👩‍🏫 Does education negatively or positively impact your mental health?

JustV

I was reading this 2020 report on student wellbeing in the UK, where over 1800 students took part in a study to look at the impact of university on their mental health. Some of the figures seem quite bleak.

• 64% said their mental health was negatively impacted by university
• 42% had accessed counselling support
• 55% had considered leaving their course

I was wondering how this resonates with you guys. Does education (whether you're at school, college or university) negatively or positively impact your mental health?

It it negatively impacts your mental health, what are the specific pressure points for you?

independent_

Negatively

I’m not in education anymore, so probably should of ticked that box, but from when I was studying it had a very negative effect on me. I struggled right through school and ended up dropping out of college and leaving with nothing because I really struggled. I’ve been out for a year now and I think I made the right decision tbh.

Deadlines were a massive pressure for me and having to ask for help, and I also struggled a lot to concentrate and find the motivation to do anything at all. And if I got a bad grade and people were critical of it I hated myself.

Former Member

Negatively

I never went to school and it's honestly something I'm thankful for.
I have done a few years of college which was super hard transitioning into initially.

It's tricky because there was positives, good friends and such. But there is always negatives like the stress and pressure. The people who make it worse, and it was tricky to have the energy to go.

Despite all this I left with a few qualifications (the highest being a level 2 in health and social care)

And I still don't have much of an idea on my next steps. I very much felt pressured into college so my mum could continue to get benefits for me(there's no way I could get a job at that point in my mental health)

I took health and social care because it was easy, I really wish they offered more support in helping people find what they wanted.

I have currently signed up for an employability course that I will probably cancel because there's just no motivation, I'd prefer to do these things online. Think the pandemic has made me a little agrophobic.

I do believe there's a good future for everyone, missing all of school and still coming out with good qualifications proves to me that I can achieve whatever I want I'm just a late bloomer for that transition period where I figure it out. I don't put a lot of stress on myself, I'm doing well, just enjoy the good times

Former Member

Neither

I think half of the time it does

Former Member

Positively

I've said positively, because I've been worrying about leaving uni at the end of this year. Education is my "thing" and I'm anxious for the day where I'm not a student. I love learning!

Having said that, it does negatively impact me too sometimes. I'm doing a one year masters at the moment and the course structure definitely affected me as we had 7 deadlines across 2 months. I was working non-stop and still feel quite burned out to be honest, I definitely did at the time. Grades make me anxious too!