Are Colleges doing enough to help with Students mental health issues
College is a place where we go to further enhance our education. This is where students come to learn more about themselves and choose their career paths for the future. This set environment could be very intimidating. For most students they go to dorm to gain the experience of living on their own. while this may seem fun and exciting many leave their families and friends and come to college only knowing a handful of people. there are many stressors that come with college. While some may argue that stress is a normal life process that everyone goes through. the only difference that people fail to mention is that there are two different types of stressors. The first is called Challenge stressors or commonly known as Eustress. This is the stress that pushes you to reach your goals and go past your limits. The second type of stress is what we most commonly think of when we hear the term stress, which is distress or hindrance stressor. This stress causes you to have internal conflict and may hinder you from focusing. this is why it is very important to understand the difference between the two. Yet, many Students fail to understand this and put themselves in greater mental and physical risk.
“According to a 2013 American Psychological Association survey, about one-third of college students have experienced depression within the past year and had difficulty functioning because of it.” The main mental health issues mentioned in studies are anxiety and depression. in a study conducted at community colleges reported many other mental health issues that most college fail to mention and treat. Students reported bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, substance abuse or addiction, and “other addictions.” Most college advertise their counseling services in the beginning , before school starts around orientation period. As a Student who went to both community college and a traditional university i can say community colleges fail to even mention this. Through a whole semester of taking classes i have not had any health services or clubs. The reason i believe so is because of the budget community colleges have. Also the majority of Community college students are commuters and do not live on campus. Even so, Just because It is a Community College they should still offer some sort of treatment just incase students need help. although it is understandable students may need someone to talk to and with these interpersonal actions it makes Students who do need help struggle more and possibly put them at risk of dropping out.
The traditional colleges offer mental health counseling but really only say things about about counseling during the orientation after that nothing else. Universities fail to tell students how they can cope with stress and don’t explain how you can distinguish between Eustress and Distress. instead, they warn you about substances you may encounter and give numbers for services to call but the problem is many Students are nervous and don’t want to feel weird about going to having problems. With the expensive tuition College students pay don’t you believe they deserve the accommodations to be able to live a good life and be able to focus on their futures.
I believe universities and community colleges should hold this at top priority. Students can try to cope with their stress by practicing mindfulness. They can practice meditation, while mindfulness can be difficult to achieve and results vary from person to person, it can help students remain focused and calm. the way mindfulness can help is for students who used negative coping methods such as self harm, substance and alcohol abuse, or even have bad reoccurring thoughts , it can allow you to change your personality and curve your impulses. “This suggests that for individuals who observe in a non-reactive manner, observation may relate to lower levels of substance use.”
References
Bowen, S. (03/2014). Relationship between dispositional mindfulness and substance use: Findings from a clinical sampleElsevier.10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.10.026
Katz, D. (2013). Community college student mental health: A comparative analysis (Order No. 3572817). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1434835907). Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rowan.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1434835907?accountid=13605
Moise, G. (2014). Good stress or bad stress? relationships between stress appraisals and strains in health care practitioners (Order No. 3630437). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1563382680). Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rowan.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1563382680?accountid=13605
Rowan Counterintuitive 
This is a complex combination of themes, PS, that don’t yet cohere into a continuous argument. We clearly sense that you believe college is stressful, that students don’t all react well to the stress, and that colleges are not meeting their obligation to help students cope with stress. (In addition, you’re touching on the existence of some positive aspects of stress, the differences between community colleges and four-year universities, and the efficacy of mindfulness as a stress modifier. But for the time, let’s stick to the primary themes.)
The trouble with your draft so far is that it wants to tackle most of the primary themes in every paragraph. Like many early drafts, it pinballs from topic to topic as they occur to the author, who has a lot on his mind. Readers prefer a more orderly approach, however, and we need to feed the information to them like a good tour guide, following a path and drawing their attention to the important sites as we encounter them . . . with an ultimate goal in mind, say, the top of the mountain.
1. Your first paragraph makes an interesting distinction between Eustress (good stress) and Distress (bad stress), but doesn’t really need to, except to identify the bad stress. You could redeem this point by following a logical Causal chain that shows the benefits of eustress on incoming freshmen. Obviously, for some, the demands of a new curriculum with higher standards of achievement does produce excellence from those with the personality and skills to rise to the challenge. That might make a very nice introductory paragraph.
Then you could show the flip side of stress. For those unprepared to meet them, the new stresses can be overwhelming and the reactions very damaging. Students don’t need to know the terminology of different stresses in order to react to them. They either have handle them well, or develop skills for handling them, or they fall victim to them. But once you introduce readers to the two types of students in an orderly fashion, you’re ready to make a case that schools need to find ways to 1) identify students who don’t already have the skills to respond to stress, 2) proactively assist them to develop coping skills.
2. Your second paragraph gets lost in an aimless comparison before the terms are set. If you first make the case that all colleges have an obligation to identify struggling students and guide them to success, THEN you can make comparisons between colleges and their different abilities.
You’re making very unclear demands of your colleges too, PS, here and in paragraph 3. How intrusive do you want them to be? You seem to demand that they profile students for their ability to handle stress, introduce them to available assistance, and then reach out to them directly, even overcoming their reluctance to ask for help when they know they need it. It’s a very high bar.
3. I’m not sure what colleges can do to compel students who might find academic rigors over-taxing to seek and receive appropriate assistance, but you need to be very specific if you’re going to make a persuasive case, PS. Colleges certainly have no obligation to TREAT substance abuse addictions, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or OCD, as you seem to suggest they do.
4. Your final paragraph of a CAUSAL ARGUMENT should conclude a causal argument. What leads to what leads to what. What causes what? How can unwanted outcomes be avoided? How can desirable outcomes be achieved? The place to insist on a college’s responsibilities is in your overall Proposal Argument (somewhere in your 3000 words). Here, restrict yourself to an examination of the causes of stress, the results of negative stress on some students’ well-being, and possible methods to enhance the role of positive stress, reduce the perils of negative stress.
We’ll talk later about your citation techniques. You need to be identifying your sources INSIDE the text of your argument, in addition to listing your References at the end. But that’s a conversation for next time. Work on the argument first.
Is this helpful, PS? I appreciate the opportunity to interact. Respond please.
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