Dealing with Emotional Distress

One of the goals at the UNIVERSITY Office of Student Affairs is to promote a sense of community and belonging among students at UNIVERSITY. In building this sense of community, the most powerful message that we convey to our students is that they are not alone in times of distress. Emotional distress is often triggered and intensified by a feeling of isolation. When students feel that their emotional well being is of no concern to their peers or their faculty, distress can turn into desperation, leading the student to act in ways that cause harm to their own selves or those around them.

Students at college everywhere are faced with many challenges that university life throws at them. In addition to surviving academically and preparing for further graduate study or professional careers, students are also involved in a process of becoming unique and independent adults, deciding on career alternatives, creating personal value systems and developing significant relationships. Most of these challenges are essential for students 9 develop and grow. It provides students with the opportunity to develop character, perseverance the ability to handle stress and pressure and to manage time. However, students handle the challenges with varying degrees of success. The problems they face at UNIVERSITY may overwhelm them emotionally, causing a decline in mood, performance and quality of life.



If you are facing problems coping with UNIVERSITY life, you should confide in faculty members you respect and who you may consider a mentor.

Following are some potential reasons that lead to University students to feel emotionally distressed.

1) Expectations: Students come to UNIVERSITY carrying individual expectations from the college experience. When the reality of their experience somehow falls short of their expectations, or something is very different from what they envisioned, students can find themselves disoriented, de-motivated and confused. Some students may develop healthy coping mechanisms and adjust their expectations to fall in line with reality. Others might not be able to do so, and can develop significant emotional distress that can cause them to react in counter-productive and self-defeating ways.

2) Adjustment: Students come to UNIVERSITY from many different parts of Pakistan, and, for most of them, coming to college is a significant change. Students need time to adjust to the social, academic and residential life at UNIVERSITY. Many are in a dynamic process of discovering their environment and finding a support structure for themselves here. This process of adjusting to their new life away from home, and to the culture of a new place, can take a significant emotional toll on some students.

3) Relationships: A significant part of the college experience is the close relationship students develop here. These relationships are a source of emotional support for the students in times of distress, but they can also be the cause of emotional stress when they are strained (e.g. a student might be deeply affected by a fallout with friends, or the abrupt end of a romantic relationship).

4) Competition: Students at UNIVERSITY are not only competing with themselves, but are also under significant pressure to compete with the rest of their class. This competition is a healthy motivating factor for students most of the time. It drives them to perform better academically. However, under certain circumstances, this sense of competition can have negative consequences for a student's emotional well being. All undergraduate majors at UNIVERSITY have a cap on the maximum number of students that they can accommodate in a given year. If more students want to major in a given area than is allowed by the cap, then picking students in order of CGPA does selection to the major. Students are thus under constant pressure to maintain a certain CGPA right from the start of their undergraduate education to remain contenders for entry into a popular major. This pressure, especially when a student is facing other adjustment issues, can lead to pi- significant stress when a student performs below expectations, especially if that performance is in a core course for the major. In the situation that a student does not get a place in his/her desired major, they are at risk of feeling a sense of disconnect from their college experience, and feelings of low self-worth might set in. This is an especially sensitive juncture in a student's college career.

5) Academic Stress: UNIVERSITY is a challenging and fast-paced academic environment. Most students who join UNIVERSITY as undergraduates come from the British GCE O/A Level or 11Pakistani Intermediate examination system, where they are used to annual or bi-annual examinations. Academics and assessment at UNIVERSITY move much faster, and some students will inevitably struggle to keep pace. This can lead to a drop in academic ^ performance, and hence cause stress for the student. Some students develop a more effective coping strategy for the increased academic pressure, while others can get into negative cycle of stress causing a drop in grades, which causes further stress.

6) Other External Factors: Other external factors such as personal and family problems also cause significant emotional distress to students. These sensitive is talk about for students, so stress can build up to a point where it starts academic, social and extra-curricular life at UNIVERSITY.

Signs and Symptoms of Distress

Any of these symptoms should be seen as signs that you or someone you know may be emotionally distressed and needs professional counseling and support. A single sign in a highly pronounced state, or a cluster of signs appearing at the same time continuously for 2 weeks or more would probably indicate that you need help.


1.      Performance Drop: A noticeable fall in class attendance, academic performance, or completion of assignments on time. A student who is experiencing distress might also miss class quizzes regularly.
2.      Appearance: Change in appearance and indications that the student is ignoring J personal hygiene

3.      Mood swings: A distressed student might exhibit mood swings, where their moods varies from day to day, or in extreme cases, is very unpredictable. Students who experiencing mood swings caused by distress will not seem emotionally stable; they can be angry and irritable more than usual.

4.      Exaggerated Reactions: Highly reactive behavior to normal events (irritable, tearful, aggressive)

5.    Cognitive difficulties: Student may experience difficulties making decisions problem with maintaining focus, and their thoughts may seem illogical or incoherent

6.      Marked changes in sleeping and eating habits: sleeping too much or too sleeping at odd hours or eating habits (eating too much, eating too little).

7.      Emotional signs: student might seem anxious, fearful, sad and depressed. You H also notice a decline in their social interaction with peers, with you, and with others.

8.   Irregular participation in Extra-curricular activities: For faculty members who mentor students in their extra-curricular activities, a significant decline in the quality or regularity of participation in an activity that the student was previously involved in might indicate a general state of distress.

9.    Increased dependency: A distressed student might make increased demands on your time. This is most often manifested by frequent requests for extra time on assignments and other assigned tasks.

10.  Physical Health Issues: Student might complain about feeling excessively tired all the time, experiencing lower backaches or sporadic headaches. Such problems can be stress-related.

11.  Personal Relationship Problems: A student might be facing problems in his personal relationships, and might express concern about the death of loved one, difficulties with family, friendships or romantic relationships. With significant relationship problems, different individuals take varied lengths of time to go through the natural grieving process. For some individuals, this grieving period might be short, but for others, it might lead to prolonged distress and hence, a crippling sense of despair.

12.  Alcohol and Drug Abuse: If a student expresses concern about addiction to alcohol or other substance abuse, they might be using intoxicants to avoid confronting the distress in their lives.

13.  Feelings of Hopelessness: A significantly distressed student might express a sense of hopelessness about life, and an inability to affect positive change in their life.