It is a sad truth that because of university deadlines, personal reasons, university workload amongst other reasons. This can cause university students to experience mental health difficulties and they can suffer. Whilst the support services differ between different universities and different countries, I’m going to talk about some general support services before mentioning some country-specific ones towards the end.
But before all that, as a clinical psychology student, I have to stress it is perfectly okay to experience mental health difficulties. It doesn’t make you messed up, a failure or any of the other negative terms used to describe mental health sufferers.
(Personally, I think it shows courage to ask for help with your mental health because it’s a difficult thing to do!)
Your University:
At least in the United Kingdom, and I have little doubt it would be different in other countries, but all universities that I know of have a support service. At my university, it’s called Student Support and Wellbeing, and this is a great place to go if you’re struggling because these people will help you.
Therefore, you might want to check out your own university to see if there’s a similar support service that allows you to go and talk to someone. Then they might be able to give you some ideas about what to do next.
A Student Helpline
This is another fairly common one where students volunteer to answer calls on a helpline that you can call. Meaning you get to talk to other students about your difficulties and they can provide some advice to you.
I think this has a number of unique benefits because to some extent you might find it easier to talk to someone over the phone compared to in person. As well as it’s like there’s an extra layer of anonymity and confidentiality about using a helpline because the person you’re talking to never sees your face. This might make you more comfortable.
In addition, you might find it easier to talk to another student about your difficulties because you have shared experiences and they can relate to you more.
National Mental Health Services
This is where this blog post diverts from globally applicable information and focuses more on the United Kingdom and the United States (sorry everyone else). For the sole purpose of it’s easier to find information for these countries.
Therefore, I’m very thankful that for the most part these two countries do value mental health and each one has a national mental health service that you can call if you need it. Then you’ll get to talk to a trained member of staff or volunteer about your difficulties and they can help you.
For example, if you’re a university student in the UK then you might want to call:
Then for students in the United States, I’m sure there are lots of state mental health services and it differs from state to state. But I managed to find these two national ones that could be useful.
Active-Class
Here at Active-Class, we wish to improve education and mental health for all individuals in any way that we can. While we try to do this through careful consideration of students’ (and teachers’) mental health while designing an easy-to-use learning management system, we also look to inform students of helpful tips and advice through blogs – written by university students – as well as by donating 5% of our profits to charities that work within education and mental health.
Conclusion:
Whilst this was a short blog post, I really hope it gave you some ideas about how to find mental health support services so you can look after yourself if you need it. Because your mental health is as important as your physical health and it cannot be ignored.
Additionally, as an ending note, nothing in this blog post should act as any level of official advice and this blog isn’t affiliated with any of the mentioned mental health organisations.
I hope you found it useful.
Have a great day!
