Depression In College Students: How Common Is It?

While college can be an exciting time full of new experiences, it can also include formidable challenges for many students, especially new ones transitioning to it for the very first time. Stress, anxiety, and depression are common mental health challenges for young adults. Here, you will learn about how depression affects students on campuses all over and what resources are available to help.

What depression in college looks like

Moving away from one's parents (potentially for the first time), having to make new friends and possible connections for career opportunities, and of course, the new workloads and pressures can make it difficult to adapt to a new environment like a college campus. It’s completely normal for college students to feel sad, anxious, or stressed out occasionally, especially when an important project is due. Typically, these feelings pass after an event is over or within a few days. If it’s persistent, it can be indicative of a deeper issue.

There are several symptoms of depression:

• Emotions like sadness, irritability, guilt, worthlessness, and hopelessness

• Sleep difficulties, which can involve sleeping too much or too little

• Low energy, restlessness, and being easily fatigued

• Appetite changes, which can lead to weight loss or gain

• Lack of interest in activities that they previously enjoyed

• Trouble concentrating in and outside of class

• Physical pain, such as headaches and muscular aches

• Substance use 

• Risky behavior (i.e., reckless driving or unsafe sexual activity)

• Suicidal ideation, including attempts and self-harm

Examples of this manifesting:

• Steven has been missing class a lot more often because he sleeps through it. He struggles to fall asleep at night because his thoughts keep him awake.

• Macy is normally a very sociable and proactive student. However, she has been distancing herself from her friends lately, and her grades have been slipping due to not having the energy to study.

• Tom is involved in college sports, but his thoughts have weakened his appetite, and he doesn’t have the strength to perform to his potential during practice and at games.

• Elle misses her family and friends back home and finds it hard to think about the assignments she has for all of her classes.

• Benjamin feels like college isn’t the right path for him, but he wants to make his parents happy. He currently isn’t passing his classes, feels hopeless about his situation, and feels guilty about potentially disappointing his mother and father.

Mental health and physical health correlation

As you can see from these examples, depression in schools can lead to academic impairment and hamper a person’s ability to study and do their assignments as well as impact their social lives. In addition to their mental health, their physical health can also be negatively affected, especially if a student’s eating habits change, and they stop taking care of themselves, in general. Many consider dropping out of college entirely because the symptoms of depression are too unbearable for them.

Among these possibilities, depression in college students also comes with a risk of suicide, as it does for non-college students with the condition. In the United States, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for those who are aged 10 to 44 years old, but it’s been a growing issue among college students who are typically aged around 18 to 30 years old, making it a public health issue all around.

If you or a loved one is experiencing suicidal ideation or attempts at self-harm, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988. The Lifeline has suicide prevention staff available 24/7 in both English and Spanish.

How common is depression in college students?

Depression in college students is not uncommon, but there are resources to help. Before we cover the college depression statistics, it’s essential to understand the magnitude that depression has on a much wider scale. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 300 million people around the world struggle with depression, and it’s a leading cause of disability along with anxiety. Anxiety and depression typically go hand-in-hand as well, as they can have related causes.

In the United States, approximately 17.3 million adults aged 18 and older and 3.2 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old had experienced depression that year. However, symptoms of depression can last for years if left untreated, so these values are likely much higher if you consider those who have had depression at least once in their lifetime.

Each year around two million high school graduates move on to college, and many of them feel unprepared for many of the new changes that they will face. Things can become overwhelming, and many won’t have their old support systems from high school to help them cope with these challenges when they set foot on campus and become college students.

Mental health impacting daily life

A study carried out in 2019 by the American College Association’s National College Health Assessment (NCHA) showed that around 46 percent of college students, within the last twelve months, felt that their symptoms of depression made it difficult to function. Additionally, 72 percent reported feeling very sad but not necessarily impaired. 

One recent study displayed a significant increase in depression and anxiety as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as students have had to adjust to a new type of college environment characterized by online learning and social distancing. Anxiety, on the other hand, affected around 66.4 percent of the students who felt that it was overwhelming. As mentioned before, anxiety and depression can often coexist, and around 16.6 percent had both. Depression in college can also often be seen with eating disorders and substance abuse as well.

There isn’t a set figure or estimate available for how many college students are struggling with symptoms of depression or other mental illness right now, but we can make an educated guess based on the info that is provided to us.

In 2017, roughly 18 million students were enrolled in colleges and universities, and according to the American Institute of Stress, around three out of four of these college students reported and experienced overwhelming anxiety at least once during their time there, and just under 30 percent had symptoms of depression within the last two weeks.

Frequency of symptoms for adolescents

Although these statistics are for anxiety, we know that anxiety and depression are quite comparable in terms of the number of people they affect. If we use the statistic that 46 percent of college students experienced depression in the last twelve months, from earlier, we can deduce that just under 9 million college students have had symptoms of depression during the last year. If you consider depression during college students’ whole college career, this value should be even higher.

Therefore, these statistics illustrate that depression in college is a significant problem and that steps need to be taken to ensure that young adults have the resources they need to fight it and get back on track to not only improving academic success but also their overall well-being.

Mental health resources for college students

One of the perks of college campuses across the United States is that there are typically resources available to students that are designed specifically for the treatment of mental health issues that college students face.

Your campus may have a counseling center and on-campus doctor or psychiatrist who you can schedule visits with, and this resource is usually covered in your tuition and fees that all college students pay each quarter or semester.

If by chance, your campus doesn’t offer these mental health services as part of health care, you can also consider outside help from mental health professionals who can also provide treatment like regular talk therapy or psychotherapy such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Unlike therapists, psychiatrists can provide prescriptions for antidepressants, which can also be helpful in reducing symptoms of depression.

Online therapy can help

You can also try out online therapy from services like BetterHelp. BetterHelp is a wide network of licensed mental health professionals with experience treating people facing a variety of mental illnesses and other challenges. You can take the short onboarding questionnaire to be matched with a therapist that is right for you, and meet with them on a flexible schedule from the comfort of home. 

Research suggests that online therapy is just as effective as in-person treatment for cases of depression and anxiety, especially in cases of students in higher education environments. Not only is this method just as effective, but it may also be affordable for those who do not have health insurance.