No matter where you look, people are always talking about your physical health and how important it is. You are told to eat properly, to exercise, to get enough sleep, and to pay attention to what kinds of food you consume. All of that is true and you should always take care of your body. But, how many times have you actually been told to take care of your mental health? How many times has someone around you stopped you to make you think about your psychological health? Maybe this post is the sign you needed to check in on yourself.

Being a college student —either full time or part time— can be emotionally draining and stressful. You have so many deadlines to meet and expectations to keep up with. You have readings to do and projects to work on. There are times when it all becomes too much and it starts affecting you in ways that you may not realize as easily as if you had a cold. However, the signs are there and you should listen to them.

Have you been feeling unmotivated? Have you been feeling like you just want to give up on your classes or yourself? Have you been feeling sad and tired? Have your eating habits changed? These are just a few of the symptoms you may be experiencing if you are struggling with your mental health. Sometimes, these feelings come out of nowhere and you cannot understand them. Other times they were triggered by a specific event in your life. It does not matter why it happened; what matters is that you do not ignore the feelings.

It might be hard for you to ask for help. For an unknown reason, as a society we were taught that asking for help can be seen as a sign of weakness and that prevents us from speaking up when we need to. But, what if asking for help is the only thing that could help you improve? Wouldn’t you want your loved ones to reach out if they needed it? Then, so can you. Yes, it might take some time, but you can find the courage you need to reach out to the people around you when you are struggling.

Sometimes when you find the courage to seek help, you are afraid that will interfere with your studies. That is a very normal feeling for many college students. We are scared to fall behind and be unable to catch up again, when in reality, we will only fall behind if we do not take care of our mental health. If we leave our issues in the back of our minds and ignore them, they will resurface later on and affect us even worse, so tackle the issue while it is happening. Once you have reached out for help, you can talk to your therapist, friend, counselor, or teacher to have them help you organize your college schedule. If you need to drop a few classes, do it. If you need to take a semester off, do it. Do whatever is necessary for your own health.

Making yourself a priority can take a lot of time but you should try doing it. Take time off for yourself. Think about your feelings and your habits. Focus on figuring out why you may have been feeling down. And if just taking time to yourself is not enough, reach out for help. There are a lot of in college counseling programs that could help you feel like yourself again. Do not be afraid of failing because you cannot fail when it comes to taking care of yourself and your life.

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