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There is a special kind of exhaustion that hits the students about midway into midterms. Not only exhaustion because of lack of sleep caused by cramming, but this kind of deep, soul-draining exhaustion that leaves you looking at your schedule and wondering, how on earth are you going to make it through this week. Most people know what we are talking about. Such episodes pass within a day or two. For some, they don’t. The process of changing from stressed to struggling is a tricky one to navigate.

This article does not intend to provide you with tips on how to improve your sleep or teach you breathing techniques (although these practices may be helpful, but not enough to solve your problems). Instead, it tries to help you recognize when it’s time to seek professional help and stop dealing with your problems on your own.

The Myth of the “Functional” Student

One peculiarity of the college experience is that it makes pain look like progress. The student working on the thesis after a night spent awake is not perceived as distressed, but rather as diligent. The student who did not eat decently over the past few days because he or she was in the library is not perceived as mentally exhausted, but rather intense and motivated.

It is a very dangerous notion. The presence of excessive levels of stress on college campuses means that many students will have to seek professional help but will not consider it as an option as they believe that everything is fine with them. They were told that college life is tough, they remind themselves of this fact and struggle through it, but sometimes struggling while ignoring the problem just makes it worse.

What “Normal” Stress Is Really About

There are two different things that we need to distinguish in the first place: stress and anxiety, although they might be confusing sometimes. The stress response is always triggered by external factors, such as an exam or a presentation. It is over once the trigger disappears. The anxiety, however, is more persistent. Once you’ve finished with the exam or presentation, you don’t feel relief, you feel dread about the next one. There is a lingering sense of danger.

Similar thing can be said about the difference between temporary sadness and depression. While sadness is situational, something that made you feel down, depression is persistent and affects a number of aspects of your functioning. Depression affects concentration, sleep patterns and appetite, decreases motivation. You cannot concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes and find no interest in activities you used to enjoy. Observing your behavior patterns can be helpful in this situation.

Observing the drinking and/or substance abuse patterns is also useful. Drinking culture is omnipresent on college campuses. But the fact that drinking is no longer something that you prefer but rather something that helps you cope with anxiety or fall asleep should ring alarm bells.

When to Seek Help, and Who Can Provide It

There’s absolutely no denying that counseling services available on university campuses are incredibly useful. You should familiarize yourself with all of the available options and know where to get access to them if necessary. Usually, such institutions provide counseling for a limited period of time, and many of them provide urgent help as well. In case you were hesitating regarding making an appointment, now is the time to finally make a move.

However, it should be pointed out that sometimes counseling offered by university campuses is not enough for certain students, and there’s nothing to worry about it. If you face a complicated issue, a history of trauma, a dependence on alcohol or drugs, an eating disorder, or depression and anxiety symptoms are so severe that they affect your functionality – you need higher levels of help. It’s not a failure, but an accurate assessment of the situation.

It’s always easier to find the right support and make decisions before your condition reaches the point of crisis, which means that it’s better to conduct a research beforehand. Specialized treatment centers for young adults know what problems students face and can easily help you identify your needs.

Why Aren’t Students Getting the Help They Need?

There are several recurrent topics that come up every time people start talking about students’ unwillingness to get help despite their obvious need in mental health. This could be money issues. The time issue is another one. People usually do not have any time left for appointments due to their already overloaded schedules. Stigma plays an important role too. Visiting a counselor or a therapist is still stigmatized nowadays, especially on college campuses, where it is so important to fit in.

Still, there is one more factor that is less discussed – the unawareness of the need in help and unwillingness to admit that. People can say that “there are those who have it even worse” or “I am able to attend classes, so everything must be fine” and many other things. Those arguments are comprehensible, but wrong. Necessity in professional help does not depend on any suffering threshold. It is about the recognition of the simple fact that your life could become better with the help of professionals.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) provides some resources for college students. There is a special college student resource section on the website of NAMI. In addition to that, the organization offers HelpLine (1-800-950-6264) where you will be able to learn about various mental health problems and treatment options and different support programs available in your region. NAMI offers trainings for peer educators who run discussions about this topic in NAMI On Campus program. It is good to know that there is such support system. However, you are not obligated to use their services straight away. You do not have to be ready to take such a step.

The Semester Will Not Last Forever, But Untreated Mental Health Issues Usually Do

The argument in favor of the necessity of the earlier actions is quite evident. Problems tend to develop and become more severe over time. The longer you allow things to remain the way they are, the more difficult will it be to change anything. Depression, which has been developing through the entire semester will be much more difficult to handle than depression that has been overlooked at the beginning of it.

Alcohol abuse, which has been used as the way of escaping from problems during sophomore year, may become dependency by the end of education process. However, all these problems are treatable. Depression can be handled. Addiction to any substances can be overcome. Anxieties can be controlled so that a person could enjoy his/her healthy life. However, all these therapies work only on the early stages of problem development.

If right now you experience something between “stressed” and “struggling”, there is no need to wait until things worsen in order to get help. Actually, this is counterproductive. Your first step could be a visit to campus counseling center. Calling a treatment center would also be an option. Calling NAMI could also be useful. It is always difficult to ask for professional help. But it is usually easier than one thinks. Calling someone is never the most difficult thing you had done in your life.