As increasing numbers of college students seek treatment for mental health issues, higher education administrators at Ƶ State and across the country are searching for ways to offer effective help and trying to determine the reasons behind the escalation.
At the height of his battle with anxiety, Andrew Atkins would feel as if he were watching his life from the back seat of a car and all he could do was sit there.
“It is kind of like a 24/7 tension under the surface,” he says, recalling the sensation. “I am aware of my heart, like there is a fist in the center of it. It’s tight. I feel really disconnected.”
The Honors College journalism major, who recently was a columnist for the Ƶ Stater and an intern at WKSU, believes his disorder has its roots in his parents’ divorce when he was in first grade—although it was never severe when he was younger, and he was always able to manage his feelings. He reached out to Ƶ State’s Counseling Center and University Health Services for help.
Read more in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of the Ƶ State Magazine at www.kent.edu/magazine/AgeOfAnxiety