The concept of college in the United States can be very traumatic. Teenagers are expected to leave their home behind, choose what they want to do for the rest of their life, and live with no adult supervision for the first time in their lives. It’s no wonder that college students report higher stress and anxiety rates than average because of these drastic changes. This ultimately leads to the question of what can be done to ensure that students don’t put their mental health on the backburner?
One simple way to care for your mental health is by having a support system in your life. This can range from your roommates, best friends, or members of an organization that you are in. Typically, young adults reach out to their friends first if they believe they are emotionally suffering before reaching out to professional help. There can be many reasons as to why people do not automatically reach out to a counselor first, one of them being the lack of knowledge surrounding mental health. Which brings up another question, how can someone recognize if their friend is emotionally suffering?
According to Campaign to Change Direction the Five Signs of emotional suffering include personality change, agitated, withdrawal, poor self-care, and hopelessness. Being able to recognize the 5 Signs will not only strengthen your community of friends, but also create a better understanding of mental health.
Most students are under a lot of stress and have anxiety when trying to balance their school, work, finances, and social life. Even though everyone goes through stressful times in their life, not everyone expresses stress the same ways. For example, a personality change for one person would mean they eat more than normal, while another person could just eat less. Stress and anxiety affects everyone differently, so that is why it’s important to be aware of the Five Signs and create a conversation.
There are plenty of resources at DePaul and around the area for people who are demonstrating one of the Five Signs. DePaul’s Office of Health Promotion and Wellness and Counseling Center are great tools. There will be events over the next month incorporating both Campaign to Change Direction and the Office of Health Promotion and Wellness. We are DePaul Blue will be hosting these events to provide self-care types and bring awareness to mental health.
We are DePaul Blue is a group of four DePaul University public relations students who are pairing with the Campaign to Change Direction to educate members of the DePaul community on the importance of mental health while incorporating the Five Signs of emotional suffering.