This is a sponsored post. I was compensated by Med-IQ through an educational grant from Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. and Lundbeck to write about depression in college-aged students. All opinions are my own.
Many people think of college as the best years of their life, a brief, golden time filled with opportunity, adventure, and that precarious, delicious balance of newfound freedom and only a little bit of adult responsibility. It’s not all parties and pizza, however. The transition to college can be hard, especially with the added pressure of watching your peers’ best lives play out on social media while your real life, in your real messy dorm room, isn’t quite what you thought it would be.
As an adjunct professor of Public Health, I see kids struggle every semester. Being a ‘successful’ college student means something different for everyone, but the pressure and expectations young people face now are very real and somewhat different than what their parents experienced. Students today are functioning in a world that is designed to distract them and keep them running on a hamster wheel of near-constant social comparison.