Last spring, an 18-year-old college freshman who got straight A\u2019s in high school \u2013 but was now failing several courses \u2013 came to my office on the campus where I work as a psychologist.<\/p>\n
The student was seeking a medical exception<\/a> so that he could withdraw from the classes he failed instead of taking the F\u2019s and dragging down his GPA.<\/p>\n I evaluated the student and determined \u2013 based on information from prior visits \u2013 that the student was depressed. This condition was zapping the student\u2019s motivation and energy. Consequently, the student missed classes, didn\u2019t study much and ultimately did poorly in class. I completed a medical exception form to enable the student to withdraw from the classes he failed so that he could keep his GPA from plummeting.<\/p>\n This happens more than you may think. At the end of every semester, I complete dozens of these medical exception forms for students who failed their classes due to mental health reasons.<\/p>\n From my vantage point as a licensed psychologist who has worked in college mental health for a decade, this outcome points to what I believe is a bigger problem in higher education. And that is, at a time when parents and society are putting increased pressure<\/a> on students to go to college in order to have a successful life, students\u2019 mental health and overall readiness for college \u2013 both of which have greatly diminished in recent years<\/a> \u2013 are being overlooked.<\/p>\n Anxiety and depression afflict as many as 1 in 5 college students<\/a>, and students are seeking mental health treatment on campus at record levels<\/a>.<\/p>\n For instance, in the 2017 to 2018 school year, 179,964<\/a> college students sought mental health treatment. Although it could be due to changes in reporting, the figure represents an increase over the prior two years, when 161,014<\/a> and 150,483<\/a>, respectively, sought mental health treatment, according to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health.<\/p>\n In the case of the 18-year-old who was depressed, although the student struggled with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder<\/a>, or ADHD, in high school, back then the student\u2019s life was managed by a parent who made sure everything was done completely, correctly and on time. Now the student was on his own for the first time.<\/p>\n For those who get medical exceptions in order to avoid a failing grade, the move might save their GPA. However, it also pushes their graduation date back and requires students to spend more time and money to complete their degree.<\/p>\n More importantly, getting a medical exception does not resolve the underlying issue that led to the failure in the first place. In my experience, many students who get the medical exception return the next semester without addressing their mental health needs and end up failing more courses.<\/p>\n In order to avoid being one of the many students who seek a medical exception due to mental illness, I would recommend that students and families focus on the following things:<\/p>\n Many students come to me after years of having parents who basically manage their time for them. The parents set their schedule, checked to make sure their homework was done, ensured they were doing their work and got to places and various appointments on time.<\/p>\n This might have worked well to help the student succeed in high school. But when students no longer have that kind of support once they transition to college, they often have no idea<\/a> on how to do these things on their own.<\/p>\n This leads to procrastination, which in turn leads to a host of other problems for the student, such as increased stress<\/a>, anxiety, depression and other things that can hinder success.<\/p>\n Why are you going to college in the first place? Students who visit me often reveal that they went to college because they were told \u2013 by parents and society \u2013 that\u2019s what they should do. But they are often unmotivated, bored and failing. They might be pursuing a major that their parents said was the right one for them. But many simply do not know what they want to study or do for a living. They have no internal motivation for what they are doing, which contributes to the reason why they fail. Without internal motivation, it\u2019s hard to stick with college when things get hard.<\/p>\n Most colleges and universities have a variety of academic and non-academic resources \u2013 from counseling to tutoring \u2013 to help students. Still, I meet many students who are so worried about how they will look if they ask for help that they won\u2019t take advantage of those services, such as free tutoring.<\/p>\n Students have to come to terms with the fact that they need help \u2013 whether that be academic or with mental health issues or something else \u2013 and be OK with asking for it.<\/p>\n Many of my students tell me they had to wait to attend college to finally address their mental health needs. For these students, they were long aware of their condition \u2013 be it anxiety, depression or something else \u2013 but their family either did not believe in mental health treatment or denied that anything was wrong.<\/p>\n Other students have had these conditions for years but had no idea they were treatable or preventable. The conditions then get exacerbated at college due to increased academic pressure.<\/p>\n For all these reasons, it is important for students to get help with mental health issues before college begins. Otherwise, students could end up failing a class and seeking a medical exception for a problem that could have been addressed before things got to that point. A medical exception may save your semester, but it\u2019s not a cure for what brought you there in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n Author:<\/strong> Nicholas Joyce<\/a>, Psychologist, University of South Florida<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last spring, an 18-year-old college freshman who got straight A\u2019s in high school \u2013 but was now failing several courses \u2013 came to my office on the campus where I work as a psychologist. The student was seeking a medical exception so that he could withdraw from the classes he failed instead of taking the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":34231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[661,665,619,230,229,544,545,546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ace-college","category-health-wellness","category-mind","category-news","category-lead-stories","category-university-of-south-florida-main-campus","category-university-of-south-florida-sarasota-manatee","category-university-of-south-florida-st-petersburg"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Are-You-Mentally-Well-Enough-For-College.jpg",830,530,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Are-You-Mentally-Well-Enough-For-College-226x144.jpg",226,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Are-You-Mentally-Well-Enough-For-College-300x192.jpg",300,192,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Are-You-Mentally-Well-Enough-For-College.jpg",830,530,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Are-You-Mentally-Well-Enough-For-College.jpg",830,530,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Are-You-Mentally-Well-Enough-For-College.jpg",830,530,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Are-You-Mentally-Well-Enough-For-College.jpg",830,530,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Nicholas Joyce","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/nicholas-joyce\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Last spring, an 18-year-old college freshman who got straight A\u2019s in high school \u2013 but was now failing several courses \u2013 came to my office on the campus where I work as a psychologist. The student was seeking a medical exception so that he could withdraw from the classes he failed instead of taking the…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Are-You-Mentally-Well-Enough-For-College.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Problems are prevalent<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A temporary fix<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Manage your life<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2. Determine your purpose<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3. Ask for help<\/strong><\/h2>\n
4. Don\u2019t expect college to fix mental health issues<\/strong><\/h2>\n