Mental Health at Uni

In light of Mental Health Awareness day the other day, I thought it could be helpful to write a little about mental health and its relation to uni life, as this is a time for many people when they can see their mental health and general sense of well-being deteriorate to some extent.

An NUS survey in 2015 reported that 78% of students claimed to have suffered with mental health throughout that year, 33% of which revealed they had experienced suicidal thoughts. With or without statistical evidence, University is undoubtedly an extremely stressful time in anyone’s life; you attempt to juggle doing well academically, maintaining a social life, and participating in extra-curricular or societal events all while trying to decipher what kind of career you want to enter and how to do so. Pressures are naturally felt from all angles and despite how hard you try you will inevitably end up comparing yourself and your progress to your peers at some stage. What’s important to remember is that this is all natural, everyone is feeling the same way and that it’s not meant to be easy.

With all of this being said, University is also supposed to be some of the best years of your life and the worry of mental health and pressures shouldn’t get in the way of you making the most of your time at uni. There are ways to help cope with fragile mental health and means of controlling and minimising the stress that can arise from uni life. At Leicester the Welfare and Student Counselling services are an excellent service in helping you to tackle whatever problems you may be facing, no matter how big or small you may think they are. If you are just feeling buried in work and are struggling to manage your time well then setting out a schedule and timetable for yourself where you set out clear time frames in which to complete certain things can be really helpful and remember your tutors are also there to help you so don’t be afraid to go to them for help or guidance.

I’ll leave you with this inspiring clip by Lisa Kudrow who speaks a lot of sense.