points from 2009 and falling 11.7% since emotional health was first measured in 1985.

In terms of the sexes, only 45.9% of women reported to be “emotionally strong” compared to 59.1% of men. Undergrads cited three main reasons for their unhappiness: crippling economic recession, grueling job hunts, and looming student loans.

What does this mean for you, as a student?

If you do find yourself downtrodden more often than not, it might be time to take a breather from your workload and find some time for yourself.

Dedicate an hour of your day to whatever you want to do, whether it be reading a magazine, calling a friend or just lying on your bed and staring at the ceiling—even though it’s just an hour, you’ll feel refreshed like never before.

And, if you are a freshman, don’t forget to enjoy the rest of second semester, even if you have a constant barrage of work. You’ll never have another year quite like your freshman year and I’d hate for you to miss it.