Introduction:
Most mental disorders have their first onset at the age of 18 to 24 years; it has always been a burden for young adults especially in the student life where various stressful life events contribute to such cause of psychological distress. The daily hassle in a student life and other stress factor triggers such acute mental illness.
With the dependency over the internet it has been observed that increasing number of self disclosures take place in these social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and which in turn allow every such individuals to share their feelings and stories, talk with other such people experiencing similar health problem, but majority of the ratio can’t share their problems in these social networking sites and some don’t even understand what exact problem they are facing, and the students who are unable or unwilling to share their feelings regarding their negative emotions are more likely to develop such psychological problems.
Self disclosure plays a positive role towards obtaining a mental support which would otherwise not be possible if person keeps the problem confined to oneself.
A person with stressful live events has lower body resistance and hence the probability of occurrence of any disease be it mental or any physical enhances. People under stress are likely to have decreased satisfaction with life (McCullough et al., 2000). Hence satisfaction in life contributes a great role in determining the life as purposeful.
Major reasons contributing to Psychological distress:
Various cultural and social factors like parents’ divorce, family problems, poor parenting skills, violence, poor frustration tolerance contributes in such acute psychological disorder such as Depression, Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia which first manifests in adolescence. The transition from High-school to college finding new life, new peers, increased independence, welcoming new challenges including leaving home and in all these some are not able to cope very efficiently. In student life one has to continuously assess the day-to-day work, assignments, exams, academic performance, which puts an impact on the sleep, mood, mental well being. With progress in terms the stress also increases while the positive effect, sleep, conversation, mental peace drops.
Why some students perform better than the other? Why some student excels in academics while some students fail?
All these factors puts a deep impact on a student some are able to handle it effectively while some are not hence in spite of trying to improve their grades and excel in academics they fail to do so due to their mental emotions, they tend to forget while writing papers, face a lack of concentration no matter how hard they try. With advance in medical science now newer medications are also available which has made possible to address such disorder which was difficult in the past but all these medications have certain side effects also.
This is where counseling comes very effective, where a student can open up about their problems talk about their past and get a proper guide to again find their purpose of life. In our Indian society there is not much acceptance about the problems that are faced mentally; this is why mental awareness becomes very important and crucial for the greater acceptance of treatment by the current generation.
Insomnia:
Depression, anxiety, fatigue, stress, and the quality of life add up another problem that is sleep problems. There is evidence that shows that greater anxiety is associated with sleep problems such as insomnia (e.g., Moul et al., 2003; Morin et al., 2003; Viens et al., 2003). A good sleep pattern is very essential in young adults it has been observed that people with insomnia symptoms are at a higher risk of developing stress, depression, suicidal tendency, even are more prone to develop cardiovascular diseases.
Sleep is a very important aspect of life that helps us to maintain a healthy lifestyle so it should be regularly assessed in college students, general education regarding healthy sleep should be provided among students. Main problem arises when the student who have a problem of Insomnia don’t even know that they have a problem of Insomnia. Student’s struggling with insomnia problem just continues thinking that it is a mere part of their college experience.
The college environment that we have is not the ideal environment to promote good sleep habits. Students living in hostels and Dormitories have poorer sleep due to lack of privacy most of the their roommates ask them to have late night fun, movie watching where some might face difficulty to just say NO and get involved with them , therefore students who stay off campus find it more convenient to keep more consistency with their sleep cycles.
Conclusion:
Institutions should adopt a structure where student mental health is addressed to, and everyone should contribute responsibly towards such practice, the entire institution has a “role in prevention, providing support, and in offering a range of opportunities to enable students to participate in higher education” (Stanley & Manthorpe, 2002, p. 30), and not just considering the sole responsibility of the counseling center. University and colleges get to deal with the challenges posed due to the changing mental health needs. It is very important for the administrator, staffs, and other college authority to understand about the impact of mental health problems and provide support in treating such health issues and considering the same as an institutional responsibility.
Counseling centers can also implement various strategies to deal with the mental health needs of the students, fulfilling their specific demand for services, more immediate appointments should be provided for the students in such crisis. Group therapy and self-help programs are very helpful where one can easily open up and find other students facing same kind of problems, and help them in achieving their personal goals.
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