How Much Stress Is Too Much? Managing Anxiety in College - part 1 - women campus

"The best four years of my life."  

Around the time when you left for college, there's probably about a 97 percent chance that someone said these words to you. Sighing wistfully, eyes glazed over with nostalgia, this person reminisced about wild parties and the unrestrained freedom of youth, then cautioned you to cherish each moment before it all passes in the blink of an eye.

College gets a pretty glorified reputation, especially in the minds of those who haven't written a paper or taken an economics exam in a couple of decades. But let's be real. College isn't all toga parties and sunbathing in the quad. You're living away from home for the first time, managing a packed schedule, and trying to maintain a good GPA as well as a social life. You might even sometimes try to get some sleep. The bottom line: college is a stressful place.  
 

Naturally, everyone will get overwhelmed occasionally. But what happens when the stressing becomes the norm and not the exception?

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders affect approximately 9.1 percent of college students and are among the most common mental health problems on college campuses.

What classifies an anxiety disorder?

"Anxiety disorder" is a pretty broad term: it refers to generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety disorder, as well as specific phobias.

These disorders cover a wide range of symptoms, but they are all serious disorders stemming from uncontrollable anxiety. Many are often accompanied by panic attacks, an episode of sudden and intense panic coupled with physical symptoms like chest pain and rapid breathing. 

Lindsey, a senior at Wake Forest University, started getting occasional panic attacks in high school. "I'll start sweating, my heart feels like it's about to beat out of my chest, and I'll be breathing really quickly, but it still feels like I can't get enough air, which is a really scary feeling," she says. "Sometimes, it will almost feel like my throat is closing up."

A certain amount of anxiety is both normal and necessary. While a select few possess the self-discipline to begin working on a ten-page research paper the night a professor assigns it, the rest of us need the pressure of a looming deadline to get started. 

The trick is in knowing where to draw the line between everyday anxiety and a disorder. There's no formula or test to take, but if anxiety begins to significantly interfere with your life, then it might be time to do something about it.

"If it's continual and it's painful and it's very distressing, that's one indicator," says Jon Abramowitz, Ph.D, professor and associate chair of psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill. "If they can't go to class, or grades are suffering, if it starts to impact school, relationships, or other areas of functioning, then that's another indication."

Lizabeth Roemer, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and co-author of The Mindful Way Through Anxiety: Break Free From Worry and Reclaim Your Life, says that physical symptoms sometimes accompany anxiety disorders as well. But in most cases, just being aware of how your anxiety is affecting your life is the best way to tell.

"Because anxiety naturally leads people to avoid feared situations, people with anxiety disorders often lead more narrow lives and don't do things that matter to them to avoid feeling distressed and anxious," she says.  
 

Anxiety in college

According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, 40 million U.S. adults suffer from an anxiety disorder, and 75 percent of them experience their first episode of anxiety by age 22.

It's not too difficult to imagine why a college setting could lead to increased anxiety. "This is a time when people are coming into their own," says Abramowitz. "They're becoming adults, so responsibilities shift. If a person is teetering on the brink, that increase in responsibility can put them over the edge."

Women are also at an increased risk; they're twice as likely to have an anxiety disorder than men.

This is partially due to differences in brain chemistry and higher levels of estrogen, but recent research also shows that women are more sensitive to the hormone that organizes stress responses—making them more prone to all stress-related disorders.

"Often people who experience anxiety judge themselves for the symptoms, seeing them as a sign of being 'weak' or imagining that other people don't also struggle with anxiety," says Roemer. "This criticism and judgment increases the intensity of the anxiety and can also lead people to isolate, when [actually] social support is an important buffer for a range of psychological difficulties."

And when anxiety spirals out of control, it can quickly turn into something very serious. Anxiety disorders often go hand-in-hand with other disorders such as depression, substance abuse and eating disorders.

Kelsey, a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, believes that anxiety contributed to her developing anorexia. "I am personally recovering from an eating disorder, and many anxieties occurred during the time I had anorexia," she says. "I don't believe many people know that eating disorders can arise from anxiety or that anxiety is a top contributor to eating disorders."