Attending College With a Mental Illness

Attending college with a mental illness adds another level of stress to an exciting time in your life. Here's how to cope and thrive in college despite it!

There are a few steps you need to take when you’re getting ready to go to your future college. But when you’re living with a mental illness, it’s so critical to take steps to make college a little less stressful than it already is. The tips below will make moving onto campus easier for students living with mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and more. Just keep in mind that they’re for students who have already chosen their college—searching for colleges that can help you with your mental illness is a whole different story! (Please remember that this advice is not a substitute for talking to your doctor or another mental health professional.) Check out these tips for coping with mental illnesses in college

Speak with your doctor and/or therapist

Your pediatrician or any mental health professional you are seeing can be a great first step for figuring out how to get ready for college. They can suggest exercises and coping mechanism that will help you, and they can walk you through some of the challenges you might face. Also, if you think you’ll need special accommodations in college, like getting extra time on tests, you’ll need a note from your doctor (by the way, there are a ton of helpful links in that article too). That way the college can make those accommodations for you—more on that in the next section.

Plan your own campus preview day

Talk to your parents and/or admission counselor about planning your own campus preview day, kind of like any other campus visit but done on your own terms and including a visit to the college’s counseling and health services center. This way you can talk face to face with the people who will be there to work with you when you arrive on campus in the fall and start to mentally prepare for your transition to college. These mental health professionals can sit down with you and walk through the kind of opportunities they can offer you. For example, some colleges offer students with anxiety separate testing spaces. Or students with ADHD can get preferential seating, so they’re in areas of the classroom that can be less distracting. Students might also be able to get regular counseling on campus. Just ask about what’s available to you, because these resources can change depending on the campus.

Report it on your housing application and medical records

In college, you can get help when you need it without disclosing any mental health issues—so never be afraid to go to the campus health and wellness center and ask for help if you need it. But being honest on your records can help the college lead you in the right direction of certain steps they may want you to take. The college will see your records and may ask you to file for disability in their health services department.

More help for incoming college students living with mental illness

Make sure when you get to college you utilize the resources they offer! Here are five campus resources to know about

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:

About Emily Barylske

Emily Barylske

First things first: I'm on the hunt currently to pay for my college in free money, and I'm a huge supporter of getting all of the college scholarships you can before taking out student loans. I love taking photos, reading, and writing in my free time. I am currently involved in school clubs such as FCA, choir, and yearbook. I hope to help you and encourage you in your college and scholarship search process.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress
Ana Sophia Garcia-Cubas Assemat

Ana Sophia Garcia-Cubas Assemat

$10,000 Scholarship Winner, 2020

CollegeXpress has been an instrumental resource for my scholarship search and has given me the opportunity to try my best so I can graduate from college debt-free.

Sierra Carranza

Sierra Carranza

High School Class of 2022

I had absolutely no idea where I wanted to go to school; I was considering colleges in almost every state. CollegeXpress was an amazing resource and helped me compare all of my top schools. Without the help of CollegeXpress, I probably wouldn't have made such an informed and confident decision.

Melanie Kajy

Melanie Kajy

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me tremendously during my senior year of high school. I started off using the college search to find more information about the universities I was interested in. Just this tool alone gave me so much information about a particular school. It was my one-stop shop to learn about college. I was able to find information about college tuition, school rank, majors, and so much more that I can't list it all. The college search tool has helped me narrow down which college I want to attend, and it made a stressful process surprisingly not so stressful. I then moved to the scholarship search tool to find scholarships to apply for because I can't afford to pay for tuition myself. The search tool helped me find scholarships that I was eligible for. The tool gave me all the information I could ever need about a particular scholarship that was being offered. The CollegeXpress scholarship search tool is so much better than other tools offered, like the Chegg scholarship search. Thanks to CollegeXpress, I was able to apply to tons of scholarships in a relatively easy way!

Ruth Aguilar

Ruth Aguilar

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress helped me by providing me with many scholarship opportunities and information about universities I want to attend. What I love about CollgeXpress is how it provides a variety of information, and as the first child attending a university next year, it has been very essential and helpful. I’m so grateful for this because the information provided by CollegeXpress has also helped me see that there are so many college opportunities, and it always informs me by email. In other words, CollegeXpress has been like a guide for me as a future college student.

Jada Bohanon

Jada Bohanon

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me find scholarships for the colleges I applied to. It was very hard for me to find scholarships in the beginning that I was qualified for. My teachers recommended this website to find some, and not only did I find some scholarships but I also got to look into some schools I hadn’t heard of before. I was very happy to have discovered this website, especially with the coronavirus spreading all over as I can’t really go visit many colleges.

College Matches
X

Colleges You May Be Interested In

Manhattanville College

Purchase, NY

Grace College

Winona Lake, IN

Saint Peter's University

Jersey City, NJ

Samford University

Birmingham, AL