Mental Health and You

By Georgiana Vine

Life as a student isn't always bad - we get plenty of discounts, opportunities to make lifelong friends, and the benefit of attending lit club events (that are normally accompanied by a healthy bar tab). However, like most things in life, there are are always a few cons. Being at university presents a number of unique challenges to students' mental health and wellbeing.

Our years that we spend at university just so happen to coincide with the peak age of onset for a variety of mental health conditions, with 75% of all mental health difficulties developing by the mid-20s. Our generation often cops a lot of hate, being deemed the ‘entitled generation’ - I feel that we are all a bit tired of constantly being told about how easy we have it nowadays - especially when research shows that today’s generation of young adults are more likely to experience mental illness than previous generations.

Over a quarter of students qualify as having a clinical level of psychological distress. This is associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and substance abuse. Over the past five years, universities have experienced a significant increase in demand for counselling services.

For most of us, our time at university are the first years we will spend away from our comfortable, established networks of support. This can provide a gap where feelings such as depression, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, and insecurity can seep through and begin to weigh us down. Largely due to the lack of close support and trust channels, this absence of a sense of community has been identified as one of the biggest challenges to student mental health. Simple factors like this can largely impact on our willingness to get involved in university life. In order to help create a platform where both students and staff can be supported, it is extremely important that we find, and become apart of a powerful community with a stable support network that we can all rely and fall back on at any time.

Having a strong support system in place is fundamental to your mental health and wellbeing. It will also promote a sense of belonging, resulting in positive wellbeing and improved mental health outcomes. We all have mental health, and therefore, it is all of our responsibility to fulfil our role in creating a healthy and accepting university community so that each and every one of us can feel comfortable, and perform at our best.

We want to empower all students at uni to become an active member in supporting better student mental health. We need to ignite the conversation about mental health, and empower as many people as we can to seek support if they need it. We should all have someone that we can turn to. However, if you are feeling a bit lonely, or feel that you may be experiencing the initial symptoms of progressive mental illness, please, please, please don’t be afraid to speak up. You aren’t weak if you need help. In fact, you are so strong for simply acknowledging that you are in an unhealthy mindset.

If you are curious to learn more about the of mental health, look out for QUT Guild’s mental health week coming up in october! We will be hosting a morning tea at 10am on the 10th of October to coincide with World Mental Health Day. We encourage you to come along and take a moment to really consider the importance of reducing the stigma that surround mental illness.

If this article has highlighted any concerns for yourself or someone you love, please seek help immediately. You can talk to your GP, seek counselling or contact the QLD Alcohol and Drug Information Service (ADIS)—1800 177 833.