Anxiety affects millions of people. People can experience anxiety for a multitude of reasons ranging from everyday activities to soldiers experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome. If anxiety affects so many people, why are people just now starting to talk about it? Until recently, mental illnesses were not talked about and have been consistently looked over or ignored. Anxiety has recently become a concern for the general population and specifically for college students. College students experience stress and anxiety for many reasons. Whether they are living alone for the first time, struggling to keep up with the course load, or trying to find a way to pay for college. Whatever the reason for a student’s anxiety may be, anxiety will also affect college students in multiple ways such as students being social, participation in their class, their grades, and more. If we learn what causes college students anxiety and the different ways that students are affected, we will be better equipped to help college students handle their anxiety and help them succeed.

Anxiety is defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary as “apprehensive uneasiness or nervousness usually over an impending or anticipated ill” or “an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physical signs (such as tension, sweating, and increased pulse rate), by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self-doubt about one's capacity to cope with it,” (Anxiety, n.d.). Anxiety has become a larger problem for college students than ever before. Not only has anxiety started to affect more students, but it also has started to affect more areas of students’ lives.

Anxiety is an issue that only recently become a growing concern among college students. Harvard Health Publishing reported that according to the American College Health Association Fall 2018 National College Health Assessment more than 60% of United States college students reported having overwhelming anxiety. Harvard Health Publishing also reported that only 23% of those students have stated that they were either diagnosed with anxiety or that they were receiving treatment for their anxiety by a mental health professional, (LeBlanc, 2019).

There is no single cause of anxiety. All students experience anxiety for different reasons or for multiple reasons. Harvard Health Publishing continues their article by stating what causes college students’ anxiety.  They give three main reasons why college students may be experiencing anxiety: sleep disruption, loneliness, and academic factors, (LeBlanc, 2019). All three of these are common reasons to experience anxiety.

As I am currently a college student, I know that sleep is very important. But what do you do when you have multiple papers to write and many exams to study for? Stay up late because there is not enough time throughout the day to have a social life, study, do homework, attend classes, and work. Then the next day you are tired so what do you do then? Drink some form of beverage that has caffeine. Then, the caffeine that you have consumed keeps you up late and the cycle continues. After a while, a students’ homework and exams start to pile up and add to a students’ anxiety since it can be hard to complete all assigned work before the due date. As I stated previously, there is not enough time in the day to do everything you need to do. A students’ social life tends to suffer when there are so many other things that need to be done. Students will begin to feel lonely and isolated since there is not much spare time to interact with friends or time to make new friends.

Just like there is no single cause of anxiety, there is also no single way that anxiety affects college students.  Anxiety affects students in many different ways, especially college students. One of the area’s anxiety affects students is their grades. The BU Today reported that according to The American College Health Association’s Spring 2014 National College Health Assessment at least 30% of students reported that anxiety somehow affected their academics, (Anxiety: The Most Common Mental Health Diagnosis in College Students: BU Today, 2016). Classes are already a very stressful element of a student’s life. There are many students who need to maintain their grades and grade point average so that they are able to keep their scholarships, stay on sports teams, or stay with-in their major.

Today, college students are having to deal with more anxiety than ever before. One major cause of that anxiety tends to be the classes themselves. Anxiety from the course work and the classes can add to the anxiety that the student is already feeling outside of classes. College classes demand a lot of time, energy, and work. When college students are taking a full course load, typically 5-7 classes, the course work can really add up. When students do not deal with their anxiety or deal with their anxiety in a healthy way and have their anxiety for an extended amount of time, the student becomes negatively affected, (Barrows et al., 2013).

“A student’s level of self-efficacy and test anxiety (and their anxiety outside of class) directly impacts their academic success,” (Barrows et al., 2013). There are ways that students are able to help control their test anxieties, such as going to class, being mentally present as well as physically present, taking notes, studying, and more. “Obviously studying increases test performance, but this study shows that studying is not the only factor--the students’ perception of their academic performance, or confidence in doing well, also has a considerable effect on the outcome,” (Barrows et al., 2013).

Anxiety, no matter the cause, has affected college students’ social lives, grades, classes, and more. It has become a factor that has affected so many students, yet it was not until recently people have started to talk about it. It is time that we stop looking at anxiety as a taboo subject and be open about it. There are multiple reasons that a college student may experience anxiety and there are many ways that a college student may be affected by their anxiety. No matter what the reason may be, we need to start talking about anxiety and start helping college students learn the causes of their anxieties and how they are being affected. The more we know about what causes anxiety the more we are able to treat it. By learning how to treat anxiety, we are able to help college students, and others, learn to cope.

References

“Anxiety.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anxiety.

“Anxiety: The Most Common Mental Health Diagnosis in College Students: BU Today.” Boston University, www.bu.edu/articles/2016/college-students-anxiety-and-depression.

Barrows, Jennifer, et al. “ Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, and College Exam Grades.” Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, and College Exam Grades, 2013, doi:10.13189/ujer.2013.010310.

LeBlanc, Nicole J. “Anxiety in College: What We Know and How to Cope.” Harvard Health Blog, 27 Aug. 2019, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/anxiety-in-college-what-we-know-and-how-to-cope-2019052816729.

Author: Chazz Lakey