From juggling coursework to navigating relationships, college can be overwhelming. New experiences and opportunities can be exciting, but they can also feel like a constant barrage of pressure. That pressure can easily turn into exhaustion, shame, and self-doubt. These experiences can all signal academic burnout. They can also be signs of depression.
Depression affects college students at high rates, with a much higher prevalence in young women. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) notes that 10% of women experience a major depressive episode in a given year, with the highest rates occurring in the 18- to 25-year-old age group. Depression can harm a student’s ability to function in daily life, even when everything on the surface looks fine. These effects can be magnified by academic burnout, which can easily feed into depression.
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Understanding Depression in College Students
The Mayo Clinic notes that depression commonly involves lasting feelings of sadness and low interest. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) adds that depression in college students can also present as negative emotions like numbness, frustration, or a short temper rather than obvious sadness.
According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of depression can include:
- Feelings of sadness or hopelessness
- Tiredness and a lack of energy
- Irritability or angry outbursts
- A loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities
- Changes in sleep or appetite
- Slowed thinking
- Unexplained physical symptoms, like headaches or muscle tension
The college years can be a particularly vulnerable time for depression to form, with symptoms often appearing during this time period. Depression is a mental health condition rooted in chemical changes in the brain, and it can appear at any time. Chronic stress and its impacts can lead to depression and worsen its symptoms.
Because the signs of depression can develop over time, they can be easy to miss. In addition to the above signs, if you begin to miss classes, experience declining grades, or withdraw from your friend groups, you may be experiencing depression.
Am I Burned Out or Depressed? How to Tell the Difference
Many college students struggle with motivation and fatigue, especially when stressors pile up over time. This often takes the form of burnout, especially in female students. Burnout occurs when ongoing stress isn’t managed effectively. In cases of academic burnout, this leads to emotional exhaustion, academic alienation, and a diminished sense of achievement.
Emotional exhaustion can leave you without the mental energy to face new demands or challenges. Academic alienation can involve reduced motivation or declining grades. All this can make you question your abilities as a student and as a person.
While the two share some symptoms, depression differs from burnout in some key ways. Healthline notes that depression is a formal medical diagnosis, while burnout is not. Unlike burnout, depression doesn’t necessarily resolve once a stressful situation ends. Depression also tends to affect more areas of life beyond academics.
Burnout can feel like being overwhelmed by demands you can’t keep up with. Depression can make you feel that even if the demands ceased, nothing would get better.
Why Depression Can Make Schoolwork Feel Impossible
Many students with depression struggle to complete coursework or study effectively. While depression can impact motivation, it also affects how the brain processes information. Research shows that many people with depression report a reduced ability to think clearly, concentrate, or make decisions during a depressive episode.
For a student, this can make it extremely difficult to retain new information or meet deadlines. Planning and concentration can feel like they require a tremendous amount of energy. Even starting an assignment can feel like an uphill battle due to depression’s impacts on executive function. These challenges can make one even more self-critical and stressed, leading to further depressed thinking.
These struggles stem from a treatable medical condition, not “laziness.” Professional treatment can help college students manage these tasks healthily while addressing the root causes of the problem. In addition to seeking treatment for depression, campus accommodations and academic coaching may be helpful in the short term.
High-Functioning Depression in College Students: Signs to Know
Some students don’t show any obvious signs of depression to others. They may keep up with their coursework and maintain high grades, but struggle privately with low moods, fatigue, and related symptoms. NAMI notes that this is often referred to as high-functioning depression.
These kinds of persistent struggles can be typical of persistent depressive disorder, which is a mild to moderate form of depression that affects one over the long term. Students facing these kinds of ongoing symptoms may feel guilty for struggling when their life appears great from the outside. Some may question whether their symptoms “count” as depression, or worry that they don’t deserve help since they are still getting things done.
The label of “high-functioning” depression can be misleading in some ways. There’s much more to emotional health than how well you function visibly to others. Clinically “mild” symptoms can still take a big toll on your mental health over time. If you are facing these kinds of questions, comparison with others should not stop you from getting help. A persistent low mood is worth addressing with the help of a mental health professional before it deepens or leads to more severe symptoms.
Losing Interest in Everything: When It May Be More Than a Phase
Many college students lose enthusiasm for previous hobbies or friendships. In part, this is understandable, as college is naturally a time of change and growth. However, losing interest in one’s previously enjoyed activities or feeling persistent numbness can signal deeper mental health issues. This loss of interest and enjoyment is known as anhedonia. The Cleveland Clinic defines anhedonia as the lack of interest, enjoyment, or pleasure from life’s experiences, and notes that it’s a common symptom of many mental health conditions, including depression.
For a college student, anhedonia might result in skipping social events or dropping one’s hobbies because nothing sounds appealing. A Johns Hopkins Medicine analysis found that this loss of interest in activities was extremely common for female students, with strong ties to depression and related mental health problems.
When a loss of interest lasts for multiple weeks, affects multiple areas of life, or is accompanied by other mental health symptoms, it may signal depression. If you experience this loss of interest or numbness, a consultation with a medical professional can help.
Emotional Exhaustion in College Students: Signs and Causes
Emotional exhaustion describes a state of feeling worn down and depleted from accumulated stress. Healthline notes that people experiencing emotional exhaustion often feel like they have no control over their circumstances. This can leave one feeling trapped or stuck in familiar problems and habits with no clear way out.
Healthline adds that emotional exhaustion can have physical and mental symptoms, which include:
- A lack of motivation
- Trouble sleeping
- Irritability
- Physical fatigue
- Hopelessness, apathy, or a sense of dread
- Absentmindedness and difficulty concentrating
- Increased cynicism, pessimism, and nervousness
College students can become emotionally exhausted from managing academics, relationships, jobs, and financial pressures with little time to recover. Left unaddressed, this can progress into burnout or contribute to depression.
To combat emotional exhaustion, try building self-care and recovery time into your routine. This might involve a regular sleep schedule, time spent outdoors, or unstructured free time where you don’t make any demands of yourself. These are important first steps, but ongoing emotional exhaustion that doesn’t improve with rest may call for professional support.
Why Someone Can Feel Depressed Even When Their Life Looks Good
Many people wonder how they can feel depressed when their life is going well by any objective measure. One can have high grades, supportive friends, a good job, and a healthy relationship and still be depressed. This is because depression is a disorder of the brain, not a measure of one’s circumstances. This means that it can occur even when someone seems to be in a good place overall.
It’s common for some people to feel guilt over their depression when they “have it good,” especially if they compare their circumstances with others. However, this kind of thinking only makes an already difficult experience harder. Just as one wouldn’t blame someone for having a medical condition, individuals shouldn’t blame themselves for having depression.
How Depression Affects Concentration, Memory, and Motivation
Depression’s effects reach beyond mood, shaping how the brain functions day to day. Harvard Health notes that depression can affect attention, information processing, and decision-making. It can harm one’s executive function, which includes planning, organization, and focus. It can also impact one’s short- and long-term memory.
These changes occur for multiple reasons. Depression can disrupt sleep, which has numerous impacts on how well our brain functions. Depression can also make even small choices, like what to eat or when to start studying, feel difficult. And because depression often impacts motivation, tasks that once felt manageable can feel disproportionately difficult.
The cognitive challenges of depression are frustrating, but they are also treatable. Harvard Health notes that treatments like cognitive-behavioral therapy can help one improve their problem-solving and challenge distorted thinking. Many individuals also find that treating the underlying depression helps them regain mental clarity and sharpness.
Find Support for Depression and Burnout at Luna Recovery for Women
If you are struggling with burnout or suspect you may be facing depression, help is available. Your campus counseling center, student health service, primary care provider, or a therapist can help you understand what you’re experiencing and determine what support may be appropriate.
If an outpatient treatment program seems like the right fit for your needs, 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, and our Brookline, MA location catered to college students, please contact Luna Recovery for Women at (888) 491-3722 today.