Attending college can be an exciting and rewarding time of life, but it can also be stressful. Students must manage grades, relationships, work, and finances all at once. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially if one is living away from home for the first time. If you struggle with constant worry or feel that you should always be doing more, you are not alone.
This kind of anxiety is common for college students, especially young women. Women often report more academic stress than men, as well as higher levels of anxiety and depression. The impacts often go beyond mental health. In fact, over two-thirds of college students surveyed say that mental health difficulties have affected their academic performance during the previous four weeks.
Stress is a normal part of college. But when anxiety begins interfering with your academics, relationships, or physical health, it may be time to seek professional support.
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Signs That College Stress Has Become a Mental Health Concern
Some amount of stress can be motivating. Stress that encourages one to study or meet a deadline isn’t necessarily bad. The concern is how intense, persistent, and disruptive stress becomes. When stress becomes constant and persists over time, it’s known as chronic stress.
The Cleveland Clinic notes that signs of chronic stress include:
- anxiety and irritability
- sadness
- difficulty concentrating
- feelings of panic
Chronic stress can also show up through physical symptoms. These can include:
- headaches
- muscle tension
- stomach problems
- rapid heartbeat
- fatigue
These symptoms can all signal stress that’s disruptive or unhealthy. An important question is whether stress helps one respond to a challenge or makes it harder to function in daily life.
It is also important to ask whether the stress is in response to a single event or ongoing. A stressful week due to an upcoming test is different from months of overwhelming anxiety. If you are experiencing these symptoms or feel that stress is interfering with your daily life, consider talking with a counselor or campus health professional.
College Burnout: Signs You’re Dealing With More Than Ordinary Stress
College burnout can develop when academic stress builds up over time without getting enough rest. Burnout can leave you feeling emotionally and physically exhausted, with studies showing that young women are particularly vulnerable. Someone experiencing burnout may continue attending classes and completing assignments, but feel that everything is harder than it used to be. Instead of feeling stressed only before an exam, they may feel exhausted almost all the time.
Healthline notes that common signs of burnout include:
- feeling emotionally drained
- having low energy
- feeling cynical
- being unwilling to socialize
- having difficulty concentrating
- a lack of interest in completing tasks at school, work, or home
Experiencing burnout often may mean that you lack the time, energy, or support to meet your current demands. Managing burnout may require reducing unnecessary commitments where possible. Stanford suggests prioritizing your tasks, changing your routine, and communicating with your professors about the situation. A healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise, adequate sleep, and self-care, is also crucial. If stress and burnout continue despite these efforts, a mental health professional can help.
Why Am I Anxious All the Time? Understanding Anxiety in College Students
Anxiety is your body’s response to a perceived threat or uncertainty. College provides plenty of both. Something as simple as an upcoming exam can keep you in a state of anxiety. So can larger fears, like uncertainty about one’s future career.
The American Psychological Association notes that students may experience anxiety related to speaking in class, fitting in, and a fear of judgment or rejection. Young women are especially likely to experience these kinds of social anxiety, and to experience more physical symptoms as a result.
Anxiety can also become self-reinforcing. You may worry about an exam, notice your heart racing, interpret that as evidence that something is wrong, and become even more anxious.
If worry is persistent, difficult to control, or interfering with everyday functioning, you may be experiencing an anxiety disorder. A mental health professional can help determine whether you are experiencing an anxiety disorder or another concern. Treatment can include psychotherapy, lifestyle changes, and, when appropriate, medication.
How to Stop Overthinking Every Decision in College
One major source of anxiety for college students is the sheer number of decisions they face every day. Some are small, like whether to study or go out. Others can have big impacts on one’s future, like what career path to pursue. All can lead to overthinking, rumination, and stress that impact daily life.
If you struggle with overthinking, the Cleveland Clinic recommends setting aside a “worry period” every day. During this time, you write down your worries and decide which ones you can control. Try to develop solutions for the problems you can control. For the situations you can’t control, practice letting go until your next worry period.
The Cleveland Clinic also recommends challenging negative thoughts. Consider the concrete evidence for a negative thought, and whether it is truly helpful or accurate. You can apply this same questioning to “what if” scenarios that you may worry about without evidence.
If worry or indecision consumes hours of your day, therapy can help you develop healthier responses to anxious thoughts. Reframing negative thoughts and building more realistic, positive thinking is a key part of cognitive-behavioral therapy CBT), which is a well-established treatment for anxiety disorders.
Sunday Scaries in College: Causes and Coping Strategies
The “Sunday scaries” describe a particular form of anxiety that builds as the weekend ends and the upcoming week approaches. For college students, Sunday can bring a mental checklist of pressures and demands, from assignments to exams and social obligations.
Mental Health First Aid recommends organizing your tasks by priority and making specific plans to tackle them over the week. If you still struggle with dwelling on the week’s worries, mindfulness practice can help you focus on the present moment instead of getting carried away with worry.
It can also help to schedule your Sundays as self-care days. Freeing up obligations and planning ways to relax, such as seeing a movie or getting outdoors, can help you associate Sundays with rest instead of worry.
What Is an Anxiety Spiral and How Can You Interrupt It?
When an episode of anxiety starts to escalate, it is often called an “anxiety spiral.” An anxiety spiral often begins with a single worrying thought. From there, each worry leads to another, larger worry. Soon, your mind is reacting to a chain of imagined consequences rather than the original situation. For instance, fear of failing an exam can spiral into worry about dropping out of class and even college.
The neurodivergence and mental health organization, Understood, recommends a strategy known as TIPP for managing anxiety spirals. TIPP stands for Temperature, Intense Exercise, Paced Breathing, and Progressive Muscle Relaxation. This is a four-step process that can help “reset” the body’s nervous system and calm the physical symptoms of anxiety. TIPP involves a sequence of steps that include:
- Temperature: cooling the body down by splashing cold water on yourself or holding an ice pack to your face
- Intense Exercise: doing jumping jacks, climbing stairs, or doing sprints
- Paced Breathing: slow inhaling, holding the breath for a few seconds, followed by slow exhalation
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation: tensing and releasing different muscle groups, often starting from the feet and working up
Talk to a medical professional if you have any heart or medical conditions before trying this technique, as the temperature step can lower one’s heart rate quickly.
In addition to the TIPP process, Understood also recommends practicing mindfulness, breaking challenges down into smaller tasks, and building a daily routine to help combat unpredictability. These strategies can help you prevent anxiety spirals and respond more healthily should they occur.
Why Presentations, Participation, and Group Projects Trigger Anxiety
Speaking in class can feel threatening when you worry about making a mistake or sounding unintelligent. Group projects can create a different kind of anxiety where you may fear disappointing teammates or being judged. These reactions can become especially intense when perfectionism is involved.
Taking small steps can build confidence and lead to major progress over time. A small goal, such as asking a question in class or rehearsing a presentation with a trusted friend, can get you started. This gradual exposure, often used in CBT, can help you build confidence while learning that uncomfortable feelings are manageable.
Panic Attacks in College: Symptoms and Coping Strategies
If you ever feel a sudden wave of fear accompanied by intense physical symptoms, you may be experiencing a panic attack. A panic attack feels frightening because your body reacts as though there is an immediate threat, even when there’s no obvious cause. The Mayo Clinic notes that symptoms can include a racing heart, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, nausea, chills, and an intense feeling of danger.
During a panic attack, Medical News Today recommends deep breathing, finding a peaceful spot, and focusing on an object in the environment. This focus can help you ground yourself in the situation rather than anxious thinking. For some people, listening to music can also help in the moment.
Having a panic attack does not automatically mean you have a panic disorder. However, panic disorders are over twice as prevalent in women. Recurring attacks or fear of having another attack can interfere with classes, social activities, and everyday life. A mental health professional can help you determine what is happening and how best to treat it.
Perfectionism and Anxiety: When High Standards Become Harmful
Perfectionism is another common source of anxiety. While desiring success is healthy, problems arise when achievement becomes tied to self-worth or mistakes feel unacceptable. The American Psychological Association notes that perfectionism has been increasing among college students in recent years. Such perfectionism is associated with mental health symptoms, including anxiety and depression.
To address perfectionism, the Harvard Division of Continuing Education recommends realigning your expectations around achievement. Aiming for constant perfection can exhaust you, harm your self-image, and keep you from doing a good job. Instead, prioritize doing your best while recognizing and respecting your limits.
Healthline also recommends practicing new activities without pressure. For instance, try working on a creative project for fun, without feeling the need to produce something “perfect” or even to be good at it. This can help you accept imperfection.
Therapeutic techniques like CBT can also help you identify perfectionist thinking and develop a sense of self-worth separate from your outward accomplishments.
Find Support for Anxiety and Depression at Luna Recovery for Women
You do not have to wait until anxiety becomes unbearable to seek help. Your campus counseling center, student health service, primary care provider, or an off-campus therapist can help you understand what you’re experiencing and determine what support may be appropriate.
If you are struggling with anxiety or another mental health condition and are looking for a treatment program, we are here to help. Luna Recovery for Women is proud to offer women-centered mental health and addiction treatment that empowers women to heal in a compassionate, supportive, and understanding environment.
To learn more about treatment options, contact Luna Recovery for Women today at (888) 491-3722.