DISCLAIMER: This episode is not meant to serve as a substitute for medical advice or diagnoses given by a doctor or other healthcare professional. Please consult a doctor to properly evaluate your situation, give diagnoses and provide other medical advice.

In this episode of The Study Space Podcast, we discuss our experiences with mental health concerns, the resources that are available to students, and some tips on how to help yourself mitigate the stresses of college such that you avoid developing mental health issues. There is no doubt that college is a stressful experience. Obviously, if it were easy, everyone would have advanced degrees and never complain about deadlines and school. Unfortunately, when college stress grows too great, students can develop numerous mental health problems that affect academic performance.

Things mentioned in this episode:

• Tragic story of a student committing suicide in a university library
• The feeling that making mistakes equates to failure
• The fear that asking for help equates to weakness
• Students’ opinions and feedback about Johns Hopkins University’s mental health center
• Some students don’t want to burden their friends with their problems
• Having someone to talk to can help to relieve some pressure
• When on-campus resources aren’t effective, look to off-campus resources instead
• Use parents’ medical insurance to alleviate cost of mental health help off-campus
• San Jose State University’s mental health help advertised during midterms and finals
• Julian’s personal experience with San Jose State University’s wellness center
• College rankings on most depressed students
• Friends, family, and even faculty members are likely to want to help you with your mental health concerns
• Mental health problems can negatively affect academic performance, energy, and focus
• 30% of students say stress negatively affected academic performance
• 22% of students say anxiety negatively affected academic performance
• 20% of students say sleep difficulties negatively affected academic performance
• 14% of students say depression negatively affected academic performance
• More sleep helps with concentration in class
• Even if you’re a night owl, you should wake up later in the morning if your schedule allows it
• If a medical professional is not helpful for you, request a different one
• David’s perspective on Asian culture and academic success
• David’s high school’s reaction to a student’s committing suicides
• NPR interview of two researchers from the University of Pennsylvania on “mental health epidemic”
• Imposter Syndrome
• Students today are not accustomed to making mistakes

Your hosts: David Chuong and Julian Vu

Music: “Please Listen Carefully” by Jahzzar is licensed under a Creative Commons License.