University is not always the best years of your life!
University is always advertised as the best years of a young person’s life, but no one ever talks about the mental struggles many experience during university. From personal experience, I have struggled with my own mental health throughout university. It can be a very lonely experience, especially considering many who are currently in university started during a global pandemic.
Moving away from home is a big step no matter how confident you are, having to look after yourself whilst also trying to build a new life, with friendship groups and new assignment pressure. Research I have conducted has shown that 100% of students out of 16 have struggled with their mental health during university. In 2021 UCAS reported a 450% increase in student mental health declarations over the last decade, students are more willing to talk about their mental health since there is a lot more research and awareness on the subject. However, many still feel embarrassed to talk and recognise the stigma that still surrounds mental health.
Every university offers a wide range of mental health support, due to covid, a lot of this support has had to become virtual. The census which was conducted in 2021 expressed that first-year students indicated a clear preference for any mental health and well-being support to be face-to-face. 70% reported they’d prefer this and only 13% saying they’d prefer a virtual format. A quarter of students I asked if they had ever asked for help regarding their mental health said they have considered it but have always been too afraid to come forward, 31.3% said they had asked and 43.8% said they had never considered asking for help from mental health specialists.
The beginning of university for me was fun and carefree, I escaped a small town and moved to the big city of Manchester. I was not scared to move, more excited, looking forward to the future and never would I have ever thought I would struggle with my mental health. As year one came closer to ending, I realised how lonely University can be, living three hours away from my hometown suddenly became tough and I know this is true for many others as well.
Constantly staring at the four walls of my room and only seeing the same group of people every day made university become boring and lonely, people began to leave the accommodation and going out drinking was non-existent because of the lockdown, it was far from a normal university experience. Lectures had been online, and opportunities to meet new people had become more difficult than what they were during fresher’s week.
Gals who Graduate is a social media platform targeted at girls going through university and graduates, but also cater to people who chose not to go to university. After a post I made asking if anyone would be happy to talk about their own University experience and mental health I was flooded with responses. Every person who commented expressed they had struggled with their own mental health during uni and some had reached out for help but some felt ashamed and scared or if they had asked for help received no response.
“I was expecting university to be tough, due to the change in environment, support network, and the pressures that is university life itself.” A graduate from Keele University who graduated with a 2:1 degree spoke about her struggles during her degree. “I didn’t understand why I was supposed to talk to my personal tutor about these things, he was an older gentleman who struggled with certain topics and neither of us felt comfortable discussing my poor mental health. I got a new personal tutor in second year who was the course leader. He was fantastic.” It is a common trend with students struggling to be afraid to reach out to lecturers and tutors with fears they will not understand, or it will be an awkward conversation and that talking will only make things worse.
Another member of the Facebook group, a student from the University of Birmingham, opened up about her struggles with mental health. “So, I’ve never struggled with mental health up until uni. In second year covid caused several problems for me so I signed up for NHS counselling. However, it took WEEKS to get and the day of the phone call I got stressed and though there’s much worse people are suffering, my problems are so minor, so I shouldn’t be wasting their time, so I cancelled it.” Despite mental health charities trying to break the stigma encouraging people to talk about their mental health, many feel as if they are a burden or that their problems aren’t big enough to qualify for help.
All the 46 responses and counting all mainly had one thing in common, many agreed uni was not the best years of their lives like they had been told it will be and many feel confused as to why it sometimes isn’t.
There is a lot of stigma around having the ideal university experience, and one thing I have found myself doing is comparing my own experience to my friends often. Sometimes the overwhelming feeling that you aren’t going out drinking enough, or socialising enough, even comparing the teaching you see your friends on different courses receive compared to that of your own can make you believe your university experience isn’t worthwhile. Mental health organisations aimed at students such as Student minds and celebrities like Dr Alex George from Love Island both campaign to bring more awareness to student mental health. Personally, I think that there should be more awareness on the topic of uni not sometimes being the best experience of your life and the pressure to go to uni because if you don’t you won’t be successful.
If you are ever feeling alone at university people will always be there to listen, whether it is your friends, or a mental health professional and if you decide that university is not for you there are plenty of other options out there. If uni is not the best years of your life that is OK!
