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Nerdify reviews team is sure about one thing: studying is, probably, the best experience you could ever have. But you guys, let’s be honest – learning is also the most challenging trial to come through. It is not a secret that diligent studying implies overcoming a number of barriers, including emotional ones. Eventually, you feel exhausted and even sick!

Take a helping hand with this tutorial from Nerdify reviews team, which has been written especially for you — the one who cares about own emotional well-being and seeks to preserve health for years to come!

Top-5 Emotional Challenges Facing Students

There’s a bunch of emotional challenges that students encounter during their studies. But I’ve prepared a list of the most common ones for being forewarned is being forearmed.

Depression

Depression is quite a common condition in learners. A recent study suggests that around 30% of college students report being “so depressed that it was difficult to function” at least once during their studies. Evidently, it’s high time to sound alarmed, since depression is connected to suicide, the second leading cause of death among people aged 15-34 years.

Fighting depression starts with understanding signs and symptoms:

1.You aren’t getting things done at college/work.

2. You retract from doing enjoyable activities.

3. You feel unable to concentrate.

4. You rely on alcohol and sedatives.

5. You feel unhappy, disappointed, and miserable: thoughts like “I’m a failure”, “I’m worthless”, “My family/friends would be better off without me” become common.

If you have one or more of these symptoms, there’s probably a need to learn more about depression and take decisive actions against the condition.

Fortunately, there’s a number of ways to treat depression. The common ones are: medication, therapy (e.g., cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, and grief therapy), lifestyle changes: diet, regular physical exercises, and enough sleep can do wonders with your wellbeing!

Anxiety

Anxiety is another problem facing college students, while its rates are truly alarming. According to recent findings,  one in five college students has anxiety, depression, or both.

When in college, we see our life-changing at an astonishing speed! But it’s not the only reason for feeling anxious. Research findings indicate that college students spend too much of their time on social media platforms, and become addicted to their mobile phones, which leads to anxiety.

The study of Adams and Kissler (2013) found that 50% of college students woke up at night to answer a text message. The same study discovered an inverse relationship between the amount of sleep and the level of stress.

You’re likely to have anxiety if you:

1.Feel overly worried about your past, present, or future.

2. Feel apprehensive.

3. Have a feeling of powerlessness or worthlessness.

4. Have difficulty concentrating or remembering things.

You can learn more about the symptoms of anxiety here. In the meantime, keep in mind that treatment of anxiety is not as difficult as it may seem at first glance, and it includes:

1.Easing up on caffeine. Once you’ve made a commitment to ease up on caffeine, check the list of foods, since coffee and soda aren’t the only things containing this “anxious” ingredient;  

2. Scheduling “worry sessions”. It may sound crazy, but you should give time to thinking over things that make you mad.  Spending 30 minutes a day reflecting on the issues that bother you or make you stressed is more productive than feeling anxious all the time;

3. Breathing deep. Deep breathing signals your brain that you are OK. Try simple breathing exercises to boost your well-being;

4. Changing lifestyle. Eating healthy food, doing physical exercises, having enough rest and sleep are the best gifts for your mind and body!    

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are prevalent and persistent among college students. In fact, it is not surprising because young people seek to be attractive, and may resort to radical methods to look nice. One study suggests that eating disorders “are characterized by behaviors aiming to achieve or maintain slim body shape; great importance is given to thinness as a requisite of self-esteem.”

While many students use the notions of thinness and fitness interchangeably, there’s nothing attractive about physical and mental exhaustion! 

So, you should consult a physician if you have one or several of these symptoms:

1.Ongoing dieting

2. Eating in secret

3. Self-induced vomiting

4. Eating to the point of discomfort or pain

You can learn more about the symptoms of eating disorders here. Understanding the problem will help you to plan a conversation with the health provider in a way to come up with an effective treatment intervention.

Some interventions that apply to treat eating disorders are as follows: intensive inpatient care,  psychotherapy, family-based treatment, evidence-based treatment.

Of course, these are just some of the treatment interventions that help college students to improve their physical health and emotional wellness by overcoming eating disorders.

Addiction

Students become addicted to quite many things, including drugs and alcohol. Addiction can destroy one’s life, so it’s high time to sound alarm if your friend has at least one of these symptoms:

1.Slurred speech or impaired coordination

2. Engagement in suspicious behaviors

3. A sudden need for money or financial crisis

4. Built tolerance for alcohol or other substances

5. A sudden change in friends and activities

6. Deterioration of physical appearance

Did you know that addiction has become a problem on campus? Recent findings suggest that 60% of college students have consumed alcohol in the past month, 21.3% of people ages 18 to 25 consumed illicit drugs, and 3.8% young people used psychotherapeutic drugs for non-medical purposes.

Fortunately, there are many places where a college student can find help when encountering the problem of addiction. First of all, consider consulting the following addiction resources:

• National Institute for Drug Abuse
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA)
• National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
• Narcotics Anonymous (NA)

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Everyone wants their body look nice and attractive, but an intrusive preoccupation with defects (often imagined) in one’s appearance is a sign of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

According to recent findings, BDD affects 1.7% to 2.4% of the general population. In young people, BDD is associated with a range of negative consequences, including school dropout.

It is time to consult a healthcare provider if you notice the following signs of BDD:

1.Camouflaging with clothing, makeup, hats, etc.

2. Constant comparison of body parts with others’ appearance

3. Avoiding mirrors or, on the contrary, constant checking in the mirror

4. Excessive grooming or exercising

5. Skin picking

Many students need help to overcome BDD. Fortunately, there is a range of treatment options: cognitive-behavioral therapy,  family-based therapy, antidepressant medication.

Also, students with BDD can find help by consulting the following BDD resources:

• Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation.
• International OCD Foundation.
• Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA)
• National Institutes of Health.
• Teens Health.   

In this tutorial, Nerdify reviews team tried to present a comprehensive list of mental health disorders, symptoms, and treatment interventions. However, in no way we want this guideline to substitute actual treatment! So, every time you notice one or several warning signs, consulting your physician is the best decision you can take!

Are you struggling with your time management while learning or working online from home? Here are some tips for maintaining control of your time. First and foremost, get up at your normal time and complete your morning routine, including getting dressed and eating breakfast! Learning and working from home can cause you to focus solely on working. Second, set up a workspace away from your bed/bedroom. Third, at the time you would leave, go to your workspace, and prepare for your day.

1. Have a calendar with time slots, electronic or paper, available to plan your day

2. Plan your day including:
a. Work times
b. Activities at specific times, such as class, study, lunch, and breaks
c. Meals
d. Communication with colleagues, family, and friends
e. End of workday
f. Bedtime!

3. Use a timer or electronic reminders to move to the next item on your list.

4. Begin working.

5. End working.

Set aside time for cooking, cleaning, leaving to exercise (even if just in another room), weekend activities, and shopping if needed. Finally, remember to include due dates for assignments. As you plan for your day above, check the learning management system (LMS) used at your school for assignments, activities, and meetings. Add these to your calendar as well. At the starting time of your class or job, begin working.
For those of you working together on projects, there are several ways to communicate easily. Programs such as Zoom, Skype, and social media applications can reduce the perception of distance. Download these easily from the appropriate website onto the computer and phone. Classmates can set up daily review meetings in Zoom. Learning management systems also have Wiki features for discussions.
This may seem obsessive, but as said above people either focus on one thing for a while or shift from one thing to another in minutes without completing any given task. By creating a schedule to work with and using a timer or alarms, one can complete many tasks and feel accomplished at the end of the day. Using the regular schedule will assist in returning to a normal schedule when the isolation period is over. With a schedule in mind, new habits can be formed to assist in a normal schedule later as well.

Anne Montgomery

When the topic of volunteering came up, some experts at Nerdify remarked that volunteers are not paid not because what they do is not important but because what they do is priceless. Indeed, volunteers are those people who are not often noticed, yet they are the ones who always change the world.

Regardless if you spend your summertime busy guiding the young scouts in your local community or helping students with special needs to win in the sports competition or elsewhere, your contribution is priceless. It is also a great way to add something special to your resume as you are getting ready for college or plan to apply for a scholarship to finance your studies. In either case, volunteering is a wonderful world that you have to explore!

1. Contribution to Your Local Community. First of all, you are making a significant contribution to your local community. It does not matter if you help to fix the computers at the youth community outlet or assist the elderly with their finances, it is the fact of your participation that makes the difference. As we are living through challenging times, more and more people require any kind of help. Both young and old are looking for guidance as they feel challenged by the social restrictions and isolation. As a volunteer, you can provide both physical and mental help that will make you feel much better. When you know that you have made someone smile, you will realize that the day has not passed in vain!

2. Learning More About Social Work. If you would like to learn more about team projects and community work, volunteering will help you to learn the basics of cooperation. Our experts at Nerdify reviews are always participating in various social campaigns all over the world as we work hard to help fellow learners find valuable facts and information that may help them. It is not always easy and it is only natural to face certain challenges as everyone will have their opinion. What really matters is the list of things that you learn. As you are making each new step, your social skills will improve as you learn how to listen and express your thoughts. It will help you a great deal as you join college or get a part-time job.

3. Helping to Highlight All The Important Issues. When we discussed volunteering, our Nerdify reviews team suggested mentioning the next fact: when we participate in local or international volunteering projects, we also help to deliver vital information and talk about existing problems. For example, if you are helping to educate children in Nepal or preserve the population of wildlife in South Africa, you already receive a plethora of unique information that can and must be shared with the world. As a volunteer, you can become the voice of all the important issues in 2021 and those of the past.

4. Building Up Confidence and Strong Social Skills. Another important factor that we would like to mention at the Nerdify review relates to building up your confidence and addressing your social skills. If you are not confident enough about talking to people, you have to push yourself and go beyond your comfort zone. In other words, as a volunteer, you are forced to do things that you might not do otherwise. You will feel more confident as you will be able to communicate with people like you that come from all the possible social and cultural backgrounds. It is a great opportunity you should not miss!

5. Getting Ready For Adult Life & Responsibilities. For many people that participate in volunteering projects, it is also an important point that helps them to get ready for adult life as they handle various responsibilities and risks. It is a way to get mature and prepare yourself for college, work, internships, and learn things. If you want to explore your creative horizons and make a positive difference, consider volunteering as a way to test your skills and help others. It is a good way to spend your summer and do something meaningful!

6. Adding Volunteering to Your Resume. Of course, another important reason why summer volunteering matters relates to adding valuable entries to your resume. It can be used when you are looking for a job or when you compose your personal statement letter. Volunteering facts will always make you stand out and will show that you are a responsible and caring individual. Moreover, it is also a reason to consider relevant scholarships.

7. The Mental Aspect. Finally, volunteering just makes you feel happy and grateful for every opportunity that comes your way. You will also make new friends, learn to cooperate, and will see how to find solutions and move forward!