College Students and Graduate Students

The pressures of pursuing higher education can take a toll on your mental wellbeing.

As a college student or graduate student, it may seem to some like you are a privileged member of society because you have the opportunity to pursue higher education. They may perceive you as being free of the worries that plague those who are working full-time, but you could tell them a thing or two about that.

You worry about doing well in your classes. You worry about how you compare to your peers, who may be your job competition one day. Speaking of that, you worry about getting a good job when you graduate and, now, you worry about a job that will allow you to repay your loans, too. You feel strongly about the education you’re pursuing, but it’s not necessarily reducing your anxiety about the future.

Undergrad and graduate students often aren’t living the college life portrayed in the movies.

The high demands you experience are relentless. There is always more to know and understand about the world. Your workload is larger than any previous generation, and many students are working their way through school at the same time, so there is less space in their lives to relax and rejuvenate. The pressure can even make it can feel difficult to allow yourself to take a break, and when you do rest, you feel guilty for it because the voice in your head says you should have been spending that time working.

You have high expectations of yourself and work every day to achieve them, but your resources are often limited. Has the constant stress from trying to balance work and studies made you anxious, depressed, or feel burnt out?

If you feel that way, you aren’t alone. Research has reported depression and anxiety rates among college students and graduate students that are six times higher than the rates in the general population. Something in the culture and the higher education system is broken. These problems cause you to feel constant stress, which can even interfere with your ability to sleep.

When sleep deprivation and stress are combined, it is more difficult for you to deal with the stress, which can leave you feeling unhappy and depressed at times. This combination also makes you feel less resilient and less able to solve problems that arise. It can rob your day of enjoyment.

While we can’t fix what is broken in the culture and the higher education system for you, we can help you deal with it more effectively. Healthy coping and stress management skills are required to endure the rigors of higher education.

The skills you’ll learn at Affinity provide you with the ability to minimize the amount of stress you experience, so you can work smarter and not harder.

When stress and pressure take up less space in your life, you’ll have more space for other priorities that are important to your overall success and wellbeing. Priorities like restful sleep, meaningful relationships, pleasurable activities, and a sense of satisfaction and pride that you have rightfully earned.

We will help you focus on your strengths so you can use them to help you achieve your goals. You’ll stop borrowing trouble from the future and leave worrying about your first post-grad job until the time when you can take action. You’ll know the difference between an unsolvable problem and a problem that you can’t solve today.

There is much you can do to make college and graduate life less stressful and more enjoyable. You’re likely to think you don’t have time to address the struggles you’re having, but that’s because you’re not factoring in how much easier and faster your work will be when you’re less stressed. Use our online scheduler or contact us to set-up an appointment today.