Abdullah Arshad
In today’s world mental health has emerged as a more prevalent issue as we live in a more peaceful environment, creating a perfect scenario for these contemporary problems to come forth as they have never before. This coupled with the fact of more privileged children creates a perfect environment in universities for this problem to take shape. As most university students usually belong to the middle class or upper middle-class families’ normal societal problems like food, shelter and water does not concern them, and this makes the underlying like Anxiety, depression, and lack of confidence to become the main center of attention for these students. Therefor we will now try to understand the root of these problems related to mental health, more specifically anxiety and depression, and why they affect University students in Pakistan.
In recent years we have seen a growing understanding of the mental health issues faced by university students and why these actually happen in the first place. As most people nowadays are connected to the internet, they have become more aware of these problems faced by either their children or relatives. This creates a positive environment as most parents realize that these issues actually exist and they are a part of it. Mostly we see how students have a fear of not reaching high expectations and the intense academic competition that they face during this time. This leads to a very toxic environment where anxiety and depression become common. Often these students do not even realize themselves how they are going through anxiety issues as they face huge amounts of workload and social challenges.
A survey conducted by FWU Journal of Social Sciences (Winter 2013, Vol. 7, No. 2, 124-130) on the mental health problems in university students showed that out of 1850 participants aged 19-26, 31 percent of them were falling in the ‘severe’ category and 16 percent of them fell in the ‘very severe’ category oof students affected by mental health issues. This adds up to almost 50 percent of students which face anxiety and depression on a daily basis, creating an alarming situation for Pakistan. The survey concluded that lack of self-confidence, anxiety, and depression are caused by academic pressure, social isolation, financial stress, and the uncertainties about the future. Despite the evident need for mental support many of these students are hesitant to reach out for help from fellow peers much less their parents. Furthering their already affected mental health to a point of no return. This need for keeping this
