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The impacts University has on students mental health and wellbeing

For my Journalism assignment at University, I am creating a video/ news report for 'Mental health awareness month' which is coming up in May. My report is about:

'Mental health is something which should always be talked about and noticed, as May is the month for mental health awareness, I want to talk about the impacts uni has on students mental health when it comes to living away from home, coursework and meeting new people'

I want to know how you deal with your mental health and wellbeing at Uni, how do you manage it? Is there support at your University? Do you feel as though you can talk about it? Do you have any advice for students joining in September or current students?

Would be greatly appreciated <3

Reply 1

cyberhex

I'm gonna section this off for ease since this might turn out a long answer.

Impact of Uni on Mental Health:

Living away from home: (Context - I moved down to King's College London from Northern England. I'd visited London quite a bit so already had some experience of the city) Personally this was not in itself a major issue for me, but that's because I come from a very controlled and generally not very fun household. I spent the months up to A-Level results day praying I'd get the grades for KCL because my insurance choice meant I'd stay at home, and so it was more just relief that I was finally going to be able to get some freedom, in many aspects. That said, I did still have that, "Damn, I'm really on my own now." moment when my parents dropped me off and I was alone in my flat. But honestly, living away from home itself has been fine for me, I quickly got used to navigating my way around, doing chores etc., and now I much prefer the independence I have there.

Coursework: I'm sure this probably differs between subjects and universities but as a first year Biomedical Science student I had 8 modules and so 8 pieces of coursework, though I only have to pass this year so there isn't too much academic pressure (only my internal need to achieve highly lol). Some of this was spread out across the year, but they did decide to have 4 pieces due in the space of about a week, which I think was a bit much. Again, coursework isn't something that particularly impacted my mental health, due to my degree most of mine have been lab reports and article reviews. The biggest nightmare was a group research project, but that's because my perfectionist self got lumped with 1 reliable person I was friends with and 3 people who just gave excuse after excuse as to why they hadn't turned up. My module lead did email them, and it helped get 1 person more involved. As the project leader that was just a headache trying to get everything organised before the deadline, but that's the biggest stress coursework has been so far. I'm sure it'll be worse next year.

Meeting new people: This is, I feel, a somewhat unique experience, because most people I know have been fine meeting new people, and did so very quickly. I've settled in now and have a decent group of friends, but it didn't start out like that. Due to Covid risk (hooray for medical conditions), having a part-time job to be able to afford rent, and my previously mentioned very controlling parents, I have had very little opportunity to go out. Apart from the occasional run-in with my flatmates, I pretty much spent the entirety of fresher's week alone. I'm not into clubbing, and my parents call me at any time they feel like, and I have to be either in my flat or at uni and answer them, no choice about it. Doesn't exactly make for an ease of hanging out, and for the first few weeks of uni I got very lonely. There's some aspect of social awkwardness/anxiety to that too - I'm notoriously bad at going over and talking to people. But once my lectures started, and I started going to the events my accommodation held and to society events, I slowly started meeting people, and things got better. In all honesty, there's still some loneliness sometimes, when everyone I know is hanging out and I'm stuck in my room doing my (remote) job, but a guy's gotta pay bills.

Dealing With Mental Health At Uni (tw: disordered eating)

If by 'dealing with', you mean crying in my room at midnight, writing vent poetry, bottling everything up and occasionally venting to my flatmate, then I'd say I deal with my mental health very well :biggrin:

But in all seriousness, I did not deal very well at the beginning, and it's still a struggle sometimes. University itself only actually factors into that in the context of trying to get my coursework and revision done around my lectures and my job. The rest of it is largely down to my own brain and (unsurprisingly) my home life.

I had a couple of issues before I started university that persisted in varying degrees - mainly self-esteem and body image issues, minor SH, trichotillomania, and gender dysphoria. Those didn't really change with going to university. The only thing that did change is that I developed issues with food. This technically arose from my pre-existing issues, but university was kind of the catalyst. Back at home, I only eat what I'm given, when I'm given, and there has never been an option for anything else. But at university, being responsible for my own meals and purchases, that changed. I wanted to eat healthier and lose weight, and I ended up stuck in a sort-of binge-attempted restrict cycle. I'd buy food, end up bingeing on it, and have to buy more, swearing that this time I'd be more controlled, only for the cycle to repeat. Not only did this cause great detriment to my bank balance, it also meant things got real dark for me, real fast. And while I would never tell my parents about it, I still had to deal with it alone.

Now for the actual dealing part. You may have guessed I don't deal with things very well. But generally I go for a walk with my headphones in, especially if the sun is out. It doesn't always work, but most of the time it does. The other thing I do sometimes, particularly if I'm on-campus, is go and sit in my uni's chapel. I'm not religious, but something about the atmosphere just calms me. And I do write a lot of poetry, because it forces me to sit down and write out what I'm feeling, and then everything generally doesn't feel as overwhelming.

Support at University

I know there is a counselling service that students can register for, and that's about it. I'm sure most schools/universities are the same, but it seems they preach more than they practice. Lots of stalls and handouts and surveys, but not actually much in the way of support. I think it doesn't help the counselling service isn't really well advertised, it's not made obvious what the actual support is, and so I wouldn't have known if I wasn't searching for it, not that I've used it.

I don't feel like mental health is particularly taboo at my university, and we're encouraged to talk to our personal tutors (not that I have met mine once this entire year), but I don't think many people would talk to their tutors about personal things going on. I feel like that's largely left to talk about to your close friends, if at all. Like I said, me and my flatmate vent to each other, but I never bring up the deep stuff. Maybe that's just a personal thing, but looking back, I don't feel there's actually been much information shared about what to do if you're struggling.

Tips for New Students
- Attend fresher's events, join societies, talk to your flatmates. Try and put yourself out there
- Don't feel nervous about asking your professor questions if you don't understand something, most of them are nice and helpful. If you're still struggling with a topic, I tend to find the recommended textbooks explain it well
- Don't do your lecture notes before the lecture. I spent far too long doing this, it's a waste of time and unless you're a focused person, it also makes it easier to zone out in the lecture, making it harder to actually learn what the lecture was about. I'd suggest maybe skim the lecture and note down any questions you don't understand, but no more than 15 mins tops
- Find a good group of friends that you can regularly hang out with, even though you don't generally talk in lectures it still is better than sitting alone
- Always schedule breaks and fun activities - burn out is awful
- Have fun, and please talk to someone if you're struggling

Tips for Current Students
Evaluate what you did in previous years in terms of lectures, coursework, food, work, revision etc, and figure out what went well and why there may have been downfalls and hard moments. Try and implement ways to combat those challenges. Make sure you have a support network to fall back on if things get hard.

This was a bit of a long answer, and I don't know how useful it'll be, but I hope this helps and best of luck with your project! :smile: