Tag Archives: mental health

How to Get Mentally Ready for College

Making sure you have all of your belongings packed and checked before your next semester at college starts is important, but don’t forget that you need one more thing to be done. Get mentally ready for college.

Yes, it might be even more crucial than buying all the pencils and notebooks – if you are in the wrong place mentally, you will face hard times in college. But what does ‘mentally prepared for college’ mean and how to do it? This blog post will tell you everything about this topic. Let’s get started.

Mental Health of College Students

As our last blog post was focused on mental health and anxiety among students, you might want to check it out in order to understand how to approach your anxiety when you are in college. In this blog post, we continue the topic of students’ mental health and the necessity to spread awareness of how much of a problem different mental struggles might be for young adults.

In order to be successful in your academic career, and be a happy person with less stress in your life, you need to pay attention to your mental health. And while you can and should turn to competent specialists, there are still a lot of things that you can do yourself in order to improve your quality of life, including mental health.

When another semester starts, and you go back to your studies after a break, maybe leaving your home for the first time, it’s important to make sure you know how to switch and get yourself ready for all the studies, stress, and brainstorms, etc. Why is it so important?

Freshmen Anxiety

Many freshmen face huge stress when going to college because they don’t know what to expect or maybe they have some vision of what their life in college should be like but it doesn’t meet their expectations. That’s why the first two or three weeks might be harsh for a new college student. There is so much you need to learn and so much you need to adjust to. No surprise, it’s stressful.

And when your summer break ends and your daily routine suddenly changes with all the haste, responsibility, and workload, it’s also not surprising that your system might not be ready for it. Here, you can face sleep deprivation, nervousness, panic attacks, mood swings, bad memory, lack of focus, and other symptoms. So, it’s important to make yourself mentally ready for college.

Learn How to Plan

A lot of stress and problems can be omitted with simple planning. As long as you know how to plan your time and break larger tasks into smaller ones, you train your nervous system like a muscle. You learn that even the most challenging tasks can be successfully finished once you have two things on hand – an adequate amount of time ahead and some understanding of what you need to do and what steps you need to take.

You don’t want additional stress, so don’t put your assignments aside until the very last moment, otherwise, your everyday life will be full of stress that could be easily avoided.

Embrace Your Fears

Think about the things that you are afraid of about college. Maybe you are afraid of your peers making fun of you or missing a paper deadline? Think of these negative scenarios and try to live them through. Once you do that, you might feel much more confident because at least now you can think of some nice ways out.

Moreover, sometimes you just need a little imagination and the ability to look at various situations from a different point to understand that there is nothing to be afraid of and it’s not the end of the world.

This method is also a part of planning as it allows you to think through how to cope with challenges, stress, and some negative situations. It might teach you how to cope ahead and learn your lessons without even getting into trouble. By imagining a situation where you submit an unfinished paper, you learn the consequences and can avoid them by putting more effort into paper writing. Or paper ordering as we can not let you get into such a horrible situation.

Think of Your Support System

It’s crucial to come up with a good plan of what you are going to do in case you feel too overwhelmed, too depressed, or too emotionally exhausted during your semester. It might be some hobby, rituals that soothe you, like taking a bath, or a person who you can turn to in case of need and talk about your struggles.

In both good and poor ways, the first semester or year of college can be overwhelming, and you might occasionally need to talk to people other than your college friends and classmates. Keep in touch with the people in your life who have your best interests at heart and are there for you when you need help, despite how ready you are to be independent.

Research Campus Before Your Classes Start

We all stress a lot when everything around us is new and unfamiliar. Trying to find the right class when you don’t even know where you are now is definitely overwhelming. And while we all need some time to get used to changes and we all need to take step by step, it’s better to make sure you walk around the campus to explore before you are rushing between your classes.

It’s great if you have an opportunity to explore your campus and visit all the buildings during the visit or welcoming days. It will allow you to feel much more confident later in the semester.

Tips for Students With Anxiety

Anxiety can really be hard to cope with. Being a student who suffers from anxiety is nothing like cakes and butterflies as in addition to stress and pressure you have some personal difficulties that you need to beat every single day. Penn State study reports that more than 60% of college students deal with anxiety and name it their main health concern. Scary statistics. However, we are absolutely sure that a lot can be done to make the situation better. Here are a few tips that will hopefully help you cope with anxiety throughout your college years.

Stay Committed to Self-Care

College life sometimes makes us push our boundaries and learn a lot of new things and not only in a classroom. Learning how to take care of yourself and regulate your regime, hygiene, diet, routine, and finances is crucial not only because it’s important for your physical health but for mental wellbeing as well.

Sleep

Managing your day sometimes helps a lot in managing your anxiety. For example, a healthy and consistent sleep pattern will definitely make it easier for you to complete your daily tasks and stay focused during classes. Create a routine and try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Healthy sleep is everything to a student as it allows your brain to work productively and cope with stress faster and easier.

Diet

Consumption of alcohol, junk food, caffeine, and sugar is very high among students. And it’s not surprising as sometimes these are the things that help you stay awake longer or have a fun time partying. However, they don’t help to cure your anxiety.

Make sure you take care of your diet and work on eating healthy. Meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, dairy, and cereals – should be the basis of your healthy meals as they contain protein, healthy fat, vitamins, and elements to support your nervous system. Not always need to take additional supplements to keep yourself healthy – pay attention to what you eat and your mental health will thank you.

Exercises

In order to relieve stress and keep yourself energized you need to incorporate at least mild physical activity. Some exercises, yoga, workout, swimming, biking, or even an everyday walk in the fresh air will make a huge difference. Once you stay active in between your studies, you help your system release

Don’t Run Away

The first thing that comes to mind when facing stress is to avoid it. It might make you skip classes or avoid being among your peers, stay in your room, etc. However, this is the wrong strategy as it will only make it harder for you to continue your college journey.

Of course, skipping a class because you face anxiety is tempting. It’s only one class, right? But the more you do it, the less motivation you have to continue studying. Think of all the hard work that you have done and how it all can be wasted. We don’t want that for you.

So, make sure you have the right approach in order to cope with stress and anxiety instead of avoiding it. The first step is to acknowledge the problem. If you are reading this article, you might have already done that – you know you need to do something in order to make your college years better and not let anxiety ruin this experience.

Try Breathing Techniques

Breathing exercises are very effective when it comes to anxiety. You can try them whenever you feel overwhelmed, stressed, or scared. Inhale slowly through your nose, hold your breath for a few seconds and exhale through your mouth. Do it slowly and deeply. Listen to your heartbeat and try to calm down – tell yourself that nothing bad is going to happen to you. Continue breathing until you feel better.

Journaling Might Be Very Helpful

Sometimes you just need to let your thoughts, emotions, and fears out. This is when journaling might come in handy. Create a habit of saving half an hour every day to write down a few things about what’s going on with your mental health, how you feel, what was interesting and new that you encountered, and what the whole day was about. This is a simple, yet very effective method to cope with emotions and anxiety. It helps you feel that you can control yourself and that you can always let them out by writing. Many great authors discovered their talents because of journaling during hard periods of their lives. You might also discover your hidden talent as a bonus to useful exercise.

Wrapping Up+

Facing anxiety as a college student is not something extraordinary or rare. Don’t be scared or ashamed as many other students walk the same path as you do – the worst thing now that you can do is to shelter out and block yourself from the outer world. Be sure to check if there is someone on campus who you can talk to – it might be a college advisor, mental health specialist, or even some groups for students with similar problems. Don’t be afraid to seek help or talk to other people about how you feel – it will help you manage your emotions.

How to Cope With Excessive Perfectionism

Perfectionism might be a useful thing when it comes to doing something as good as you can and putting effort into academic assignments or your job. However, sometimes perfectionism might cause serious issues, even mental health problems, stress, and self-blaming. In order to live a happy and full life, a person should understand how to regulate their perfectionism and avoid being too hard on themselves. Keep reading to learn how to cope with excessive perfectionism.

A Need to Be Perfect

A perfect life, perfect results – these are the things that many people are trying to achieve. A belief that everything can be perfect is somewhat delusional, though, as it’s nearly impossible to achieve ideal results all the time without failing even once. And while the majority of people learn from their mistakes and are able to move forward from a negative experience, perfectionists are very focused on each of their imperfections, making it into a life-long battle with themselves and the whole world around them.

It’s no surprise that the inability to avoid focusing on mistakes or not being the best in some spheres causes serious mental health issues and high levels of stress. Being so judgmental about yourself can do no good in the long-time run. Perfectionists are the ones who more than others suffer from OCDs and also might be less emotionally stable.

And while the best option is to turn to a specialist for professional help, there are some small things that might help you cope with your excessive perfectionism and be less stressed about your studies, job, and life in general. Here are a few tips from us.

Set Goals that Are Reasonable

Not everyone is born to become a Nobile prize winner, right? Being hard on yourself for not winning one is that kind of tendency that you should cope with. There is nothing more destructive than setting unreasonable, unachievable short-time goals and later being sad and even punishing yourself for not hitting that goal.

What you need to do is to make sure the goals you set are understandable and achievable. Low your standards when it comes to your school or job performance to a reasonable level. For example, finishing a dissertation in two months is cool, of course, but unrealistic. Being the best in every class is unrealistic. Getting the best job from the very beginning of your career is realistic but can depend on luck.

Also. Try to avoid being that competitive when it comes to things that don’t really matter. For example, there is no need to get the best grades all the time – studying is no competition.

Celebrate Small Victories

When you are a perfectionist, it’s hard to notice small victories because you are always in a rush to do even better. Once you start this game of outrunning others and your own previous results, it’s never going to stop. Make sure you appreciate and understand your effort. You can even treat yourself with something that you like whenever you finish a task or get control of your perfectionist tendencies.

Stay Optimistic

Optimism is always a good cure for things like perfectionism as they allow you to stop for a moment and appreciate the world around you instead of being focused on another thing that you should do right now. Whenever you feel down, make sure to remind yourself that you are worth living and being happy. That you don’t depend on your wins or fails. That you are more than grades or job salary. You are not perfect because no one is and no one should be.

Don’t Treat Mistakes Like the End of the World

We all make mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes are small, sometimes big, sometimes they can stay unnoticed and live only in your memory, sometimes we get punished for them, and sometimes we just need to learn our lesson.

This is what makes a perfectionist addicted to success – they are afraid of making mistakes and afraid of being responsible. But the truth is – mistakes are inevitable. Moreover, we learn from mistakes and they make us better.

Don’t be afraid of mistakes. Allow yourself to make them and you’ll see that your life becomes much easier and less stressed.

These are all of the tips that we have for you. Treat yourself as a person who is not afraid of being not the best in everything, be aware of tendencies, like self-blaming or even self-punishment, anxiety, nervousness, etc. And make sure you get therapy in case you want to get rid of perfectionism with help of a professional. We wish you a happy life and the best of luck!

Handling Loneliness During the Pandemic

There are a lot of reasons why many college students face the problem of feeling lonely and depressed. The year 2020, with its pandemic, brought a new perspective on this problem, making it even worse than before. A lot of college students, especially freshmen, admit that they feel down and lonely with all their expectations of the college experience being ruined by reality. So, here is an article that will help you to get through the loneliness as a college student.

Don’t Panic

Whenever you feel depressed about lack of social interaction, you should remember – you are not alone in this. A lot of (and we mean it) students are in the same boat with you with all the pressure that you are experiencing now.

Stats tell us that the pandemic affected the economic and health systems of the majority of countries and also the social life and mental state of the population worldwide. When it comes to students, it’s obvious that living the same life as you are used to is not possible considering the circumstances. That is what makes a student’s life so hard – lots of homework and a minimum of joyful time with friends.

You might feel miserable as a freshman in 2020 because you’ve expected this time to be the most exciting period of your life with all the parties and new people around you. Staying at home with assignments piling up is pretty bad, we know.

However, what should make you feel a little better about this situation is that there are many people out there behind their blue screens who feel the same as you do and are willing to communicate through the Internet.

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the Internet these days. It gives us so many opportunities that it would be a crime to avoid it.

Be Proactive

Spending time at home doesn’t mean that you should be passive and just wait for the pandemic to stop. Being active and getting involved is the way to beat loneliness and add more excitement to your life.

So, when you need to fight loneliness, you need to fight your laziness too. That is just how you can break out of the circle and add movement and energy to your everyday routine. But how can you do it in practice? Here are a few tips for you:

Start doing sports. Even a quick workout will definitely help you feel more energized. Sports also positively affect your mood and brain activity, so there are many benefits for your mental and physical health.
Find a hobby or keep up. Hobbies are a source of joy and fun for everyone. It’s hard to think of something else that would be better for your mental state than time spent on your hobby. Playing an instrument or videogames, painting, singing, dancing, or trying some new exciting hobbies is the best way to get rid of stress quickly.
Change your scene. Sometimes you just need some changes in your life to feel alive. It’s hard to do with a corona outbreak, but still possible. Find a new location for an everyday walk, change something in your room, and you will instantly notice that you feel better.

It’s not always easy to find that inner energy to change something around you, especially when you feel depressed and overloaded with homework. However, it’s an important step that you need to take in order to feel better.

Find New People

Pandemic affects each one of us, but at least we still can communicate with each other. Take advantage of the Internet and various social media, forums, and chats that are available for you anytime. Of course, it’s not the same as speaking offline in a group of friends, but it’s definitely better than no social communication at all.

There are multiple various ways to find new friends online if you really want to. You can start with asking on a forum or place like Reddit for some basic chatting or online group studying. Finding a study buddy will benefit not only your mental health but also your study routine and procrastination.

Social media is also a great way to find someone nearby (or even overseas) to talk to about your interests, share some cool stories, and laugh together over some memes. You can find people who enjoy the same music, literature, or video games as you do, which will help you start a conversation without much worry.

Seek for Help if You Need To

A lot of students are afraid of turning to a specialist whenever they feel down and depressed. You might think that there is nothing a psychologist can do for you if you feel lonely. However, this is not true. A psychologist can give you some great advice on how to fight depression and the feeling of loneliness and help you find the reasons you might feel so. It’s not always as obvious as you might think.

For example, a lot of freshmen feel lonely because they find it hard to adjust to the fast pace of college life and blend in with other students. Others are fighting with their social anxiety and frights. It’s always great when someone can clarify some things about you and your personality so that you can start working on improving your life.

Anyway, don’t be scared to turn to an expert and tell about how you feel. You might have such a specialist available on campus or find someone nearby for consultations. You might also need some assistance with your homework to relieve stress and pressure – this is what we are here for. Place your order today to get professional help.