There’s been a lot of talk over the past year about the toll that COVID has taken on the mental health of our nation’s youth. New results from 138,000 college students surveyed by the University of Michigan’s Healthy Minds Network add to a troubling picture. Thirty-four percent of college students reported that they have anxiety, a quarter that they often felt isolated, 40 percent that they experienced depression, and more than one-in-five that they had inflicted “self-injury” within the past year.
“Freshmen and sophomores are struggling the most,” explained Marcus Hotaling, president-elect of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, noting that some students had lost loved ones to COVID and all had “missed out” on “milestones that ease younger students’ transition to college life, like prom, graduation or even an in-person senior year.” At the same time, he suggested that “students’ growing interest in therapy doesn’t necessarily mean more students are unwell . . . It could mean that more students feel comfortable speaking up about their mental health.”
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