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Grace Shaw

Synthesis Response #2

Eng 111

2 October 2017

Why Depression in College?

Why are students so stressed in college? It is a time when they can finally ring the bell of

freedom from high school, living with their parents, and being tied down as a kid. So, with

these new and glowing gifts of responsibility, why is college becoming so emotionally difficult?

It was never this difficult in high school. Why do students with an outstanding college GPA feel

so unsatisfied in themselves? This is a mystery that haunts many college students, new and

returning. So, the million-dollar question is, how is college so emotionally hard compared to

high school? We are learning at both places, trying to get good grades at both places, and yet

one is way more stressful than the other. Yes, there are surface level differences like clas cost

and difficulty, but what about problems like difficulty with self-worth and self-respect that

come as emotional baggage? How does that apply to the students who succeed immensely in

both high school and college? Stress, expectations, and shame are all factors in this hypothesis

of depression prevalence in college. As you read through this do a self-check to try and

recognize if you are facing/have faced any of these commonly spread issues in college.
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Stress. What can define stress? There is both a physiological and psychological definition

for each. One the physiological side, it is the release of cortisol in your body, which raises heart

rate, blood pressure, and is often the reason we feel knots in our stomach and get sweaty

palms. According to the Sandra E. Hockenbury, author of Discovering Psychology, stress is

defined as, A negative emotional state occurring in response to events that are perceived as

taxing or exceeding a persons resources or ability to cope (G-15). The keyword in that

definition is cope. The inability to cope in situations of high mental taxation is the anchor that

is drowning college students ability to be happy. The possible stressors that are faced can be

concrete or abstract. If a college student gets an assignment of memorizing 56 medical terms in

one week, and another 56 the next week, and so forth, that is a concrete stressor. However, the

negative emotions only come when we respond to those concrete stressors. Which brings us to

the abstract contributions of stress, mainly our thoughts. I will never be able to do this, This

class is way over my head, Maybe I am not meant to be a college student, are all abstract

stressors. What we think about ourselves and our situations completely determine or deter our

potential. Health psychologist Kelly McGonigal says that during the thoughts of inability to

cope, view your stressful responses as your body feeling energized, and preparing you to meet

this challenge (How to Make Stress Your Friend Kelly McGonigal). This point made by

McGonigal is extremely relevant to the situations college students face. However, do most

college students accept Mcgonigals advice? No. If they did, then why is suicide, alcohol

addiction, and depression so common in college? This simple truth McGonigal is trying to

preach seems to be overlook by college students, due to all the mental barriers they are facing.
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There is a rooted way of thinking about education that author Mike Rose talks about,

that could be the very source of stress in college: Expectation. Rose writes, Our public talk

about education has been shaped by a concern about economic readiness and

competitiveness (126). According to Rose, college related stress comes from societys look on

education as what stands between you and your financial success as an adult. Instead of

looking at college as a chance to discover yourself, it is a one-way street to reaching a goal

years ahead. Society is labelling education as your one chance to live financially strong. This

creates extremely high expectations on the student. And, what kills a college students morale

more than not meeting the expectations of society? The answer to that is in the question itself.

There is nothing more detrimental to a persons confidence than someone or something telling

them that they are not good enough. Parents, high schools, government legislature, and many

other voices are screaming this thought of economic readiness into the minds of students just

trying to find their purpose in this world. I am not ignorant enough to say that college should

not be connected with an attitude to reach financial prosperity. However, I do feel that the

emphasis on the two being solely dependent on each other is daunting to say the least. When

you cant reach the expectations of others, it is very difficult to be satisfied in yourself.

The event that takes place after the failure of meeting expectation is shame. Shame can

come from parents, partners, teachers, but the most lethal source is yourself. In the movie

Finding Forrester, there is a scene where a teacher calls out a student to cite the author of a

certain poetry verse. This student struggles to think of the authors name, and the teacher

continues to put higher and higher expectations on him in front of the class. When the student

says, Im sorry sir, I dont know, the teacher replies with You, of all people, should know who
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wrote that passage. This causes the student to feel shame, and it is later recognized by a

fellow student who stands up for him. When expectations are put on you, and you dont meet

them, the follow-up emotion is shame. This same situation happens if a student fails an

assignment, test, or even a class. They are so afraid of facing the people who put such high

expectations on them, including themselves, that they cannot turn that stress into fuel, like

McGonigal advises. Shame is so powerful, it can drive you into a state of learned helplessness.

Stressful situations occur, which then cause us to challenge our coping limits. These

limits are then also challenged by the emphasis of expectation. When the expectations are not

met, the following event is shame. These are the reasons why college is so arduous on a

students self-worth and self-respect. Dignity is so easily lost when you fail, even in the most

miniscule ways. Especially at something that is characterized as reliant on your future happiness

and success.
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Works Cited

Finding Forrester. Dir. Gus Van Sant. Perf. Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham.

Columbia Pictures, 2000. Film.

Hockenbury, Sandra E.. Discovering Psychology. Worth Publishers, 2016.

Rose, Mike. In Search of a Fresh Language for Schooling. Exploring Connections: Learning the

21st Century. Pearson Education Inc, 2016. 125-127.

Ted Talks. How to Make Stress Your Friend Kelly McGonigal. Youtube.