Mental health issues in young people today are a subject that is being discussed more and more in recent times. University students in particular are facing more stress, anxiety and depression than ever before, especially during and following the Covid-19 pandemic.
I decided to look further into these issues by speaking to students themselves to try and get an idea as to why this is happening, and what can be done to help. In my interviews, I did not edit or cut out any parts. I wanted to keep this piece as real and raw as possible. Mental health is a very real and serious issue, and I wanted to keep these people’s stories as authentic and true as possible, no alterations, just as they deserve to be heard.
Today’s generation face many new problems that impact heavily on mental health. Even social media can cause stress and upset due to the stigma surrounding online profiles. Things like followers and likes equate to self-worth, and a lack of these can cause unnecessary pain to young people. 86% of 18 - 29-year-olds use social media platforms, and a survey found that 97% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 have at least one account. A study found that 89% of undergrad students experience phantom phone vibrations; people crave notifications so much they start imagining them. In today’s day and age everything is online and accessible, and often people use social media only to show the good things in life. This can create a false idea that everyone around you is having a better time than you are. It can make people feel insecure and worthless, and maybe even feel dissatisfied with their own lives. It’s important to remember that not everything you see on social media is real or accurate, and while most of know this, it can be hard to acknowledge this when there is so much content out there at any given moment. Social media is just one small part of the influences on young people’s mental health today. So if that’s just one part, and it had this much of an impact, how much are people really dealing with in their day to day lives?
(Stats from etactics.com)
The facts and statistics speak for themselves when discussing student mental health, but I believe there is a much bigger picture. In order to see this, I spoke to university students across the UK, from various backgrounds and degrees about their experiences. What I found was shocking, but sadly expected. As a university student myself, I can see the struggles we face, and even when there is support available, is it the right support? And does it really help?
I spoke to Natasha Callow, a third-year student at the University of Plymouth studying Geology. She had previous mental health struggles, and university both helped and hindered her experience in many ways, as well as being one of the many students trying to work on her degree during the pandemic. The university did have help available for her, which she took them up on, unfortunately Natasha didn’t always feel able to do so. This all altered her degree experience, as it did for many others. This is her story.
The Covid-19 pandemic had a huge effect on university students overall, as well as individual universities themselves, as Natasha discussed. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) surveyed 2,000 students and found that 57% had reported a worsening in their mental health following their return to university during the COVID-19 pandemic. 22% said their mental health was much worse, and 63% felt the pandemic posed either a big or significant risk to their mental or physical health.
Harry Moore graduated from Manchester Met University in May 2021 with a degree in Public Services and Social Justice. His final year was cruelly interrupted by the pandemic, which did have an overall effect on his experience.
When asked about his mental health struggles whilst at university, he told me one of the things he suffered from was isolation issues. “One of the hardest things I faced during my final year in uni was being placed in accommodation with only two people who didn’t really socialise or come out of their rooms. Within my course, there was only two other students, so I struggled to make friends, have proper relationships, and have chances to chat to a lot of people.”
He tried to find ways to handle his emotions and stresses, going on to say “I tried to keep a regular routine which involved trying to get up before midday and get to bed before 1am. One of the most important things I did to keep myself happy is exercising and doing popular lockdown home workouts from my favourite celebrities. I also made fun Zoom games and quizzes that I hosted with my friends from back home which really helped me feel connected and gave me something to look forward to.”
The university did offer him support and help, but once again this sadly wasn’t very beneficial to Harry, as he explained to me. “I did receive semi-regular calls from the uni that checked in on how we were doing. My personal tutor would also host individual meetings to make sure we were coping okay with work and everything this week. However, I felt there was little point in sharing any doubts or negative feelings with the teachers or random uni departments as it didn’t feel personal enough or as supportive as talking to a friend would be.”
Overall, Harry stated that he felt he was in a “lucky position”, as he doesn’t really struggle with mental health issues and managed to find ways to keep himself motivated and on track during such a difficult time for everyone. However, he did feel students’ experiences were overall affected negatively during this time, saying “I would say the biggest struggle for people would be how pointless uni calls and lessons became. With busy zoom calls, no one could really share honest answers or opinions/questions, and there was a lack of engaging tasks and projects. Instead (we were) told to get on with independent research, which felt meaningless and caused students to feel lost with no clear direction or sense of achievement.”
Everyone’s mental health experiences are different, as no two people are the same. This is evident from both Natasha and Harry’s experiences in the last few years. However, some things have been prominent to them both, indicating some of these issues are, to a degree, universal, and probably affect more people than we know. Feelings of loneliness and isolation have overall increased, and students have been finding it harder to stay on track, often not feeling comfortable admitting they need help.
University is, for many, the first big step into adulthood. Living away from home, not having family around to do your washing, having to find your own way in life, often with decreased support. Students feel the need to perpetuate this idea of being independent, often at the fault of not reaching out when necessary, in fear of being seen as incapable. This, I believe, is where most universities are lacking. They promote the idea of being independent adults, independent living, independent study etc. But this can also accidently promote isolation; students not feeling like they can ask for help because they are told they’re adults now, they should do things on their own. No matter the age, it is always okay to ask for help. Mental health is sadly so stigmatised still, and I believe more open discussions will help squash the idea of struggling as weakness, and instead show that opening up and asking for help is one of the bravest things someone can do, and often comes with heavy rewards.
There is always support available at most if not all universities to assist students who are struggling with their mental health. As an example, Marjon university have an easily accessible student support department. During the pandemic, this was limited to online support, however since restrictions have eased it can now be accessed face to face again, with online support still available if needed. They also offer a counselling service which students can self-refer to, but this tends to have a high waiting list. This tells us that there are more problems than there are solutions; even though the help is there, it is not always so easy to take. This can often be off-putting and prevent students from following through with getting help. If they decide to reach out, which is hard enough in itself, the idea of having to wait may mean they decide simply not to bother or means they must just try and cope alone. Marjon’s website has a section showing all the student support services they offer, such as counselling as previously mentioned, as well as student funding advice, academic advice, disability and inclusion advice service, childcare and health advice.
To investigate this further, I spoke to a fellow Marjon Journalism student Cam Full about his experiences, with mental health overall as well as in relation to his time at university so far, and this is what he had to say.
Cam spoke very openly about his ongoing struggle with mental health, but there are still positives in his story. The new friends he made and his course mates were a big help to him, and had a positive impact on his time at university. These silver linings are easily shrouded when people are stressed, anxious or sad, but trying to find them no matter what is key. Mental health can make it very hard to see the good things in life, as they are often overshadowed by the bad things. Opening up can help ease the burden, and Cam himself told me that just taking the time to do this interview allowed him a way to get things off his chest. I am thankful to him for doing this for me, and glad it could help him even in a small way.
I got in touch with an old friend of mine from college. Jon Wall studies in Oxford, pretty far from his hometown of Exeter. When asked about his mental health experiences, he told me this. “So I struggled quite a bit with mental health both from anxiety and stuff before uni. And also because of being in uni during lockdown with flatmates I didn’t get on with, so that was pretty rough. But whenever I needed extensions with uni deadlines they almost always got granted, and then at the beginning of this year I got counselling through the uni which helped a lot in some ways, it’s just a shame they only offer 6 sessions. I still struggle quite a bit with mental health in stressful times like when I have all my deadlines in a space of two weeks, so I wish that was done differently. It doesn’t feel very considerate to students when it feels like they could easily be a bit more spread out.”
From speaking to Jon and others, as well as my own experiences, it is clear that universities do have support available to their students, just not enough and not always the right kind. This may well come down to lack of funding rather than being the fault of the university itself. This is why it is so important to spread the word and speak up about these issues, so students and universities can have access to the right kind of help, and in turn, help each other.
It is clear that academic pressure also adds to stress levels of university students, as shown above. I myself suffered the consequences of letting mental health get between me and my studies, as I was too afraid to ask for help, and felt incapable of doing so.
This is my story.
The first time the UK went into lockdown, I was just coming towards the end of my first year. I’d been having a great time, made new friends, and was doing okay on my course. I felt things were going well. Then we all had to move out of halls abruptly and move back home. My friends that I had been living with since September were now scattered across the country for an uncertain amount of time, and my end of year deadlines were coming up fast. I thought I was able to complete my work to a good enough standard, but some things were taken out of my control.
Within weeks my entire friendship group fell apart, relationships ended, housing for the following year became an issue, and I found myself feeling completely alone and sad all the time. Going through that is hard enough as it is, but add in a national lockdown and both parents working, sister in online college and no one to turn to but the same four walls, I began to slip. Lecturers had no idea what was going on, much like us students, so online lectures and communications became fewer and less informative and engaging. This, combined with my horrendous mental state, meant I lost interest and motivation for anything and everything. I barely left my bed, rarely ate, and had no energy to do work. I couldn’t understand why I was so tired all the time, as I was in bed all day, until I realised that this wasn’t physical.
Ultimately, this led to me completely failing my first year, and I was left with a choice; drop out of university or start all over again as a fresher. I went with the latter, and it was terrifying. It took all the strength I had left in me to go back to my studies that September, to try again while still living in fear it will all be ripped away from me once again. Having to completely reset my life, while still in a pandemic, made me fear every decision I made. Luckily, I made the right choice. I made even better friends, my course mates became a second little family, I was less afraid to ask my lecturers for help, and I even decided to try counselling.
Overall, my academic performance has improved, as well as my overall university experience, so I am thankful to Marjon for giving me a second chance. But they didn’t make me succeed; I did. I worked hard to get back to where I am, and recently I’ve been slipping once again (end of the year is always a tough one for me, maybe a touch of PTSD?), but this time I’ve reached out to people earlier, and fought to stay ahead of the game. It is very hard for me, I am emotionally and physically drained 24/7, I am stressed and anxious, often sad, and I either struggle to sleep or sleep too much. I’m managing to keep my head above water so far, and I hope I can continue to do so.
My family have been incredible during these times, but it was only recently I had the discussion with my mum about what happened that summer. That was the first time she used the word depressed. She told me that she’d been so consumed with work and her family commitments that she didn’t realise I was struggling to the extent I was, and put it down to laziness at the time. On reflection, she commented that I was most likely depressed at the time. This terrified me, as the idea of having a label or diagnosis made the situation a lot more real. But that comes from the societal stigma surrounding mental health today. Often, a diagnosis is beneficial, as it means you can access medical intervention. Not only that, but most universities have help for people with diagnosed mental health issues, such as allowing deadline extensions, special support, and sometimes even extra funding if needed.
This once again shows how mental health needs to be addressed for what it is; a health condition that has potential to physically affect lives. It’s not just always laziness or stress from work, sometimes it is way more than that, and out of the individual’s control. Speaking to my family and friends in recent months also made me realise that reaching out is so hard but has so many benefits. There is always someone out there who can help you, you just have to find them.
There are many ways to cope with life as a university student, some I have already mentioned. Often, students are told if they attend their lectures, keep on top of your work, find time for socialising and activities, and seek help when you need to you should be okay. But does this really make a difference? I decided to record a snippet of A Day in the Life of your Average University Student (aka, me), to show what I did, and reflect on the impact it had on my mental health, my studies, and just my overall mood.
On this day, I got up early to attend a three-hour lecture on campus. I travelled by bus with my house and course mate, secured a coffee to get through the morning, and focused on my studies.
After this, I had lunch, and caught up on some work before I had a meeting with student support. This meeting didn’t help me too much, as I wasn’t told anything I didn’t already know. I was a little disheartened but tried to carry on best I could.
I finished up my work, grabbed yet another coffee and took some time to chill out and unwind after a pretty full-on morning and afternoon.
At 7pm, I went to watch a few of my friends performing in a student production of Legally Blonde. This was a lot of fun and allowed me to just be in the moment. I love musical theatre anyway, so this was a nice end to my day on campus.
Then I jumped on the bus back to town, had a snack on the way, and made it back home just before 11pm.
I finished off a little bit of work, and took the time to write in my journal (something I’ve been told for years helps with mental health), and got ready for bed after a long, tiring, productive day.
I thought I would drift off to sleep pretty quickly after such a busy day, but unfortunately that hasn’t been easy for me recently.
Much like other students, a busy day was only distracting me from my stress about upcoming deadlines, as well as other emotions I’ve been dealing with. Just as I got ready to sleep, my mind woke up and reminded me of everything else I had on, which led to a pretty restless night.
In conclusion, I did most things that are recommended to university students to help them keep on top of their mental health. Even with all that, I still ended my day struggling. This is reality for many students out there; the socialising and the extra activities only really act as a distraction, and at some point, reality comes back kicking. Sometimes extra help is needed to get through, but as I’ve shown in this article, getting that help isn’t always as easy as it seems.
There are many ways to try and cope with stress and mental health, some of which I have spoken about in previous blog posts as well as this one. But I wanted to take the time to reiterate some of these before I ended.
Journaling - this is something I've found can help me personally. A chance to vent and get any feelings off your chest without judgement. There are many tips for journaling online, or just do whatever feels right.
CBT - this is a form of self therapy, a way of owning your emotions and triggers. Again, there are lots of online resources to help you with this.
Student support - as I've mentioned, student support at universities are available to all students, and even if the help they offer won't work for you, they are able to point you in the right direction of other forms of support.
Charities - such as Mind or Samaritans, they have phone numbers, helplines, chatrooms and online support, often available at all hours. Here are some links to these sites. https://www.mind.org.uk/ https://www.samaritans.org/
Overall conclusion:
Mental health is a very real and often heartbreaking issue that students face today. The pressure to succeed in life and academically, often on your own, can be too much in many cases. There is help out there, and if you are capable please to ask for it, no matter how small the issue may seem. We need to put in more effort to support our students and young people as they try and find their place in the world as young adults. We need to remove the stigma surrounding mental health and stop people viewing it as weakness or laziness. And the only way this will happen is if we start talking more about it.