How are you feeling?
It is important to tune into yourself as well as others who might be struggling. Being mindful of your and others’ mental health will improve your choices, your relationships, your physical health, and your well-being.
STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH ON PRINCETON’S CAMPUS
Princeton is exciting, fun, stimulating and challenging. But it can also be stressful. Connecting matters—to yourself and others.
- 35 percent of Princeton undergraduate students reported feeling overwhelming anxiety in the last 30 days.
- 17 percent of Princeton undergraduate students reported feeling “so depressed it was difficult to function” in the last 30 days.
- 16 percent of Princeton respondents reported that anxiety negatively affected their academic performance in 2014 and 11 percent reported that depression did so.
American College Health Association. American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II: Princeton University Undergraduates Spring 2010-2014. Hanover, MD
CONNECT TO YOURSELF
Look inward and be aware of your thoughts and feelings as you are having them. Stay in the moment and see if you can describe what you are feeling in your body, what kinds of thoughts are floating in and out of your head.
Connect to others
Recognizing signs of distress in others and listening to them are critical to helping others. You can:
- Improve your listening skills to show your friends, family members or coworkers that you really care
- Know the resources available to you to refer students in distress to, and how to intervene in a crisis
- Participate in a Princeton Distress Awareness & Response (PDAR) workshop to learn how to better support those in need