214. unfiltered college advice: social anxiety, burnout, school stress, + more

Mar 11

listen to this episode:

In this week's solo episode, I am once again reacting to mental health posts on Reddit! I poured through TONS of Reddit posts on different mental health challenges people are experiencing in college and shared my most unfiltered responses to them.

In this episode, I give my advice on:

+ Navigating group assignments in your classes

+ Balancing your workload and social life

+ Aligning extracurriculars with your career goals

+ Feeling lonely in college

+ What I wish I knew before starting freshman year

+ Majoring in psychology

+ Emotional exhaustion or burnout as a student

+ so much more!

Mentioned In The Episode…

+ Reddit Reacts Pt. 1

+ Jeffrey Hall ep.

SHOP GUEST RECOMMENDATIONS: https://amzn.to/3A69GOC

About She Persisted (formerly Nevertheless, She Persisted)

After a year and a half of intensive treatment for severe depression and anxiety, 18-year-old Sadie recounts her journey by interviewing family members, professionals, and fellow teens to offer self-improvement tips, DBT education, and personal experiences. She Persisted is the reminder that someone else has been there too and your inspiration to live your life worth living.

a note: this is an automated transcription so please ignore any accidental misspellings!

Sadie: [00:00:00] Welcome to She Persisted, the Gen Z Mental Health Podcast. I'm your host, Sadie Sutton. Let's get into it.

If you're in college, you're put in a situation where you have to do this all for yourself for the first time and you don't have that skill set established that like this is how I maintain my mental health and these are the things I need to do to stay in a good spot.

So I want you to give yourself a lot of grace that you're in a really challenging time. I want you to understand what habits and behaviors are in service of my mental health. And how can I get those in place?

Hello, hello you guys and welcome back to another episode of She Persisted. I'm so excited you're here today. We're doing another Reddit Reacts episode. So I am reading stories, submissions, and posts on Reddit about mental health. We have a lot on here related to college, anxiety, stress, burnout, balancing your schedule, a lot of things that I think a lot of us struggle with or want to at least get better at.

. If you guys want to submit your situation or story or whatever it is for advice and insight in a future episode, you can send me an email, DM me, or you can post to my website. I have an anonymous submission Google form that you guys can submit things to and [00:01:00] I can try and help out and offer insight.

So, this is the second iteration of Reddit Reacts. We did one a couple months ago. You guys liked it. It was really fun to record. So we're going to do a second one, and without further ado, let's dive in. So this post is called The Immediate Panic When the Professor Tells You to Form a Group of Four.

Sadie: . I'm in my third year of college. I still have not learned how to cope in a group setting. I can somewhat tolerate group work if I'm put into an assigned group, but this semester we have to pick all of our groups and I simply cannot do it.

I have a few people I tolerate in my main cohort, but there's a particular elective where I only have one friend. The teacher told us to form groups of four out of fourteen students. No thanks. I have so much anxiety, I'd 100 percent rather take on all the work on my own Or, be forced into a group, then have to go up to an established group of three and beg to be let in.

No thanks. This is a super common experience, especially if you're in a new class or you don't know anyone else, or you've had group work in the past where everyone hasn't pulled your weight. It's a really tough experience to be in, [00:02:00] and I have some tips.

So what I'm hearing here is the anxiety of having to join a new group, but also the anxiety of control and not being able to determine the outcome when you're with other people. There's like that unknown element of how much work will they put in?

Is it going to be to the same standard I want my quality of work to be? There's a lot of things that you're unsure about here, which is really tough. Honestly, in some classes, you're like flipping a coin of, is anyone going to do anything? And I hear this from my friends all the time. We'll be like, we met about a group, this person didn't show up, or I've literally done all the work, or someone took on more work and we didn't realize, and now they're upset about it.

It's really, really common, and I think it can absolutely be avoided if you're really direct up front, you set expectations, and you communicate. I'm going to give you guys an anecdote. I was in a seminar my junior year and I loved this class. It was so interesting.

It was structured as like you do the readings, you reflect, you have a conversation, and then there were like two or three group projects.

And The group project for the final was a large portion of our [00:03:00] grade and we were given class time with our group members to be able to prep the project Begin working on it do a little bit of research and then it was on us to set up other times to meet And I think we met out of class twice We all put in a lot of work outside of those meetings and really collaborated, but there was one person in our group who literally had only written their name on the document, the Google Doc, and like, that was the extent of the work that they contributed.

They never responded to texts about meeting, they never did any other research, they never did the tasks that were assigned, they didn't work on the slides, and the kicker here was that this was an in person Class presentation. And so you not only have this element of I'm submitting something that someone's contributed nothing to but we're literally presenting on this and this person hasn't shown up.

They haven't contributed and we're all being graded on this presentation. And so The group and I talked about it, which again is, communication is a big part here. And when we did that final meeting before our presentation to wrap up our slides, we were like, okay, [00:04:00] we're being graded on this project. We're going to be graded if we don't fill all the components that the rubric has suggested, even though this person hasn't shown up to complete their assigned works.

We're like, we have to get all these parts of the rubric done, even if it means taking on a little bit more of their work. It's not our problem what she says. during the presentation. Like, that's out of our control. It's not something we could solve for. If she wanted to do well in this project, she would have shown up on the group meetings.

She would have responded when we reached out. She would have created the slides. She would have done the research. If she wanted to do well, she would have taken those steps. It's not like we didn't tell her when we were meeting or didn't assign things to her. She just didn't show up. And so we can't control that, right?

And we can't control what she says during the presentation. But what we can do is clearly communicate to the professor that here's what happened. This is supposed to be a group project with five people. Only four of us did any work.

Here's our Google Doc. You can check out the editing history. We're really not sure what's going to happen during the presentation today because we took over the part of the assignment that she was initially assigned, and we just want to give you that [00:05:00] insight going into the presentation and do with this information what you will.

And when this happens, I've had professors respond well to this, especially if you have that Google Doc. So if you guys can use Google Docs, Google Slides, whatever it is with an editing history, I think that's really important because you don't want to get into like a he said, she said situation. But really communicate with the rest of your group members.

Like, how do you guys feel about this? What are your thoughts on us moving forward and doing what we can control if the other person isn't showing up and participating? And really communicating to the professor. Here's what we did. Here's what we can control. Here's the context of this presentation.

Again, do with this information what you will. The workload wasn't shared evenly. This doesn't really feel fair. And here's the Google Doc where you can check out what work was done. And as one would probably expect, she read what was on the slides. it wasn't totally obvious that no work had been done.

And so that's why it's really important to communicate to the professor. With sharing that Google Doc and Google Slides, because maybe she was like, this person is more shy, they don't do a lot [00:06:00] of public speaking, they feel more comfortable just looking at the slides. And so I think the two pieces there that were really effective were communicating with the group, and if you're not comfortable communicating in person, having that conversation, which is a very daunting thing.

Draft a text, send an email, have it in writing also, especially if you've made multiple attempts to reach out to someone who's not doing the work. Having that in writing is also really important when you communicate with the professor. And just get everyone's opinions. Be like, here's what I'm thinking.

Check the facts. This person hasn't shown up to our meetings. They haven't done their assigned part of the project. We have this deadline that we have to meet. How should we move forward? I also think it helps to present a solution to be like, Okay, I think we should complete the project and then communicate to the teacher that this workload was not shared evenly.

So present your best case scenario. What would you like to happen? And then be like, what do you guys think? Would you prefer we take a different course of action?

So that's how I would approach People not balancing workloads. Communicate in writing, make multiple attempts to loop this person [00:07:00] in, remind them of their assigned work,

and then when it comes time to do the project, the paper, the presentation, whatever it is, communicate just as clearly with your teacher. Here's the expectations that were set. Here's the actions we tried to take to engage this person. They didn't show up. They didn't do the work. And here's the information we have to show that this workload wasn't evenly distributed.

When it comes to the portion of the group project that you take on Because you don't know, like, how others will do or how you'll get along. I think this is tough because I definitely have situations, especially if it's, a visual project, like, there's slides to be made or it's an infographic, like, I want to make those slides.

I want to make them look nice. That's my skill set. I can contribute there. I also don't have any qualms about taking that increased workload on. I would actually much prefer it if I did that part of the project,

as long as no one else has a very strong opinion. And so I feel like it's up if it's something small like that where it's like, hey, I'd actually love to Do the research. I'd actually love to, do the literature review, or I'd actually love to [00:08:00] prepare the presentation materials, or I like speaking in public, , can I take on a larger portion of the slides that we present?

If it's not going to cause resentment towards others, I think that's okay to communicate and ask your group members if they're okay with that. But what I'm hearing in this is that you do resent others for the workload that they're not taking on and you feel the desire to control the situation because it causes distress when others are not doing the work and you don't know the outcome.

And so that's where you have to be mindful of like what your relationship is.

then I think you have to go back to the assignment, which is that your teacher didn't assign you to the project and three other people tag along. You're doing a disservice to them if you complete the whole project and they're just there for participation points.

You're also doing a disservice to yourself because you're taking on an increased workload, you're not building your skill set and ability to work with others, collaborate, set boundaries, etc. And so I think looking at it like that, like, this is an opportunity for me to practice my communication skills, set [00:09:00] boundaries, collaborate, and if I don't do that, if I take on the larger role, I'm solidifying a pattern and I'm doing a disservice to not only myself, but the group members.

I also think radical acceptance around my output and other's outputs is going to be different and this is again where it's helpful to keep track of like how much people are contributing

And again, if you have an product where the workload wasn't distributed evenly, that's where you can go to the teacher and say here's the work I contributed, here's the work my peer contributed, I just wanted you to have all the information when you're looking at and grading and working on this assignment.

And then the last thing we'll touch on here before we get to the next question is approaching others to be in their group. This is really tough and it's one of those moments where it's like a short bit of anxiety and it's also unavoidable. I would do a little bit of exposure therapy around this, like if you know that getting group projects, engaging with people you don't know in class causes you anxiety, you're going to want to practice that.

So maybe you start by like asking someone a question at the cafe. Asking someone a question in line to get coffee, asking them, like, do they know the Wi Fi password, or, making a [00:10:00] conversation, ask someone in class, did they do the reading, were you confused about this, starting those smaller conversations that don't have as high stakes attached to them, like, having to work on a project together, Creating these smaller situations where you can work to overcome that anxiety.

Maybe you study for a test together. Maybe you share materials, and notes that you guys can both review. So like, how can you set up these smaller situations where you practice working through that anxiety so that the next time you have that group project, it's less overwhelming.

And then the other piece of advice that I'll give here is that I think this is a really common experience. You have to remember that the other three people, they need another group member, right? Like, if there's a group that's not fully filled and you need a group to go to, they also need that other person.

And they probably don't want to have to do 30 percent of the work rather than 25. And so I would check the facts there and be like, they need a group member. The professor told us to work in groups of four. I am the fourth person.

so you're actually helping them. You're meeting a need that they have, which is that they need a fourth person. You are the fourth person. You have something to add and a thing of value that they need they're probably also nervous and anxious as [00:11:00] like anyone going to join our group we need someone else to work with and so being cognizant that like you're not the only one that's nervous and a little bit uncomfortable in this situation.

And then the other things that I try to do to set myself up for success and like avoid this in a healthy way is that on the first day of class. Introduce yourself, say hi, ask, , have you taken this class before, what do you think? , just make contact with one person on the first day it's most socially acceptable if you wait, like, a week or two weeks and then you have more anxiety because you're like, everyone already knows each other and I never introduced myself and this is so awkward.

And the other thing that you can do is, when they're like, do you have a group, immediately look to the people next to you rather than waiting for it all to pan out. , so just kind of sensing, like, when aversive time where I could potentially introduce myself or make a friend or Have an acquaintance or make this request that it doesn't feel so overwhelming when the time comes.

The next one is how do I improve my time management skills? I've always struggled to balancing my college workload and social life no matter how much I try to plan ahead. I want to be able to keep up with assignments, study effectively, and [00:12:00] still have time to relax and hang out with friends without feeling guilty.

Does anyone have any tips or strategies that have worked for them? I'm open to trying new methods, whether it's better scheduling, productivity techniques, or anything else that might help. So, I'm going to give you my honest advice here, which is that something has to give. You can't give 100 percent to your academics, to your social life, to your mental health, to work, like, that would be 400%.

That's not humanly possible. And so you have to get really honest with yourself about what are my priorities long term. Where do I want to be? And what will get me there? What is important for me, for my health and mental health, to be able to have this be a sustainable and balanced experience? And what doesn't meet that criteria?

So I'll kind of explain to you guys how I approach it because it feels like I balance a lot, but the day to day is not stressful. It feels manageable. It feels sustainable. So giving you guys a little bit of an overview of what my commitments are.

I have a class schedule. I'm taking, I think, four and a half credits a semester, which is like pretty standard for Penn. Sometimes [00:13:00] people take more, sometimes they take less, but I'm a full time student. So I have classes four days a week. I try not to schedule stuff on Friday because, love the three day weekend.

Also more sustainable and balanced. It's not always possible, but I try.

I work in two labs. One of my labs, we have a five hour weekly volunteer commitment for the project that we're working on. So I have lab shifts Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and that is the requirement to be able to be a research assistant, continue working on this project, and have that on my CV, on my resume, continue to gain those experiences in pursuit of going to grad school.

The other lab that I work in is a little bit more flexible. I'd say it's also around five hours a week, but it's on Zoom. So there's not a set schedule, but, I keep enough openings in my calendar that I can accommodate those five hours and meetings that get scheduled a day or two before without it completely derailing my schedule and my burnout and all these different things.

I also host the podcast. Again, we're going to talk about things that give and where [00:14:00] we give ourselves grace, but ideally I release episodes once a week. We have Monday minis, which are every two weeks, which Sam, shout out Sam, who's editing this, helps me put together using past content.

I have recordings, kind of depends on my schedule. I try to batch them over break again, so things are more balanced and sustainable, but like every two weeks I would say I have a recording or two. Almost every week I'm doing an intro, I'm doing the blog post, I'm scheduling the episode.

But the day to day commitments are generally pretty minimal, and more up to like, is this fun? Do I want to do this? Am I feeling creatively inspired? Etc. I'm a teaching assistant this semester for a class. Also a pretty minimal requirement responsibility. I host a recitation once a week. That's an hour. I prep my materials for that day of day before that also takes about an hour.

I grade the materials also about an hour. And then we have a check in call once a week, also an hour, so four to five hours a week. And that is scheduled into my calendar and a workload that again is sustainable. Not causing me to burn out and that teaching [00:15:00] experience and working with kids and being able to TA in a psychology related class again is helping me move the needle with respect to grad school this commitment to long term Dissemination psychology education wanting to do that in the future showing hey, I've taken steps to be able to do that I have these skills that I would be using in grad schools at TA and Here it is on my CV my resume

And then the last thing that is kind of in my commitment area is social media management. I do video editing and social media management for a couple of clients as like a little side hustle.

So I edit videos, I post for clients, and this is something that is part time. It's not scheduled on my calendar except for client meetings once or twice a month. it's a workload that doesn't burn me out, it doesn't take my like, creative mental energy away from these other things that are actually moving the needle towards my long term goals.

And it's sustainable, it's flexible, it allows me to balance these other areas

and then I hang out with my friends. I am pretty flexible. It's not like I'm scheduling this in. There's been some semesters where I did Do more [00:16:00] planning so that I could continue to form more relationships, get closer to people when there wasn't already, like, We are really close.

We see each other every day. That's the expectation. But like, do you want to get dinner? Do you want to grab coffee? Do you want to work together? Now, it's kind of like I have flexibility in my schedule. If I'm free, I text my friends, see if they want to get dinner, hang out, work on something, watch a TV show together, and like if I'm feeling up to it, if I'm not exhausted, etc.

I see friends. So, When I think about adding things to my calendar, whether it's like a podcast interview with someone else, A new research project, , a club. I ask myself, is this going to move the needle towards my long term goals, which is to go to grad school, become a clinical psychologist, be really public facing with the podcast and public education when it comes to youth mental health?

Is this going to move the needle with that goal? And is it going to do that more than what I've already taken on? So like, for example, the podcast, I could very easily be running someone else's mental health podcast. I could be helping a TikTok creator post mental health content. I could be [00:17:00] working on like outreach for a lab related to mental health or like a professor who wants to be more public facing and have a larger commitment to dissemination.

I know that long term, and we're getting into like call her daddy IP type stuff here. Me having this personal brand, me being the one that's speaking about mental health, speaking from my own lived experiences, connecting with you guys, honing this skill, building this community is something that really differentiates me.

As an applicant in grad school, it differentiates me. It sets me up for success long term with other things I want to do, like write a book, have courses, launch products. It helps me get towards that goal.

And it shows my demonstrated commitment to mental health advocacy, and it also allows me to build skills that help me move the needle in these other areas, like being able to openly talk about mental health, continuing broadening my education around mental health, interviews, all these things that are, things that help me in my career, whether it's interviewing for job roles, preparing to be a clinician one day, engaging in research.

The [00:18:00] podcast serves that larger goal. And I think, at least based on different avenues that I'm aware of, it's been the most effective way for me to move the needle and differentiate myself when it comes to that long term career goal.

If it were causing burnout or stress or wasn't in pursuit of this larger goal, I would look at again, do I have to do this? Is there another way to do this? do I need to pull back on other commitments so that this is not burning me out as much?

Sadie: I have a lot of thoughts here and I think the same principle applies, which is that something has to give, I think you have to be really honest with yourself about your actual capacity and bandwidth as a student. My freshman year, I've talked about this before, but I made the mistake of just choosing classes I was interested in, and I took like three classes that were about the same thing.

And I mentally have never been so Exhausted, burnt out, like, first of all, freshman first semester, you're so overwhelmed, you're adjusting to the schedule and the workload, you don't really understand how much work you have to do, and that was, like, compiled with the fact that I was [00:19:00] taking three classes on the same subject.

So I took Spanish, which was a requirement. And then I took Children's Language Acquisition, I took Intro to Psych, and I took Communication Children and Media. They basically all ended up going through like mental and child developments.

Like Children's Language Acquisition, we're talking about linguistics, which you also talk about in Psych. We're talking about the ear and like social development. We were talking about the children's developmental stages. Which we were also doing in psych, communication and media was like heavy on the stages of development, , and because it's a visual medium, we're talking about like consumption, basically learning the same thing in three different classes, three times in a row.

I was like, I cannot hear anything more about children development or I will cry. And I learned that mistake the hard way. Now, even when I want to take multiple psychology classes, I make sure they're in really different domains and they don't overlap so that I don't mentally burn out on a certain topic.

Because no one can sit in like six hours of class about the same thing a week, write three papers about the same thing, study for a test, and be, like, it's just too much. , so be honest and mindful when [00:20:00] you're taking classes, like, is this something where one class can help me avoid burnout for another class?

Can I distract myself from studying for this final by Doing a reading for a different class. Are these in different areas where I'm not stressing myself out about a different course by working on this course, if that makes sense? So that's something that I'm really careful of with my academic schedule, like, is it balanced as far as the topic as I'm doing, but also the time. There have been times where I've given myself like six, seven hours of classes in a row, and so you're like, three hour block, one hour lecture, three hour, you can't mentally do it.

I'm not engaged. I can't consume the information. I'm exhausted. I'm burnt out the next day. So like time wise, if I have the option, how can I schedule my classes on a weekly basis so that they're balanced with regard to my schedule and I'm not getting like physical and mental burnout for that reason, the other important caveat here, especially if you're a freshman or a sophomore, or like you're have a tough major, you're a pre med, you're engineering, you're nursing.

You're like, I have so many requirements. Like I can't even choose what classes I'm taking. I just have to [00:21:00] take these to get my degree. This is like me and Spanish, which, me and Spanish have a tough relationship. It didn't end well. It was fine, I completed the credit, but I am not good at Spanish. So there's sometimes you have to do these things.

You have to take these classes in pursuit of a sub goal or an end goal. Like, if I didn't take Spanish, I wouldn't have met the language requirement and I wouldn't have graduated. If I didn't take math, I wouldn't have met the requirement and I wouldn't have graduated. These are things you have to do to get to that end goal.

And so then you have to be like, okay, how can I do this in the most effective way possible without adding stress and burnout and like derailing these other aspects of my life? So we have to ask ourselves, like, do we have a choice here? Is this necessary? And if it is, what can I do to make this? is least disruptive and aversive as possible.

As far as the actual content in our classes, and maybe this is the hot take, but especially in college, you can't do all the readings. If you are doing all the readings and like properly studying for your exams and fully completing your projects, there's not enough hours in the day, especially if you're like a social science major, , or English or something that's more reading heavy.

I [00:22:00] know some classes require no readings, but I have A huge number of chapters for all my classes every single week. And if I did all those readings and was highlighting and taking notes, there wouldn't be time. And so I think you get better at this as you go throughout college. It's like, if it's a seminar, I'm going to have to contribute.

I'm definitely going to have to read and have some things that I'm bringing to discussion. If it's a lecture, if I read the summary in the textbook of what the thing is about and look over the vocab words, am I going to understand what the teacher is talking about? Yeah. So you, again, something has to give.

And if you are investing in, work or research or your social life. You can't give 100 percent to academics because you don't have room for anything else. So even within the classes you're taking, something has to give and you get to decide what that is. Is it how long you're studying for tests? Which probably isn't optimal.

Is it how much of the readings you're doing? . Is it going to office hours? Like, what are you prioritizing? And again, what gives you the best bang for your buck with regard to, , your grade and performance in that class? I definitely wouldn't say don't study at all because you're doing all the readings.

Maybe you're like, Okay, I'm going to read summaries of the readings. I'm going to [00:23:00] get AI to make me notes based on the readings and read those notes. Or, I'm not going to do the reading, but I'm going to listen to an AI podcast about the topic. So I'm going to review the vocab, and then I'm going to spend that time instead.

studying for the test so I don't burn out. So something has to give and you have to kind of understand and learn throughout the process of what can I give and what can I pull back on in each class and in each different area if that makes sense. The TLDR there is something has to give even in academics you don't have to do all the readings.

Except for some classes you actually do, but most of them that's not the case. so kind of applying that principle of like, is this really moving the needle with regard to my end goal? And that could be like the career you want to pursue, the degree you're getting, the grade you want in the class.

Is this moving the needle there? And if it's not, do I have to do it at all? Or is there an adapted way I can do this so I can still achieve this goal? And then we have to talk about like mental and physical health. Because this is really important and my philosophy here is that if my day to day experience is not, , generally in a positive [00:24:00] trajectory, I'm gonna end up with worse mental health, right?

Like, if every day I'm ending, , burnt out and stress and like a little bit more overwhelmed than the day before. I'm like on a downward trajectory that for me will lead to depression. , for others, maybe it's anxiety, maybe it's less sleep, maybe it's conflict in your relationships. Everyone's different.

so I'm really cognizant of is my day to day experience generally on the up and up. Is it sustainable? Is it positive? Is it balanced? So that I know that when I just get into my routine and I'm not paying attention to that rigidly, I'm gonna be moving in the right direction and not setting myself up for failure.

Another thing that I'm going to mention here is understanding, how your priorities and your habits fit into your overall, goals is really helpful. So, for me, I know that, , my number one thing that I cannot mess with is my sleep. Some people can go for, , five hours of sleep, multiple nights a week.

You're working, you're stressed, I am allocating like 14 hours of my day every day for sleep. Am I sleeping for those 14 hours? No, because I'm not great at falling asleep quickly. I'm bad at waking up in the morning. We're [00:25:00] doing CPTI. It's a process. But I know if I don't block out 14 hours of my day for sleep or my bedtime routine or getting up in the morning, I'm not getting enough sleep on a day to day basis.

Then I'm irritating my relationships. I'm burnt out in class, I can't pay attention, like all these other areas then start to fall. I'm stressed, I'm burnt out, and I'm no longer like working in the direction of those larger goals. And in fact, the day to day experience is really negative and overwhelming and not enjoyable.

So for you, maybe it's working out, maybe it's having three really set meals a day, maybe it's sleep, maybe it's , Journaling, like what are these behaviors that are non negotiable and that if you don't have them in place your mental health starts to like crumble and disintegrate and those need to be in your calendar, whether it's physically or just mentally understanding that like we don't mess with those and most days of the week that has to be in place or I'm going to struggle.

So basically in my advice here is that. Something has to give. Something always to give. And when [00:26:00] you guys hear me describe my responsibilities, I'm not in any clubs. I'm not in any on campus organizations. I'm not in Greek life. I'm not dating. Like, these are areas that other people prioritize and are investing a good amount of time in on a week to week basis.

Sadie: For me right now, those aren't things that I've prioritized or I've established that they're not moving the needle towards my long term goals. I'm not committing to those, and you don't have to have the same commitments as other people. It's gonna look different. So be really honest with yourself. Are these commitments, moving the needle with regard to my long term goals?

Is there a better way to get this thing done more efficiently, effectively? Is it a different semester with a different professor, etc.? And then, what is necessary to have in my day to day life so that it's sustainable and balanced and that I'm not on like a slow downward trajectory of stress and burnout and anxiety and depression?

So the TLDR there is something has to give. And you have to be really clear and honest and mindful with yourself about what's gonna give in my life and what are my priorities and how is this sustainable?

The next post is [00:27:00] called, College is so lonely. I'm in my second year of college and I have friends. I talk with them during class and I have people to eat food with and I'm part of a few clubs and I feel people just forget me during the weekend. I never get invited to stuff even if I ask, is this how it's going to be throughout college?

I have absolutely been there. , I remember vividly, like,, freshman year of college being like, these people are going out this weekend, can I join you guys? What's the plan?

Like, do you mind if I tag along? And, like,, getting ready to go out with them and they just, , never texted. I never, I literally got ready. Didn't go anywhere, didn't have anywhere to go, wasn't invited, like, I totally get it. And I remember, like,, freshman year, my grandmother sent me a birthday cake, and I didn't have anyone to share this birthday cake with.

Like, I had friends, I had met people, I actually had, met my now best friend, but we hadn't, formed that close friendship yet. I had people to talk to, I would get dinner with people sometimes, but , you don't have those close friends. And I think the other element here is like, being surrounded by people and having people to eat with and sit with in class, that doesn't necessarily correlate with being [00:28:00] seen and understood and valued.

Like, we can be surrounded by people and still feel really lonely. And so understanding that it's not just having people there or being in proximity to people, but it's having that level of The relationship built where you feel seen and understood and, and valued and like you belong and that they want you there.

there's this incredible study that Dr. Jeffrey Hall did we had him on the podcast. We're gonna link it in the show notes It's one of my favorite episodes of all time And I think he does the most fascinating research about friendship I read this for a seminar the one we talked about where that person didn't come help with the group project But I immediately read the stat and I was like we need to have him on the podcast like this is so crazy This is so interesting.

It was incredible conversation all about like What about our friendships? Allows us to feel seen and valued and understood and even if you're around people, why is that sometimes not enough? Why are we still lonely? So you have to listen to that. I'll link it in the show notes. But

he found that it takes 50 hours to go from just being an acquaintance to being a casual friend. 90 hours to [00:29:00] go from Being a casual friend to being an actual friend and more than 200 hours before you consider someone your close friend. So if you're a freshman in college or you're a sophomore in college, you probably haven't had that time yet.

And there's probably a lot of people around you where you're like, they're on that team together. They're in that club together. They take all the same classes together. They probably are in a situation where it's maybe easier or different for them to accumulate those hours and get to know each other.

So if you're like, I have people to sit with, It's not like I don't know anyone give yourself grace like it takes time to form that relationship And it's not a reflection of you or how you're showing like it just takes time and it's tough so I want to remind you of that and when I think about that data and also how my Friendships in college have progressed that really lines up It wasn't until like second half of sophomore year, junior year, senior year, that I really was like, okay, this is my group of friends, these are my best friends, these are the people I'm going to see every single week, and I want to continue to spend time with and hang out with.

And that took time. It took a lot of hours. [00:30:00] And it's also really tough because there's things like finding roommates and picking your new class schedule and figuring out what dorm you want to live in or Greek life. , these things require By nature, like a certain level of relationship and friendship.

And if you're not there, it kind of feels like you failed. And so if you're just finishing fall semester freshman year, and you're supposed to select your roommate for sophomore year, and you're like, I don't know anyone well enough to live with them. That's okay. And it makes sense that you haven't had the free time to be able to get 90 to 200 hours of time in with them to reach close friend status and therefore room together.

Like, give yourself some grace. This thing takes time, it takes vulnerability, and college is really busy and stressful. But it doesn't mean that it's not painful and that it feels like others are somehow doing it differently and doing it right. And these external things, like finding roommates or figuring out your classes or what clubs to join or what parties are happening, it does, in some ways, signal like, Did I not do that right?

[00:31:00] Why am I not ready and feeling prepared in this situation? So I want to give some validation there because it really sucks and it's really hard. And it feels like you're supposed to find your friends really fast to make all these decisions and figure out all this stuff.

So you asked, is this how it's going to be throughout college? No, You're probably not at the point where you formed those friends and close friends and best friends. Takes more time. And as you're further into college, you continue to accumulate those hours, solidify those relationships, and get to a stage where you feel more comfortable and seen and valued and like you belong.

The other piece that I want to mention here is you said I have people to eat with and I'm in clubs, but like, I don't feel like I have close friends. I don't feel like people are miss me and want to hang out with me and reaching out. And that sucks. And that's the part of being lonely that people don't always realize like just because you're surrounded by people or you spend time with people doesn't mean that you feel seen and heard and valued and like you belong.

And that's such an [00:32:00] innate human need that we have. And when that's not met, it's painful, and it causes anxiety and depression and stress. , and so understanding that like, yeah, I can have someone to sit with. And I, I know who's in my classes, but that doesn't necessarily correlate with not feeling lonely.

And that can be a hard pill to swallow, but it's also something to be aware of. The TLDR here is like Loneliness can happen even when we have people in our life and it seems like we're surrounded by others and it takes a lot of time to build relationships and I want you to give yourself grace there.

It's hard to build relationships in college and to remind yourself of how long it takes to build friendships and how early you are in that stage and that it's going to happen. Your relationships will deepen and keep putting in the hours connecting, and spending time with your friends.

this next question is what should I make sure to do during my freshman year of college? Tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated. . Okay, I have a lot of advice here and I'm going to try and go quickly because I want to answer more questions.

The first [00:33:00] one is to get a mentor. It doesn't have to be a mentor for all four years of college. It have to be Someone that you are attached to for the rest of your life, but having a mentor in college was determinant of lifelong outcomes, job placement, salary, relationship status, feelings of belonging, depression, anxiety, all of these things, years after college, and also the experience within college was determinant correlated to if you had a mentor or didn't.

Do you feel like there's someone in your corner? Do you feel there's someone you can go to when you're having a tough time and ask them questions, get support? Do you feel like there's someone who will listen to you and offer their insight in moments that you're struggling. We know that young adults have better outcomes when they have someone in that mentorship role.

And it could be a parent, it could be a family member, it could be a teacher, a coach. a professor, literally anyone. But someone who's been through this before you and can offer insight and [00:34:00] support on the current stage of life that you're in is incredibly valuable and has lifelong repercussions in every area of life.

So I want you to find someone who, again, can offer insight into your current experience and I want you to keep that person in your corner, send them updates, ask them advice, check in. It's great if it's someone who's in your major, like a professor or an advisor, someone that you're organically going to continue to build that relationship with, but it could also be someone that you admire and you just want to start to form that like mentorship mentee status.

And I don't want you to, put so much pressure on, like, I have to find a mentor. I just want you to be, like, this is someone that I can go to and do go to for advice and support It doesn't have to be this really structured thing, but just knowing that you can have someone to go to who's been through this before is really, really, really valuable.

So don't put all the pressure on it to be like, I have to find this mentor. They're gonna guide me through my whole college experience. It's just about knowing that you have someone there. And you can switch mentors. It could be a mentor for a the semester, for the year, for just college, for ten years, but make sure you have someone [00:35:00] who's been in the position before that can support you.

There's so much research backing this up. Related, but maybe not totally, I want you to find someone. Who is in college with the same major as you or has recently graduated or is in the next stage of their career path. So maybe they're in grad school, maybe they're working, maybe they're doing an internship, , maybe they're a senior, maybe they're a junior, and I want you to ask them what they recommend you do and what they would have done differently .

I didn't do this, and I've done this now. and you When I get to interact with who's at a later stage, I asked him like, what would you have done in my position? What do you recommend I should be doing? , what advice do you wish you would have heard? And you are saving yourself so much time and effort by not having to trial and error your way through college.

So I'm going to give you the advice if you want to be a clinical psychologist, if you want to go into research, , in psychology, if that is your end goal, I want you to give yourself some grace during freshman year.

I want you to take the basic psych classes, confirm that like I'm still interested in this [00:36:00] when it's information that's presented in like a college class style. way. Like, maybe you love mental health TikToks. Maybe you liked, psychology in high school. But like, when I'm taking these lectures, when I'm tested on these topics, , do I still enjoy this?

Sadie: Just confirm. Make sure you don't want to switch your major because you always have that option in the beginning of college to pivot and switch if it's not aligned with what you want to do. Give yourself freshman semester to do that. Second semester, freshman year, I want you to go to the head of the department, your, advisor for the department. Someone who's in that role where you can ask, Hey, what labs are on campus? here's what I think I'm interested in researching. And I just want to hear like,, what labs would you join? What have you heard good things about? , which PIs, primary investigator is what that stands for.

Are nice, like who would you recommend that I look into and ask your professors this, who work in psychology. Ask these people that are more in these like departmental roles that work with a lot of students and hear from other students what they like to do. And I want [00:37:00] you to have an understanding by the end of freshman year that like here are two or three labs that I think I would enjoy working with.

I've heard good things about and I'm going to apply to be a research assistant. If you want to be a clinical psychologist, if you want to go into research in psychology, you've got to get research experience. People have told this to me, and I was like, no, like, I, surely that's, you need research if that's the path you want to take, at some point or another, you have to get that experience.

A great way to start building your CV, gaining experience, meeting people, understanding what you like and what you don't. Highly recommend. And then, sophomore year, you'd really, you could do something over the summer freshman year if you want to, you don't have to, it's not going to make or break your career.

Sophomore year, I want you to join a lab. I want you to apply as a assistant, an undergrad research assistant, maybe you can get paid for that, maybe you can't, maybe it's volunteer, typically it's about like five to ten hours a week. Very doable, it's a great way to meet other people in the department, understand what the research process looks like, understand how a lab hierarchy works, so like,, what is my role as an [00:38:00] undergrad?

What are the postbacs doing? I would say generally, a larger lab is favorable as an undergrad because you're exposed to more people and more parts of the research process.

there's more opportunities to feel like part of a community and feel engaged. You meet other undergrads through research. So look at, which labs have a lot of undergrads working, which labs need a lot of help, versus being in a lab with, like, two other people. And so if you decide you want different experience, like, if you want to work with a clinical population and your lab studies language development.

Maybe you switch labs and you get more experience on, screening for mental illnesses, or if you want to work with kids but your first lab that you start with is adults, you now have that experience that you can apply to a different lab to work in, and then you can gain more hands on experience with working with kids, rather than an adult population.

So, end of sophomore year, you're going to decide. Is this a lab that I want to stay at for the rest of college? Is it a PI that I is a great mentor? Do I feel supported? Do I like the projects I'm working on? And am I going to be able to get posters and [00:39:00] publications from working in this lab?

You are going to either stay in your lab if the answer to all those questions is yes. if you say no to those questions, you're going to look for a different lab with those criteria. Is the research fit as aligned as possible? This is hard as an undergrad because you don't have as much control, , but like, is the research fit there or am I getting skills that can be applied to a different area of research later on?

Do I enjoy the process? Do I like my mentor? Like, Would I want to write a thesis with them senior year? Is there going to be opportunities for me to be on posters? Is it possible for me to work on projects where I get publications? And you can ask all those questions in your interviews. And in fact, you should be.

At first, when you have no experience, you are just like, I just want to learn. I want to gain experience. But after you had a year under your belt working in a lab, you are allowed to ask those questions and make sure you're being set up for success in the role that you're in. Junior year, I want you to continue in this either same lab or the new lab that meets those criteria.

You want to keep an eye out for ways that you can get involved in things that would [00:40:00] lead to a publication. You want to see if there's options to be an author on a poster at a conference, like a national conference. Like I've been to ABCT and ADAA. You can go to APA like there's all these different psychology conferences.

They're really fun. It's a great experience to get exposed to the field and see what research is happening. And a lot of schools offer funding either through the lab or through university to get undergrads travel expenses covered. Get the cost covered for printing your poster. And you can also have a closer relationship with your peers by doing this, because you're probably going to be a co author on a poster and on a paper.

So you'll get paired with other undergrads to work on this project, and again, like, have people talk about what they're doing, how are they furthering their career, what is it looking like, etc. So ideally junior year if you can, working on a poster is a great goal to have, seeing if you can do a research role over the summer.

So like summer of sophomore, junior year, I probably continuing to work in that lab over the summer and doing like a summer fellowship. A lot of universities will offer summer funding so you can get funding and [00:41:00] paid to do research, at these different labs. So they pay for your living expenses, you get a stipend, and as part of that you probably do a poster or presentation about the research you're working on.

Also, if you can, junior year, looking for any of those funding opportunities. So at Penn, it's called the Center for Undergraduate Research. There's also another thing called Penn Undergraduate Research Mentorship, where it's like a more structured mentorship of faculty and student. to work on a research project, look at those options.

Like, what are things that I can put on my CV where like, I was part of this perm program. I got funding over the summer. I got funding for this poster. I got funding to go to a conference. These are things that you want on your CV. I mentioned CV a couple of times. That is my number one advice. If you don't take anything else away from this as a psychology major who wants to go into research, start your CV right now.

I didn't start my CV until senior year and mentally trying to remember, like, what tasks was I working on? What skills do I have? How can I qualify all these experiences and past things I've done [00:42:00] on this CV? Just start it now and add to it as you gain experiences. It's so much easier than waiting until you need it for an application or for grad school.

And then having to like Put this all together. Just turn in a blank document. It doesn't matter if it's perfect, , use it for your own use, but like, write down what skills you're gaining, what things you're trained on, what do you know as far as, , statistical analysis, and, literature review, like, all these skills and the classes you're taking that are relevant to your research interests, write those down, keep track of it, work on that CV, start it early, rather than having to, like, work backwards and remember what you did.

Senior year, you want to decide if you're going to try and apply to a clinical psych PhD program as an undergrad, or are you going to do research? And we're going to have to do a whole other episode on that, but kind of understand the difference.

So, understand if you want to apply, get a lot of advice, get ready to run your application by a lot of people, ask your mentor, again, we talked about the importance of having a mentor, do you think I have a shot if I apply to clinical psych programs? Do you think I have enough experience?

Do you think I should wait and get more experience? [00:43:00] And then senior year, you want to write a thesis. Penn has a honors thesis in psychology. I'm sure that a lot of other schools have that as well. Figure out when that application is. It's probably like. Spring of junior year, see if you can apply to be in the honors program, see if you can, write a thesis about the research you're working on.

Being able to have independently worked on a research project is a skill set that's really important and something that you can gain as an undergrad by doing a thesis.

I would also try and do another poster your senior year. See if you can still continue to work on projects that will lead to publication and continue to work as research assistant. And then, from there, you're going to kind of know what your next steps are. Are you going to apply for a post bac or a lab coordinator role?

Are you going to apply to a master's program, a PsyD, a PhD? You'll get more guidance and have more understanding at that point. But that's what I would do every year of college. If you want to go into research as a psychology major, what I wish someone had told me. So going back to this [00:44:00] question, the tips and tricks are find a mentor, someone you can go to, you can lean on, you feel supported.

Ask someone who's a couple steps ahead of you what their advice is for you and do that. Don't trial and error it. Don't wait to come across the answer. Ask people who've been in the position that you are and do those things. Listen to their recommendations. And if it doesn't work, if it's not aligned, if it isn't advice you want to take, you don't have to take it.

But ask and get exposure to the information. And then as a freshman, the other thing I'll give here is, like, if I could wave a wand and give everyone better mental, physical, academic, social life, health, , if I could just improve everyone's overall functioning in college, it would be to only sleep in your room.

Like, all the other hours of the day, I want you to be out of your room. So you are eating in the dining halls or on campus. You are studying in the library. You are going to all your classes. You are working out. You are seeing friends. You are giving yourself as many opportunities as possible to connect [00:45:00] and be engaged and have that sense of purpose.

If you're in your room other than that, maybe that's where you study, like everyone's different, but generally speaking people tend to be more anxious, more depressed, less engaged, more withdrawn if they're in their room a lot of the times Rather than being out and about and engaging. I'm not perfect at this.

I spend a lot of time in my room. But I notice generally I'm doing better. Mentally, physically, academically. When I am out of my room, I get more done. I feel more productive. Less burnout, more connected, if I'm in my room as little as possible. And, at college it's tough, right? Like, you want to nap during the middle of the day, you don't just want to be wandering around.

But, I've seen this on social media as advice that people give, and I absolutely agree with it. Spend as little time in your room as possible, and this will be good for your sleep schedule, your mental health. Your relationships, your academics, all of the things. And we just talked about in the last question, like, putting in so many hours to build your relationships.

If you're not spending those hours in your room and you're giving yourself more chances to study with your friends or run [00:46:00] into them on campus, you have a greater chance of accumulating those hours and working towards those close friends and best friends.

Okay, last question is, I never thought college would be this emotionally tiring. The work I'm doing for my major isn't even tricky, it's just I've never been this stressed out and depressed before. It's making it an awful experience, I've been going to therapy, it's not helping, and my friends and clubs aren't helping either, and I don't know what to do.

This is really tough, and I think something that I've become really aware of, Being on a college campus and trying to, like, be aware of other people's experiences mentally as much as possible, is that college, the first time, a lot of people are solely responsible for their mental health. And I want to explain that.

In high school, there's a lot of things in place to set you up for success, right? You Have school from 8 a. m. to 3 p. m. every day. You're probably doing stuff after school. Maybe it's a club. Maybe it's a sport. Maybe you're volunteering. It's pretty common to have after school activities.

Probably a family dinner. [00:47:00] Maybe you have siblings. Maybe you have friends. You're seeing your siblings every day. You're seeing your friends every day. You have parents probably checking in on like your academics and how was your day? What's going on? What do you have planned? You are put into classes with the same group of people that easily allows you to accumulate those 80, 200 hours of time together to facilitate close friends, best friends, friend groups.

You have set three times of meals a day. Breakfast before you go to school, lunchtime at school, family dinner. You are forced to do physical activity, whether it's a sport or PE class. You have a pretty regular sleep schedule because you have to be up for class, most likely, by 8 a. m. five days of the week.

All of these things, whether you realize it or not, are good and generally are in, Pursuit of good mental health, right? Like If we're waking up around the same time every day, if we are getting three meals, if we're staying active, if we have a sense of purpose and things to do during the [00:48:00] day, if we have friends, if we feel connected, all of these things help our mental health.

In college that goes away. College is really optimized for avoidance. No one is making you go to class. Maybe you have an attendance policy. Maybe it doesn't. Probably doesn't impact your grade that much. No one is making you study. No one is making you eat your meals. You don't have set people to eat your meals with.

You have classes with different people every single day. The classes are giant, so it's not like you're assigned next to a person that you organically get to know and make friends with. You don't have people checking in on your mental health and asking at dinner. How was your day? What happened? No one cares what times you go to sleep or wake up.

You can nap during the day. You have so much flexibility in your schedule. No one is forcing you to be active. None of these things are done for you. And so, if you are not intentional, it's really, really, really easy to have a lot of habits and behaviors that make it hard to have good mental health. And if you are someone that's prone to avoidance when you're [00:49:00] anxious or when you're depressed And you're someone who more easily falls into the pattern of, like, not doing these things that are good for your mental health, it's really possible that's what you're experiencing as a freshman.

You also don't have these solidified relationships to fall back on, right? Like, you have a support system most of the time in high school. You have teachers you see every day, you have a counselor assigned to you, you have maybe a coach or a teacher who oversees a club that you're in, you have your parents, you have your friends, you have your siblings, like, all of these are people.

That are in your community that you've established when you go to college that disappears completely, and it's not only that you don't have your support system that you previously had, but you also are expected or have to put in the work to build that new support system, and that's really hard. So not only are you in a completely new environment You are, for the first time, learning how to live life in a way that doesn't derail your mental health, but you also don't have the emotional and relational support that you're used to, and you also have to build that support by yourself.

And so I think understanding that, like, this is [00:50:00] hard, and this is not easy, and a lot of people struggle with it. And if you're in college, you probably were like pretty motivated in high school, did pretty well. High school GPA is correlated negatively with well being, self esteem, and optimism. So people with high GPAs are generally less optimistic, have lower self esteem, and Have worse well being. So if you're a college you're already probably in that group of people that are like maybe mentally not as doing well as you could be and then you're put in a situation where you have to do this all for yourself for the first time and you don't have that skill set established that like this is how I maintain my mental health and these are the things I need to do to stay in a good spot.

So I want you to give yourself a lot of grace and understand that you're in a really challenging time. And then you, I want you to understand what habits and behaviors are in service of my mental health. And how can I get those in place? So, I want you to have somewhere to go every day.

I want you to have commitment most days of the week. I like to have at least one day a week where I have nothing scheduled so I can just do work at my leisure and [00:51:00] not be stressed and like, I have to be somewhere, like I like to have a break, but have somewhere that you have to get up and physically be most days.

You have a commitment, you have that sense of purpose, you have to show up somewhere. If it's classes, if it's a volunteer role, a club meeting, something with friends,

having that sense of purpose and interest in Your general college education rather than like, I'm being forced to be here. I'm going through the motions. Having that internal sense of passion is really helpful in just like getting you through it.

Sadie: The next thing is going to be meals. Make sure that you're actually eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner and not at like ridiculous times. Are you eating nutritious food? Are you getting protein? These are things, again, that are no longer controlled for you. The dining hall has literally every single good food ever.

Pizza, bagels, waffles, all my favorite things. I didn't have a kitchen my freshman year in my dorm, but we had tons of snacks, so it can be really easy to be like, I'm not even properly fueling myself or setting myself up for success in that respect. Plan your meal a little bit more, be mindful, just [00:52:00] make sure that you are again fueling yourself for this thing that's mentally really challenging.

sleep is one of the biggest things, and I think people notice this a lot in college, like they're napping more, they can't get up for classes, it's like night and day from high school. So, Understand that your sleep is a non negotiable. How many hours do you need a night to be able to generally function well and feel rested?

Sadie: Make sure that you're getting that most nights of the week and if you can, avoid napping during the day because it's harder to fall asleep, it's less consistent, but understanding that your sleep is no longer decided for you by your schedule, it's not dictated by having to be at high school, five days a week at eight in the morning, you're going to have to be the one that wakes up before your 3 p.

m. class. That's the only thing on your schedule for the day, right? So kind of understanding that and setting yourself up for success with a consistent sleep schedule because it really impacts your mental health. Movement is really important. . Half an hour of cardio every day is as effective as antidepressants in treating depression. Obviously, there's some populations where [00:53:00] that's not true, but we know that physical exercise, engaging in physical activities, staying active, helps our mental health.

It makes your sleep routine easier. It helps with anxiety. You get that burst of endorphins. And for me, a lot of the time, the physical movement means walks, like walking between classes, walking after classes, walking on the treadmill, like I'm not doing anything crazy, but I'm getting that physical movement in.

And I find that really helps my general routine levels of energy and mental health. Relationships are again, it's really challenging. And you are building a new support system at the same time that you don't have access to your old support system. And you have to understand again, it takes a while to build these close friendships. It's not immediately going to feel as connected and synergistic as all the relationships that you built through.

Elementary school and middle school and high school and these people we've known for a long time. So give yourself grace there, but also put yourself out there, try to accumulate those hours, put in the reps, put in the time, and build those connections. And also, this is a to stay [00:54:00] accountable with these other areas.

So meet friends for lunch and dinner. Have friends that you go to the gym with or go on walks with. Have friends that you take classes with so they know when you're not there and you're avoiding or you're sleeping or whatever it is. Have those be one of the commitments that you have to show up for certain days of the week.

And then, you mentioned that the work isn't like what's really challenging. It's just you're mentally not doing great. It's not fun. It's not a good experience. Planning positive moments, planning activities that you're looking forward to is really helpful in getting through a semester, especially when it's like midterms and finals and you have that paper coming up.

Be aware of what's happening on campus, what's happening in your town. , I'm in Philadelphia, so there's a lot of fun things going on. Like last week was the Philadelphia Flower Show. I didn't go, but I was excited about the potential opportunity of going. so have things that you're looking forward to outside of classes.

Have these positives that you accumulate. on a day to day basis that gives you that joy. Don't wait for them to organically happen and expect to, like, see your friend and magically have a great day. Don't just rely on, , running into your friend on [00:55:00] the way to class, and then, oh, I'm feeling happy, and yay, and blah, blah, blah.

Like, plan these things. Set up time to see your friends. Pick a show that you're looking forward to watching that comes out a certain night of the week. find fun activities that are happening on campus or in your area. Commit to those. Plan to go to those with your friends. Think about breaks also as like, I can't wait to see family, I can't wait to not be in school and relax and have these things that you're looking forward to help you get through the day to day.

I hope that was helpful. I hope that you also again understand like a lot of people are in the same spot as you are. A lot of people struggle with their mental health for the first time in college and they're not only alone, like, Physically, they're in a different spot, they feel so isolated, but they haven't established skills to cope with their mental health and set their mental health up for success because it was really done for them in high school.

So I think this is a really common experience. you struggle for the first time with your mental health in college. It's tough. It's overwhelming. You don't have the skills and you don't have your support system. So it's a tough spot to be in, but [00:56:00] there's a lot that you can do to counteract that and work on your mental health.

So I hope you guys enjoyed this little Reddit Reacts episode. Talked a lot. Lots of yapping happening over here. But if you guys enjoyed, definitely make sure to leave a review. Share with a friend or family member. Comment, let me know what you guys thought.

If you disagree, if you agree, what advice would you give these people? And, yeah, I hope you guys are doing well. If you're at college, I hope these tips are helpful. Maybe you can implement them if you're struggling with any of these things. If you're not and you're still in high school, maybe helpful in the next couple of years.

And if you are already out of college, maybe you can be that mentor or point of contact for someone who's currently going through it and potentially struggling and be , that person that has a huge impact on their outcomes for many years from now because they feel seen and supported and like they can go to you.

So, I hope you guys enjoyed and with that, I will see you next week.

If you enjoyed this episode of She Persisted, make sure to leave a review, subscribe, and share with a friend or family member. Follow along at at She Persisted podcast on TikTok, Instagram, [00:57:00] YouTube and more for bonus content. Thanks for listening and keep persisting.

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