By now, everyone has probably heard this term uttered by someone you know. The truth is, many people may not know exactly what it is. Depression is more than feeling sad for a couple of days. Some people may even meet the criteria of depression and not even know it, or, know that there are resources out there to help. Depression is not something you need to fight alone. Depression may present itself at really inconvenient times, like when you’re trying to study for exams or when you have to work in class groups with students you don’t know. Let’s face it, college is going to provide you with a lot of different experiences and opportunities that depression may try to keep you from accomplishing.

• Feeling sad, empty, hopeless
• Low Energy
• Not being as interested in activities like you use to
• Poor concentration
• Changes in weight (gaining/losing)
• Thoughts of suicide
• Withdrawing socially 

Everyone may experience anxiety from time to time, in fact in optimal amounts, anxiety can be helpful. However, when anxiety persists for longer periods of time and progressively gets worse, this is not helpful or healthy. Talking with a professional can help distinguish between the two and together develop an appropriate plan of treatment. Anxiety disorders are usually treated with counseling, medication, or a combination of both. Anxiety disorders come in many forms such as OCD, Separation anxiety, Panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder. Although symptoms may be different from person to person, and the criteria for each disorder will be different, the following are examples of symptoms related to anxiety disorders.

• Feeling on edge
• Difficulty concentrating
• Muscle tension
• Sleep problems
• Panic attacks
• Fear about specific situations that may lead to avoiding them
• Having a hard time making and keeping friends.

In college, there are so many adjustments that students today make, even for those students who do not uproot and leave their community. In fact, when a person perceives an adjustment or change as stressful that person may exhibit signs of being in distress which can show in forms of depression or anxiety.  The great news is, there are effective ways to treat this. The most common methods include counseling and or medication.

Suicide Prevention Resource Center 
https://www.sprc.org/

The JED Foundation
https://www.jedfoundation.org/

National Institute of Mental Health
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/