Boone County sees rise in student stress and mental health challenges
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Final exams are just a few weeks away, and the end of the college semester can be a stressful time for students.
Between final exams, final project deadlines, final grades and for some, graduation, students may experience a deterioration of their mental health.
"When we're talking about test anxiety, it's something that honestly, I feel like the vast majority of students experience to a certain degree," MU Health Care psychiatrist Dr. Zane He said.
He said anxiety is not always a bad thing.
"Sometimes a little anxiety can be helpful," He said. "Let's say someone that has procrastinated or there's a test on a subject that they're just not at all interested in. Having a little anxiety can get them to study or to help them work on that subject that they're not interested in."
University of Missouri freshman Kate Martens said she's not worried.
“Honestly, I'm not thinking about it right now," Martens said. "For now, I just need to stay calm and talk to my peers and collaborate and get my final projects in."
For some students, working under pressure can be beneficial. For others, the balance of spreading out their study time and making time for their hobbies keeps them in good mental health.
“I’ve been working hard at Ellis Library, studying a little bit, and then making sure I'm just taking walks and enjoying the nice weather," MU student Reagan Redmon said. "I take walks and I hang out with my friends as much as I can.”
During the end of the semester, Redmon said she feels stressed, but relieved.
“It’s also exciting to just get it all out of the way and then be done, have summer,” Redmon said.
Dr. He works at the Student Health Center at MU Health Care. He said when anxiety reaches a point where it becomes counterproductive, that's when students should consider seeking help.
"Let's say you're so anxious you can't sleep well or you're so anxious that you're so caught up in worrying about the results of your finals that you can't even start studying," Dr. He said. "I think that's a good sign for someone to start seeking help because then that anxiety is no longer serving a beneficial purpose there. So my message to students is ask yourselves whether or not you are experiencing anxiety, and if you are, has it gotten to the point where it's become detrimental."
Dr. He said he sees more patients around midterms and final examinations.
"There is kind of an uptick in patients and then also an increase in the severity of the presentations," Dr. He said.
Though finals stress is a common experience, this is not the only reason students' stress levels can peak. He said student stress is typically due to many factors, especially right now.
"I have had a lot of my patients, students who mention that they are very stressed out about the political climates, the atmosphere," Dr. He said. "Some of my graduate students who are required to do research are especially stressed out because with everything going on, there has been threats of cutting funding or not having funding, and graduate students more or less are required to produce some research. And so that certainly is a huge stressor."
Dr. He said social media can also factor into mental health, in positive and negative ways.
"It's my opinion is that it's kind of a double-edged sword in that it does help destigmatize mental health and it does typically encourage people to seek help for their mental health issues," Dr. He said. "But on the other hand, it can also exacerbate mental health, especially if you're already worried about something. And with algorithms and social media, they funnel certain videos that you're watching or certain content you're consuming, and it just perpetuates that anxiety, perpetuates that cycle of worry."
Dr. He said social media can also be a judgmental place, and that can be harmful to one's mental health.
According to data from the Missouri Department of Mental Health, 30.17% of Boone County students reported feeling very sad in 2024. That number has nearly doubled since 2018.
Depression was also reported to have disrupted 35.36% of students' school work in 2024. The highest number reported in 14 years.
Dr. He said decreased functionality or participation in day-to-day activities can be a sign of depression.
"Let's say you have a friend that you see on the regular, you, I don't know, hang out once every weekend or so and then for the last three weekends they've been giving you reasons, for whatever reason, they're just not spending much time with you," Dr. He said. "That might be a good time to just check in and be like, 'Hey, are you doing okay? Is there anything I can do to help you? Something like that.'"
Dr. He said pulling away from people and isolating oneself can become a vicious cycle.
"Where someone no longer socializes with friends and so then they lose that social support and that only perpetuates something like depression," Dr. He said. "And so I do encourage people to try their best to break that cycle, to go out of their way, to engage in some hobbies or anything that they feel rewarded or excited about. Now, of course, a lot of times that's easier said than done. And so I think that's where medications or psychotherapy can come in play."
Other signs to look out for include difficulty falling asleep, poor eating or having a hard time staying focused. All of these can be affected by mental health or depression.
"When we talk about suicidality, that's typically only when depression gets to a boiling point," Dr. He said.
The number of students who reported seriously considering suicide and attempting suicide in Boone County in 2024 was also the highest in 14 years, according to the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
The department reports that 9.88% of Boone County students reported they had seriously considered suicide in 2018, down from 11.63% in 2016. The number of reports rose again to 11.04% in 2020.
By 2024, reports of Boone County students saying they had seriously considered suicide rose from 10.85% in 2022 to 17.22%, the most drastic two-year increase in the last 20 years.
Attempted suicides followed a similar trend of increased and decreased periods.
About 4% of Boone County students reported they had attempted suicide in 2018, down from 5.22% in 2016. By 2024, the number of students who had reported attempting suicide rose from 7.34% in 2022 to 11.74%.
In 2014, no students in Boone County reported attempting suicide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, national suicide rates increased 37% between 2000-2018 and decreased 5% between 2018-2020. However, rates returned to their peak in 2022 and have remained in that range.
Resources here in Columbia are working to help students struggling with mental health.
“I will say that all in all, I'm very happy with the direction things are going in terms of mental health," Dr. He said. "I've been in Columbia for about 10 years now, and I think over the years there really has been a greater focus and greater acceptance of mental health."
The University of Missouri collaborates with its Counseling Center, Student Health Center and Wellness Resource Center to provide resources to students through Student Health & Well-Being. MU mental health services include options from individual counseling or group therapy, to medication and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder management.
The Columbia College Wellness Center offers confidential and professional mental health services through its Counseling Services. And the Stephens College Counseling Center offers free, confidential counseling services to its undergraduate and full-time graduate students.
He said the stigma around mental health has improved significantly.
"When I was the resident, when I was training, I would have a lot of elderly patients tell me that they've been always ashamed or embarrassed or feel like it's inappropriate to talk to people about mental health," Dr. He said. "And a general trend I've been seeing is that stigma has gotten much, much, much, much less recently, especially amongst the younger population. People tend to be a lot more open to disclosing their own mental health struggles and also asking their peers, asking their friends how they're doing mentally. And so I really like this trend that we're seeing."
