Impact of mental health disorders in our academic development

The symptoms of a mental health disorder might grow in our youngest years of life. This occurs in consequence of several factors, and it can change our way of living our life or taking the maximum enjoyment of it. In fact, in our youngest year, we are educated based in our parents and family values and every situation is an example for us and for our development process. However, we are protected (in exceptional cases, this does not occur which can trig earlier life mental distress) by our family and we are not real aware of the problems and the difficulties around the world, neither the best answer in order to face the reality.

In our college and academic road, we have faced several situations where we were tested up to the limit. It could be social, emotional, personal or academic. Those situations where we felt as we were falling nonstop from the ladder, difficulties that sometimes we had to face alone, by ourselves because we were studying away from home or in a different country. We had to identify, we had to think in solutions, we had use to use a probability method and various projections of results since we are not alone in the world and we will affect others (positively or negatively), we had to be methodologic and face the challengers with our mentality and our strength. It seems like a superhero mission? Well, aren’t we all? We are trying our best every day.

If we compile some consequences of the previous situation and if we relate them to our academic process, they can affect us in a very serious way. For example, anxiety and depression can be developed which produces lack of motivation, loneliness (social disappearance), reduction in our cognitive function, loss of memory, difficult in acquiring knowledge and impact in our concentration. The previous elements we can consider that they are extremely or fundamental to our academic path and to reach our goals. If we fall in this vicious circle, we will condemn ourselves for losing opportunities, not reaching our goals, and not pursuing the best future possible.

In a study made in Norway, it was possible to detect that 292 out of 749 suffered of mental health problems (Grøtan, K., Sund, E. R., & Bjerkeset, O. 2019). We can relate this result to the pressure of success, of achieving the goals, social and family aspects, financial support and time of study. It was possible to understand that the 60% of the affected students were male and a good percent of the affected students did not study the recommended hours per week which was shown on the obtained grades and results during the semester.

Nowadays, we are facing various challenges which is increasing recent mental stress (Grøtan, K., Sund, E. R., & Bjerkeset, O. 2019). Some main factors that can affect our development to our adulthood are the tangible elements such as housing and financial. In the other hand, we can identify intangible factors such as social and emotional. With the previous factors, we can relate to our growing process since we have grown based in the values of our loved ones and when confronted to our reality, it might occur conflict and we need to adapt and overcome the problem of our reality. Basically, it is how we are defined, what we are as a person and what we are going to be in the future as a person, son, parent, grandparent and as element of society.

References

Grøtan, K., Sund, E. R., & Bjerkeset, O. (2019). Mental health, academic self-efficacy and study progress among college students–The SHoT study, Norway. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 45.