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Leona Collins

Dr. Sterling

Eng 1302.2010

Feb 8, 2017

Is Anxiety Becoming an Epidemic Among Colleges?

In this article, Anxiety and Depression: Anxiety The Most Common Mental Health Diagnosis in

College Students. Joel Brown discusses the recent rise of anxiety among college students. This article

was published October 2, 2016, on BU Today.edu, as an installment in the Mental Health Matters series.

Browns purpose of this article is to inform potentially suffering college students of how common these

two illness are, to pursue them to seek help immediately, and to raise awareness of services available to

students to take advantage of. In his article, brown mostly uses quotes from Mental Health department at

Boston University, personal quotes from people with previous first hand experience, and statistics.

At the beginning of his article, Brown states various statistics depicting the recents rise in

students admitting anxiety and depression, caused by the stress they experience from college and peers,

affecting their academic performance. He states one of the contributing facts may be today's technological

advances. As Carrie Landa, director of Behavioral Medicine at Student Health Services says,

We have all become less able to tolerate ambiguity and the unknown due to the incredible

technological advances we have seen. Immediacy is sometimes the antidote to anxiety: having to

wait for anythinga text, an exam grade, How am I going to do?all create anticipatory

anxiety. Unfortunately, there are many things in life that arent quickly resolved and waiting is

necessary.(Brown)

Brown goes on to explain how to determine when a student's level of anxiety has become abnormal. He

gives examples such as disregard for personal hygiene, lack of interest to be social with peers, and

excessive alcohol or drug use occurs they should start to seek help from professionals. He then goes on to

explain the stress trigger of the transition from home life to college life. He stresses the importance to

learn how to cope with the stress to learn how to controls one's emotional response to change rather than
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to focus on changing the situation that triggers these mental illnesses. Brown concludes his article by

listing various student service located at the Boston University that he encourages students to seek out.

Some of the rhetorical strategies Brown uses are quotes from Mental Health department at Boston

University, personal quotes from people with previous first hand experience, and statistics. The majority

of Brown information come from organizations like the ACHA, American College Health Association,

and professionals in mental health from the university campus such as Carrie Landa, the director of

Behavioral Medicine at Student Services. Brown includes an in depth personal recounts from people who

suffered from anxiety and depression cause by college stress. For example, Victoria Paes story of how

she felt overwhelmed by stress and anxiety during her freshman year, but was too afraid to ask for help.

She was a double major who had done very well in highschool but when she went to college she felt that

the other students were outshining her. Paes says that seeing them perform better in class made her

develop social anxiety about being afraid to put herself out there in her classes and make a fool of herself

(Brown). Brown uses statistics to emphasize the normalcy of anxiety and doubt when transitioning to a

new lifestyle, such as adjusting to college life. The article is very easy to follow because of the authors

use of section titles to organize all of the information.

The author was successful in his intent to provide awareness and possible solutions available to

students who are having issues coping to the transition from high school to college expectations. I feel

that the article relies heaving on the quotes and statistics from outside sources and would liked to have

more of Browns thoughts and opinions, however the purpose of the article was mostly to inform students

rather than to state his opinions. I really appreciate the variety of viewpoints from various professionals. I

also feel that this article did inform me and help me to understand the rise of students suffering from

anxiety.

In his article, Brown provides multiple different causes of the anxiety resulting from college such

as a student having trouble adjusting to the college lifestyle, expectations, and technology advances.

Browns purpose of this article was to inform college students of how common anxiety is, and that it is

normal to experience during the transition to college. He also expresses the importance of finding ways to
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emotionally cope to stress, to seek help immediately, and to raise awareness of services available to

students to take advantage of. In his article, Brown mostly uses quotes from Mental Health department at

Boston University, personal quotes from people with previous first hand experience, and statistics. With

the rise of anxiety it is great that there are program out there to help student to emotionally evolve to

handle the stress that college provides and that they are trying to raise awareness and persuade students to

seek out help instead of letting them suffer in silence.

Work Cited

Brown, Joel. Anxiety and Depression: Anxiety The Most Common Mental Health Diagnosis in College

Students. BU Today, Boston University, 2 Oct. 2016, Accessed 7 Feb, 2017.