Robin is a first year undergraduate student at a Bangladeshi university. He is 19 years old, and comes from a low-middle class family. He completed his college education from a college located within 3 kilometers from his home. That means, he never had to move out of the comfort of his home, and adjusting to the new environment at the university is causing him massive stress. Although he had to stay at a tiny, packed room with two other roommates for three months in the capital city whilst preparing himself for the upcoming university admission tests, he didn’t get much opportunity to socialize with other test takers living in the dormitory where he lived. As a result, once he got in into an undergraduate program at his university, he began feeling that he is now at the center of a cyclone, as in everything was in chaos. Since he lacks experience of living outside home for a prolonged period of time, having to share accommodation with one senior roommate and 3 other students posed him challenges. As someone with introverted personality, he found it extremely challenging to make friends. But the story doesn’t end here. Robin was once called in to ‘get introduced’ to his seniors, he obliged. But his seniors found his manners ‘not up to the standard’. This act, commonly known as ragging/hazing, made Robin traumatized. As a response to his trauma, he now misses his classes. He stays inside of his room. He’s unable to make friends in or outside of his university.
Although Robin is a fictitious entity, the experiences detailed here are not. These are issues most first year university students face. Here are top five mental health struggles most first-year students experience at Bangladeshi universities.
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): GAD is one of the most common mental health disorders undergraduate students face across the globe. However, it is important to note that GAD is quite different from normal anxiety. When you are anxious, you tend to have some of the common characteristics shown by GAD. But make no mistake! In order for someone to be diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), she has to demonstrate certain distinct characteristics. Students mostly begin showing Symptoms of GAD when under stress. This stress may come from academic activities, for instance: exams, presentations, interviews, or other nonacademic activities that generate stress. Let me tell you what Symptoms one of my undergraduate students with GAD shows. She is unable to eat anything since early morning of the day her examination is held, she sometimes vomits before or in the middle of the exam, she panics if the exam seems difficult and this causes her shortness of breath and even breakdowns, and she has early menstrual periods during exam days. These are some of the most common symptoms of GAD among young-adults. But how does someone develop Generalized Anxiety Disorder? Studies have found that young-adults who have controlling parents tend to have GAD more frequently compared to ones who grow up with freedom and flexibility. But parents aren’t to be blamed solely. At this age of massive internet dependency, developing antisocial behavior is pretty common. Kids these days dive so deep into their social media accounts that they forget what reality looks like. This eventually causes them to get exposed to people with different personality patterns or situations that would pose them challenges through which they would learn to adapt and increase resilience. But that’s something far away from reality. If we really want to take care of the pandemic called GAD or Generalized Anxiety Disorder, we have to be invested in finding ways by which we can engage our young-adults into socializing activities.
[To be continued]