How to take care of your mental health as a college freshman
How to take care of your mental health as a college freshman. College can be challenging at any stage, but this is especially the case when you are a college freshman.
You are away from home possibly for the first time, in a new environment, with new people, it is all a little overwhelming. This is why mental health can sometimes fall through the cracks a little bit in the freshman year.
If this is you, don’t worry about it, I have been there, and I am here to tell you that it gets better. Without further ado, here is how you can take care of your mental health as a college freshman.
Table of Contents
How to take care of your mental health as a college freshman
1. Plan and schedule
As a college freshman, you are running on a new schedule, which is why you must plan and schedule out your time.
I have written about this before in an article I shall link here for you. Your class schedule is king. It is the backbone of your semester schedule.
Any planning you do should be based on your class schedule. For example, if you have classes between 11 am and 3 pm, any plans you have should come before 11 am or after 3 pm. If you have a part-time job, a group assignment, or even an appointment, they should all fall outside your class time.
Planning and getting yourself organized will take a lot of pressure and stress off most of your days, making your freshman life a bit easier.
1.1. Great FREE planning Apps for college students
2. Get your assignments done on time
A huge source of anxiety and stress is not having assignments done on time, which is why you need to make sure you get all your assignments done on time. How do you make sure this happens?
By attending all your classes. It’s a tall order, I know. But this is something that really saved me, so I know it will save you too. When you attend your classes, you will be notified of all the assignments and also have the benefit of being reminded by your professor leading up to the deadline because they always mention it.
Be sure to use either or a combination of the apps I have shared above to set reminders for doing your assignments, editing your assignments, and handing in your assignments as well.
3. Schedule all your Quizzes and exams
Exam time can be super stressful, regardless of what stage you’re at. It is for that reason that you as a college freshman have to take it upon yourself to schedule any quizzes you might have as well as your exams.
It is good practice to start studying for any exams two weeks out at the latest, then set reminders to keep the exam time at the top of your mind because the closer you get to exam time the more you have to keep in mind.
I would typically have a reminder at least once a week to remind me that I have papers in various courses and that they are between this and this day. My favorite studying app was Forest. If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend it.
4. Study for all your quizzes and exams
As a college freshman, there will be several anxiety-inducing situations, which is why it is best to try and reduce them as much as you can. One thing you can do to reduce them is to simply study for your exams.
I have written a post on how to make yourself study when you don’t feel like it which is shall link for you here. Walking into an exam room having studied sufficiently will reduce your anxiety levels significantly.
5. Compliance is the spice of institutional life
As long as you are choosing to be a part of an institution, you will need to comply with its rules and regulations.
It is good practice to go over the student handbook to see what you can and can’t do. As they say, “ignorance is no defense”. Try be on the right side of your college policies.
Getting in trouble and being called in by the disciplinary committee is no fun. It will also get your stress levels through the roof, especially if it was something you did by accident or because you simply didn’t know.
6. Take breaks when needed
Another great way to take care of your mental health as a college freshman is to simply take breaks as needed. There is nothing wrong with being a hardworking and diligent student, however, being burned out a month into college is not ideal.
A way to combat this is to simply plan out your days. Start with your class schedule, then plan everything else around that, plan for your study sessions and also schedule time for you to relax and unwind. This will go a long way in helping you take care of your mental health.
7. Ask for help
Asking for help will go a long way in helping you take care of your mental health as a college freshman. There will be a lot that you don’t know, and a great way for you to change that will be to ask.
And say that you need help. This will apply in several situations, not just when you don’t know something, but also when you are feeling overwhelmed. That is why college counselors are on campus all day and some campuses even have a 24/7 helpline because they know that college can be overwhelming.
8. Take time to exercise
Physical exercise is a great stress reliever and a great way to get you pumped full of endorphins. College situations, even shitty ones, can seem a lot less significant if you are pumped full of feel-good hormones on a regular basis.
It doesn’t have to be anything intense either, it could be yoga, or just jogging in the morning for thirty minutes.
9. Make friends
Another way to take care of your mental health as a college freshman is to simply make friends.
You ought to be careful with this one though because sometimes the people we surround ourselves with shape our reality. You want to make the right type of friends, so give this a good think about what you would like your reality to be, then choose friends based on that criteria.
10. Meditate
A little meditation goes a long way in taking care of your mental health as a college freshman. I have written a whole post on the scientifically proven benefits of meditation for college students, which I shall link here for you.
Conclusion
Being a college freshman can indeed be stressful, and that is the reality. However, that doesn’t mean that there is nothing you can do to manage this or improve the situation.
It is possible to handle your freshman year like a champ and although this isn’t everything you can do to make that a reality, I promise you that it is a great place to start, by taking care of your mental health.
