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There is a big difference between normal, reactive, or even some free-floating anxiety, and an anxiety disorder, that can be quite disabling in its extreme form. Most people have degrees of apprehension or anxiety in certain situations. Its a normal, survival response. Adrenalin is released to increase heightened alertness and arousal. In its extreme, people can develop disabling panic disorders, but its a very treatable illness.
I am not really sure there is an actual increase in anxiety, but I do believe there is an increase in freedom to admit or express that one feels anxiety (or depression or other mental health problems).
I think there was a time when people felt any type of mental distress they usually dealt with it in silence until it passed (or not) or by working it out through the support and advice of older members of their immediate and/or extended families who they lived within proximity to. Over time our society has become more mobile, even globally mobile for some of us, and our family structures are more fragmented which has destroyed this type of support system for many people.
I also think that as lives have become more and more cushy over time, people are less tolerant of any type of suffering that they might feel, physically or mentally. People then look for quick fixes and medications for problems that simply may only need time to process to get over and learn from. This might even be exacerbated by the social media phenomena of posting verbal and photographic images of lives in the most positive of lights while ignoring the messier parts of life. I don’t do Facebook or Instagram, but I have serious doubts that there are too many posts of photos of individuals locked on the sofa while being wracked with depression over several weeks or having crippling panic attacks.
These kids were also the first ones raised in the post-9/11 world, with the around-the-clock, in-your-face news cycles, and a nonstop flood of information via social media as NorthernMom61 pointed out. Searches at airports, metal detectors at schools, school shootings, a steady diet of dystopian novels and movies. Not being able to sit in the car for a minute alone, or walk to the park at the corner.
The world is so much more fast-paced these days. I don’t find it surprising that they find it anxiety-provoking when they are thrust out into it for the first time.
After reading some of the responses in this thread, I think I should also point out that while anxiety can be caused by the transition into adulthood for students, there’s also many other factors to consider as to why that might be.
For some people, anxiety might be a life-long problem that’s been hidden for quite some time. Perhaps an individual was heavily abused throughout childhood and even into teenage years and possibly into adulthood. People in that situation might be willing to come forward with that info now since there’s a trend in “acceptability” of mental illness and such. Moreover, students leaving their parents/family for the first time to live in a college dorm or something might carry their emotional scars with them despite the problem(s) being “left behind at home”. And definitely, that’s not a problem that is easily fixed, especially if it’s continued throughout the person’s life. It may take years of expensive therapy beyond college to make significant progress.
It’s a hypothesis, but I unfortunately don’t know of any relevant child abuse statistics to help back it up.
Some of the responses on this thread are really obtuse. “It’s okay to be anxious!” Not if students are doing harm to themselves because of it, which, speaking as a college student, they absolutely ARE.
Most people do not self harm as the result of anxiety, new poster.
I definitely think my kids felt anxiety about academic and EC achievement, but I think that sort of anxiety was mostly the province of the top 2% of the class. Their friends in non-honors classes seemed quite relaxed about their studies and activities and the fact that their peers on CC would have considered their accomplishments mediocre at best. Any stress was social, as in related to the opposite gender, gossip, etc.
I think a lot of people tend to blame “this generation” and the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality for everything. Frankly, this is vastly overblown. I think the reason we’re seeing much more anxiety and depression in college students is due to three reasons: higher expectations (it’s no longer enough to graduate– you must also stand out among your peers); higher stress over a perceived lack of jobs/finances/etc.; and, most importantly, more attention being paid to these issues. Anxiety has always existed, but it’s just like how nowadays we’re seeing more reports of sexual assault and other crimes– we as a society are more comfortable with speaking out about these issues and with actually talking about them out in the open. Even ten years ago you would have been ridiculed for seeking help for anxiety (this is especially the case for men), and until recently many colleges didn’t even provide options for students to seek help for mental illness or distress. This naturally leads to low estimations of the prevalence of these problems in vulnerable demographics. Now, however, we as a culture are more aware that these problems exist and are more responsible in our approach to addressing them: it is no longer acceptable to sweep it under the rug and tell students to suck it up. Colleges now make an active effort to encourage students to seek help when they need it and to speak out. So when I see higher reported rates of anxiety and depression in college students, I’m less concerned than I am gratified that we’re finally addressing these issues. It’s not a product of weakness or of coddling; it’s a product of awareness and higher reporting rates among a demographic that has always been stressed.
Harm doesn’t have to mean literal self harm with a razor. I developed health problems as a result of constant stress and anxiety. People pick up a lot of really unhealthy behaviors due to anxiety as well.
Severe anxiety, in significant excess to the situation that causes it, can be “harmful”. People can make lots of bad choices to assuage anxiety. But thats not what posters ere referring to earlier.
Two days before we had our first exam, one of my professors explained how he graded his tests. He made it clear he had bought his packs of red pens beforehand to mark up all our tests and that he was ready. Jokingly, he remarked, “No pink pens for you guys. Red!”
Probably because many of them don’t experience actual stress until college. Most people either go into college with anxiety or they develop it from college being their first chance to experience what stress is like. At my school, you see who can handle the stress by who is there second semester freshman year.
I have no personal experience with that though. I developed my anxiety from my parents’ constant abuse of each other when I was in high school.
It’s pretty disturbing to see how many posters fail to recognize anxiety as an actual problem.
+1
My 17-year-old daughter has been seeing a counselor for a few months. We initially sent her because she was traumatized due to dealing with her schizophrenic older brother. But now the counselor tells me she is a “very anxious young lady” due to pressures at school and the thought of applying for college. This is the girl I nicknamed “Sunshine” because she’s always been so happy and positive. I had noticed she wasn’t quite as bubbly as before, but I just attributed it to normal teenaged angst. Now her counselor wants her to go on a med such as Prozac, hopefully just temporarily so that she can calm down enough to learn some coping skills.
I am just thankful we listened to the friends who recommended we send her to a therapist! I know a generation ago, she probably wouldn’t have gotten the help she needed.
- Many college classes do have participation as part of the grade. Sometimes it's a significant proportion of the grade. Even in graduate school this is a factor.
- I have used every color of pen to do my grading - purple, pink, green, red, blue, whatever. I like to switch it up. I have honestly rarely seen college professors do marking with red pens. Some professors do marking in pencil! It has nothing to do with students’ feelings or the overblown and probably mythical idea that red pens are too harsh. It’s just whatever I happen to have on hand - I prefer using colorful pens because *grading is the worst* and it’s one way to inject a little interest to it.
And a lot of my grading was actually done with track changes in Word.
- Extra credit and redo-ing assignments really depends on the professor and whether the college has rampant grade inflation. The opportunities are probably less common than high school, but not rare - particularly not in your regional colleges and lower-tier universities where students are less prepared for college. But even when I was teaching at Columbia I observed (and granted, under certain circumstances) opportunities for students to redo assignments they had done poorly on - sometimes at the behest of the instructor of record. I also have seen professors give extra credit assignments, including easy questions on the exam (which TA is the tallest?)
- I do care if my students don’t show up for lecture or miss an assignment because of illness in their family, personal struggles, etc. Most professors do, and will work with student with legitimate issues. (Of course, if they’re just fishing for excuses that’s something else.) There are also student services workers at top universities who are responsible for managing a portfolio of students and making sure they’re doing well in classes and helping them navigate college life.
As others have stated, I would wager that there’s no huge rise in anxiety. There might be a small one, as more students - including more underprepared students or students who otherwise would’ve stayed at home and worked post-college - attend college. But I also think we’ve gotten better at recognizing and acknowledging it when it happens, and treating it. There’s less of a stigma on admitting that you’re suffering debilitating anxiety problems, and less of a stigma seeing someone about it. The oft-repeated statement at my Ivy was that 50% of the undergrads saw a counselor at some point during their time there.
There is a waiting list for those seeking counseling at my daughter’s school. When my daughter signed up for counseling for her anxiety issues she told them that because of the pre-health program, the scheduling of tutoring, reviews, lab tests, she explained she might miss sessions due to these. She missed three sessions and was asked to leave. She had a bio-lab exam at the same time as a session. She now has to see a therapist outside of school that takes our insurance.
The counseling center there is a joke. They say they go out of their way to help and they don’t. When they asked my daughter to find counseling elsewhere she was devastated. She told them her schedule. She told them how difficult it is with the pre-health program to schedule some sessions and she did try to work around that but the center wasn’t very flexible since their office hours are during class time. None on weekends or in the evening and even then it was only until 6.
She’s an incredibly bright kid. She knew college was all about being a “grown up”. But the counseling center only allows for short term counseling (only 10 sessions per year) and she really needed more. So I get angry when I read about how “helpful and caring” the center is about their students. And it’s impossible to schedule a session when you’re in class all day. Or make a decision to either to go to counseling or starve.
My daughter is taking a gap year between HS and college. She will matriculate at a very competitive college , the one with many highlighted “psychological health issues” (in the fairly recent publications). She had a long conversation with her admission officer and had asked her about this problem. The answer was, and I am paraphrasing here - you are smart to take a gap year, you will be much more independent thinker when you arrive here for a freshman year a year from now. As long as you do not stress about being first in your class and having the best grades (as you are used to ) you will do fine. Just by taking this year away from it all will prepare you to take it more casually.
Maybe the culprit is that the kids aspiring for admission to the top schools in the country are already anxious, depressed and simply tired. Then they go away thousands of miles from home and things just get out of control…no more home cooked meals, no more parents to say it is OK, you will be fine, just be happy, grades really do not matter.
And this is exactly what is wrong with the education system. The precious snowflakes get their ego boosted with nonsense like this because they got a better grade, while other countries are challenging their students with real work.
as for the “mythical idea that red pens are too harsh”, myth or not, people are acting on it:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/blog/education-today/power-of-the-pen-is-red-ink-on-schoolwork-damaging-to-students-confidence/
http://www.wisegeek.com/why-are-some-teachers-prohibited-from-grading-in-red-ink.htm#didyouknowout