Depression is a form of mental illness that affects human thinking ability. Specifically, it negatively affects the thinking of human beings, feelings, as well as actions (Haberler, 2017). Depression causes negative feelings to an individual, feeling such as loss of interest in certain activities like eating, sadness. Depression also changes the normal functioning of a people and makes them fail to deliver at the workplace, and may cause lack of sleep in others. Stress also causes a feeling of guilt and fatigue. In extreme instances, depression may lead to suicidal thoughts and suicide. This kind of mental illness affects different people, diverse races, ethnicities, and ages. According to various researches, depression majorly affects college students. Specifically, majorly affects students on first year of study. I have been victim to stress and suffered various symptoms as outlined in psychology.
My college life has been characterized by so much life expectations that have made me fall victim to depression. The pressures of having to attend classes, commit to some side hustle, and relate with friends have been too much for my human brain to accommodate. As suggested by Auerbach, Bruffaerts, and Kessler (2016), depression among college students is mainly caused by pressure to meet all the demands of life at that particular time. Similarly, massive expectations from teachers and parents are also perennial causes of depression in college and university students. Adjusting to new environments is a perennial cause of stress in humans. College students in their first years in college tend to suffer a lot of mental distress as a result of the difficulty of adapting to the new environments (Pelletier, Lytle & Laska 2016). Different environments expose students to certain difficulties that takes people time to adapt. Subsequently, this increases mental pressure, which eventually leads to depression in students.
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My time in college as a freshman gave me the most stressful days of my life. Having been the first time to ever live alone and away from my family, adapting to the solitary life was such a nightmare. College life ushered me to an experience where I had to cook for myself, do my laundry, and still create time to attend classes. Every time I came from class, the thought of going back to my room from classes was a nightmare and added up on my stress. Loneliness made me miss my family. There was no one to talk to and I only found solace in movies and video games
Causes of Depression
Multi-tasking the different demands of education and part-time jobs is yet another perennial cause of depression among students (Pelletier, Lytle & Laska, 2016). Moreover, my personal needs had grown, and I had to engage in certain activities to earn some money to supplement the pocket money from parents. I specifically worked at a nearby public library, mostly during weekends and free time, limiting my study time and time to complete take-away assignments. I hardly had time to attend other class activities such as academic trips. Attending to my part-time job, attending classes, completing assignments, and sparing some time for my social life proved a real challenge. My first semester results were disappointing because I had not done enough to warrant good marks. Much of my stress was caused by the fact that I was unable to manage my time well. What worsened my situation was the news of failing some units, which I had to redo.
High expectations from parents and lecturers also count among significant causes of stress and depression among college students. Cuijpers, Cristea, Ebert, Koot, and Auerbach (2016) assert that parents take their children to college with the expectation that they excel right away. Such expectations rise even higher when such a student had excelled in high school. Due to the difficulty in adapting to a new environment as well as other factors, students may fail to reciprocate their high school performances immediately. Nevertheless, high expectations from parents on academic performance tend to cause depression among these children. I also experienced similar pressure from parents to reciprocate my grades from high school. The fact that parents did not stay with me, yet they expected much from me was even more defending. In my case, similar expectations came from my college tutors who expected much from me, yet I still struggled to find my space at the college and to adapt to the environment. My depression was caused by the urgent need to reciprocate those results as was expected of my tutors and my parents.
Negative Effects of Depression
Stress and depression cause physical, emotional, and mental effects on human beings (Kenney, Jones & Barnett, 2015). Physically, depression causes the heart to pump faster and subsequently increases blood pressure. Additionally, stress tends to cause muscle tension, dizziness, and occasional headaches in humans. The mental effects of depression include the impact on human thinking ability. Stress as a result of depression brings about confusion in thinking and difficulty in making decisions ( Toussaint, Shields, Dorn, & Slavich , 2016). Depression also causes victims to develop negative thinking and developing fear and worry in their hearts. Moreover, depression also has emotional effects on victims. Emotional effects on victims are characterized by people’s response to instances of stress. Different people tend to develop different emotional reactions to stress ( Konttinen, Van Strien, Männistö, Jousilahti & Haukkala, 2019 ). Nevertheless, specific effects are universal to several people, and they include panic, doubt, the tendency of impatience and insecurity, and unhappiness, among other things.
More often, in my quest to meet both deadlines, I could develop more pressure when y commitments collided and the fact that I was far from reaching either of them. For example, in cases where my classes collided with my part-time working hours, missing either of them was inevitable. In such cases, I would experience rapid heartbeats, fatigue, and headaches, which were a result of stress. Apart from that, my thinking would significantly be compromised, and I was unable to make sound and ethical decisions. At times, absentmindedness would be the order of the day in my life. Emotional effects also struck as a result of depression during my first semester in college. I developed anger and frustrations against other people who never even wronged me. More often, I lacked happiness because of the frustrations of struggling to meet the needs from various sides of my life.
Positive Effects of Depression
Apart from the adverse effects, depression also has positive effects. According to a study by Griffiths, Reynolds, and Vassallo (2015), depression got various advantages to victims both in the short and long run. Depression increases the level of awareness of many individuals. For example, depression caused by heartbreaks makes people learn how to cope with such situations in the future. Additionally, they tend to learn the various aspects of depression and how to manage multiple situations. Depression also strengthens people’s perseverance and endurance. Struggling to comply with certain life conditions and devising ways to solving problematic situations. After receiving treatment from depression, one gets to know the details of depression and would know the best people to approach when they get similar issues in future.
My depressing experiences during my first semester in college have taught me to deal with many situations. After struggling to meet the expectations from my part-time job as well as academic work, it enabled me to learn how to cope with similar situations later on. Today, I manage to attend my classes, attend to my side-hustle, and spare time for my social life. The love-life experience that I have today is all thanks to depression and stress that I experienced back during the first year at school. I was also able to understand the various ways to pass my exams amid the pressure from other demands of life.
Depression Management
Depression disorders range from simple to complex medical situations that ought to be treated by specialist doctors. Regardless of the complexity of depression, management, and treatment only starts with the identification of a disorder. Identification is the ability of an individual to assess his life and identifies a depression illness he suffers from (Charpeaud et al., 2017). Self-identification is very important in promoting individuals to seek help when they suffer from stress and other forms of depression. The ability of an individual to identify the symptoms of stress and connect them to various causes is an important step in seeking a solution to such depression problems (Paleologou, Artemiadis & Christina, 2017). Apart from identification, management of depression disorders such as stress calls for seeking the services of a professional therapist. Therapists offer professional advice on stressful situations.
Apart from visiting a therapist, engaging in physical exercises also help in achieving mental wellbeing. Thapa & Subedi (2017) suggest that people should frequently engage in physical exercise to solve their depression problems. Physical exercise specifically helps in eradicating various symptoms of depression, such as fatigue and headaches. Additionally, physical exercise contributes substantially to the relaxation of the mind. Spending time on leisure activities also help in reducing stress. When people create time to participate in hobbies such as sport, swimming and watching movies among others, they tend to avoid stress. Leisure activities increase happiness and reduce mental pressures, thus helping in relieving stress. One can also consider using supplementary that reduce anxiety and stress. Mazloom, Ekramzadeh, & Hejazi (2013) recommends the use of medically prescribed supplementary which reduce anxiety and eventually reduces stress in human beings.
Despite suffering from depression throughout my first semester in college, I came to understand the various ways of managing depression and living a stress-free life. I had a problem going to a therapist at the start. Later on after spending some time at the university, I knew about the university therapist and made it a habit to visit him for professional advice on depression. The professional advice I received helped me much in solving my problem. Specifically, the therapist helped me in identifying the source of my depression issues and advised me appropriately. Time management helped me to relieve myself of depression problems. Time management eradicated the pressures of life. Managing my time also enabled me to spare some additional time for visiting the gym, which helped me even further with stress management.
Barriers to Stress Management
Stress and depression management refers to the activities that people involve in which reduces stress and depression. Stress management is important among teens and starts with an individual’s knowledge about stress and stress management. Most college students tend to be ignorant of depression problems they suffer from and thus making it very difficult to help them through such problems. Students of college and universities suffer from depressing situations and are unaware of the tools available within colleges that can possibly help them through (Tandoc, Ferrucci & Duffy, 2015). Most universities and colleges have counseling officers as well as peer counselors within the student population. These are the main people who can help students through stress management. However, lack of knowledge of the availability of such resources is a major barrier against helping students against depression. Apart from that, students also have a tendency to fear going to see therapists about their depression problems ( Levin, Haeger, Pierce & Twohig, 2017). There are instances where college students, despite being aware of therapists and peer counselors within the institution, they still fail to seek help from them because of fear of sharing their problems. Most adolescents tend to lack the courage to share their problems with therapists (Heard, 2018).
My initial days in college were characterized by confusion, a lot of anxiety and too much mental pressure which subsequently led to development of depression. My problems ranged from relationship issues, the pressure to successfully manage school and work as well as the need to spare time for my social life, among other issues. Unfortunately, I was unaware of the fact that the institution has a therapist who could have assisted me through the process of stress management to enable me avoid any adverse effects that could have attacked me. Unfortunately, I was also unaware of the fact that there were peer therapists, fellow students who qualified to help me through my situations. Apart from that, I suffered because I refused to share my problems with people. I lacked the confidence to share out my relationship problems with fellow friends who could have advised me or informed me of the therapy within the college. Even with information on the mental clinic at the university, I doubt if I would have been brave enough to face a professional therapist with my problems.
Conclusion
Depression has been part of my life ever since I stepped into college. Most factors in the depression literature review apply to my life. They range from symptoms of depression disorders, the factors that promote and bar management of depressive disorders as well as the effects of depression. Learning about depression in psychology is very important for people’s lives. I can confidently affirm that this topic has been educative. I have learned the various symptoms of stress, the various stress management strategies and the barriers to stress management. Now I can apply more of this knowledge to help myself or helping any other friend or family member that may be undergoing the same problem of depression.
References
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