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High school senior Sarah Ohr has been busy narrowing down college choices and writing applications. She’s excited but also a little worried. “I think it’s going to be difficult to, you know, make all those new friends and adjust to it so quickly,” she says. And it may be more difficult than she knows.
According to a new survey by the American College Health Association, 40 percent of students reported feeling “so depressed it was difficult to function” at least once during the year. “They just get there and they’re surprised by how much homesickness they may have, how much loneliness they may have amongst all these people,” says psychiatrist Dr. John Lochridge.
He says it starts as stress: making new friends, the demands of college work, being on their own for the first time in their lives. “It’s a little stressful, but I’m trying to hold it together,” says college student Kasim Hasan, 19.
“If the stress starts to overload the defense mechanism, you’re going to get depression,” says Dr. Lochridge. He says many high school seniors don’t anticipate that part of the college experience, so parents should prepare them. “You open up that conversation. You say, ‘You know, I think it’s going to be harder than you think. It’s a different kind of stress from anything you’re used to,’” says Dr. Lochridge.
And let them know it’s OK to feel down at times and that you’ll be there to listen. Also encourage them to share their struggles with a roommate or new friend because they’re probably struggling, too.
Sarah realizes that struggle is part of becoming an adult. “It’s all going to fall on me,” says Sarah. “I have to get everything done, and hopefully I can become independent and rely on myself.”
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