5 Reasons Why College Students Should Take a Mental Health Day
When I was in elementary school, I was diagnosed with ADHD, a disorder that is often underdiagnosed in females due to differences in presentation. I was only diagnosed because I happened to have disruptive behavior usually associated with the hyperactivity part of the condition common in males with the same diagnosis.
In high school I was given a broad diagnosis of anxiety and depression and put on an antidepressant to treat my panic attacks. The combination of these is not unusual, anxiety and depression are considered comorbid with ADHD. While my diagnoses all precede my time in college, they all impacted my experience greatly.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, 73% of students will experience a mental health crisis during their time in university. While this particular statistic is from 2012, other more recent surveys show similar numbers. According to The Healthy Minds Study, conducted through the University of Michigan in 2020, 39% of students show diagnosable scores on depression scales and 34% of students score on similar scales for anxiety.
Honestly, I do not think most of us would find these numbers surprising. You often hear students joke about breakdowns at midterms and finals and crying over a major assignment would not look out of place. Many of us experienced these situations, or talked our friends through them. Here are 5 reasons why you should FINALLY let yourself take those mental health days you know you need.
1. Mental Health and Physical Health Are Not Independent
The brain is a part of the body just as much as your arm or stomach, and it is not right or fair to treat disorders of this organ differently than that of any other. If you break an arm, you put it in a cast and limit its use. If you have a stomach bug you stay home and treat it until the problem passes.
Our society has surrounded mental illness with a stigma that treats it as a weakness or something that can be overcome by sheer will-power, but it’s not. My brain is short on serotonin, which causes issues with anxiety and depression, I can’t will myself into producing more serotonin.
Mental Illness can manifest in other physical ailments such as fatigue and nausea. When my anxiety is at its worst, I often have extreme bouts of insomnia, which can impair my ability to function. I remember in my Junior year of high-school, a time when my anxiety and depression were quite severe, my teachers were concerned by how tired I was.
One of them, who was ironically a drill instructor before teaching high school, stopped me in the hall because he was concerned about my clear lack of sleep. He told me: “Getting less than four hours of sleep is basically the same as being drunk.”
Whether that’s entirely accurate, I don’t know, but it certainly felt that way.
2. Burnout Is Real
By the time of earning a Bachelor's degree, many students have spent 16 consecutive years in school. That is a long time to be doing any one thing. It is natural to grow tired and want a break, which is in part why we are seeing a rise in gap years between high school and college.
I got hit by the sophomore slump hard during my semester abroad in Jordan. I was living and studying in a foreign country, and bound to an agreement to only speak Arabic while doing so. All of my classes were in Arabic, and unless speaking to someone who could not speak Arabic, I was not supposed to speak English.
At that point I only had three semesters of Arabic under my belt, and sticking to the agreement was extremely difficult and stressful. I came very close to quitting the program and coming home. I was on the verge of burnout. Thankfully for me, this program was not unfamiliar with this issue.
They were able to set me and several other students up with a counselor who worked specifically with expats. Between the weekly sessions, and a much needed break in which I was able to relax and see family, I was able to stay and complete the program.
3. Taking A Break is Better Than Giving Up
During my freshman year of college, a student attempted suicide. According to The Healthy Mind Study, about 13% of students have had suicidal ideations in the past year. It was not a student I knew, despite my university being incredibly small.
I didn’t even know about it at all until a couple of years afterwards when a lawsuit was filed against the university for negligence. According to that suit, the student had attempted to get help through the school’s mental health resources, but was brushed off. Taking a break is always easier than giving up.
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4. College Is More Than Academics
The time we spend in college revolves around more than just academics. Of course academics is a major concern for all students, but so are issues of relationships, finances, and identity.
Many students work while they are in school, which is an additional source of stress. Maintaining a balance between school and work can be difficult. I had a work study position all four years of school, but it did not impact my life to the extent that the part time jobs I held during my junior and senior years.
By choosing to live with my then fiancé, and not wanting to take on additional loans, I worked so that we could split the costs of our apartment and other bills. Many students work for similar reasons, or simply because they need to do so to help pay for tuition and books.
The college years are also important in the formation of friends, romantic partners, and even future colleagues. Relationships of all kinds can cause drama and stress, and navigating them in a new place without the same oversight of parents or guardians is a learning experience for us all.
The lack of direct supervision by parents and guardians also means that university serves as a place for us to explore ourselves more freely than may have been previously allowed. Self discovery is not always an easy or peaceful experience and can lead to a crisis in itself, let alone when coupled with other stressors.
5. You Deserve It
Listen, life in college is NOT easy, especially with current events. If you need someone to tell you, you deserve a day off? I’m here to say you DO deserve a day off! So take it.
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Meet The Writer!
Hi! I’m Madeline Jefferson. I am a freelance writer, editor, and designer who has a wide breadth of experience and knowledge on many subjects including: fiction writing, religion, law, politics, history, literature, chronic illness, and mental health. I have a B.A. in Religion and Middle Eastern Studies from Washington and Lee University, and am beginning a Masters in Publishing through George Washington University. As a freelancer I offer services such as: blog writing, copywriting, ghostwriting, manuscript editing, and print and digital design. You can find me on: LinkedIn; Twitter, Instagram; and on my website: https://www.madelinejefferson.com/.
