Our mental health matters! Students need help!
At the age group of 18-24 we are all in a difficult boat. With our 20s approaching, things are daunting, stressful, and we don't have much sense of direction. We feel unprepared, we compare ourselves to everyone around us, we feel behind or that we need to move faster to catch up with everyone else.
A lot of things are on our mind and the drastic jump from 6thform to university can be a shock to the system.
We think to ourselves how we are so unprepared for the world after all these years of education. The majority of students say they are not prepared to get into the working world as they have been facing lots of mental health issues and feel unsupported.
Our universities are meant to be there to help prepare us students for employment by teaching us important knowledge and skills critical to achieving success in finding. As well as this, universities are meant to look after their students too! Universities can do more to help students by providing more support as well as spreading awareness more for men’s mental health too.
Men's mental health is overlooked a lot. How can we as a community do more. Be there for your friends and support them if they're going through anything. Opening up to people and being present in their life will make them feel better already! You never know what anyone is going through so being nice and kind can help so much.
A variety of reasons have stopped students from feeling more prepared for the real world including mental health related issues. Common issues are social anxiety, depression, lack of energy or motivation, relationship difficulties and a variety of other reasons.
In the UK, 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year. These can affect a person deeply whether it is affecting lifestyle or personal life.
One big factor is lack of support. Not having a good support system can make you feel vulnerable therefore leading to mental health issues. A lot of severe cases can lead to health issues.
For example, mental health conditions that affect your sleep or appetite can lead to health problems and these have negative knock on effects to us as people. This will then show in your academics as you're finding it harder to attend university, juggle life, keep up with your personal life whilst also struggling with other issues.
University is a stressful experience for a lot of u. For some they are growing as people alongside new people in a new location. This is daunting. For others they are in their hometown and could be living at home with family problems along with coursework, deadlines, living alone, the future all can become overwhelming.
How can we better ourselves and our future prospect? We can develop skills and continue or introduce healthy practices. Stress and anxiety can be reasons why we find it hard to start new things. Be brave and challenge yourself once in a while. Try something new such as meditation or yoga. These are all beneficial and healthy for us students to find a distraction and a healthy way to destress.
These soft skills will be the start of new confidence and new opportunities.