My freshman year of Fall 2021 was objectively very horrible. I entered TAMU in the Biochemistry program, a major I had picked in my Junior year of high school a few months before the lockdown in March 2020. My Senior year of high school was also very difficult. I’m not a sociable person, but I am someone who requires others to have support and motivation to succeed. I know multiple people who experienced crippling phases of depression and anxiety which made it very tiresome to perform most if not all activities the majority of us were easily able to do before the pandemic. The pandemic harmed my mental health far more than it had ever been before. As someone who has struggled with severe depression and ADHD, I am often unable to keep myself on a time schedule, communicate effectively, and prioritize my needs, and or the needs of others. As a result, my freshman year of college was brutal. Most of my social skills had been stunted; I hadn’t been in a classroom in nearly two years because senior year of high school I was online the entire time. The shock of college for myself and others, was immediate and overwhelming.
I ended up changing my major from Biochemistry to English, a complete switch but this was a choice driven by my two years in insolation. My tastes in music, clothing, and career choices had drastically changed. What made my burnout in the Fall of 2021 inevitable was my denial of this change I had undergone. I was a different person and my interests and ways of coping had also changed. Accepting this helped me get my life back. Moreover, another issue for me was learning to carry on my stamina into the Spring Semester. Every college student knows that the Spring semester is far more draining than the Fall because we all just want it to be over. But there is a way to succeed and it starts with building healthy habits in the Fall. Here is what I did to avoid burnout and why it worked for me.
therapy
During my overwhelming freshman year, I sought therapy independently for the first time in my life. This was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Going to therapy helped me find liberation in my struggle because as my anxieties were verbalized, I experienced a new profound outlook on my life. Furthermore, having someone who wasn’t attached to me and wasn’t involved personally in my struggles, allowed me to feel comfortable being vulnerable. My therapist guided me to learn to help myself. With their help, I was able to identify unhealthy patterns of behavior, toxic relationships I had been in for years, and trauma I had no idea was affecting my school life. We worked on taking responsibility for my own life, learning to be uncomfortable, and most importantly how to avoid crashing.
Study Groups
As someone with ADHD, studying for more than an hour is tiresome because I struggle to keep my mind focused. Even if I want to study, my body is unable to keep up focus and maintain interest in whatever subject I am working on. One of the things I have found helps, and is great to maintain throughout both semesters, is a study group. When there are other people supporting you, it makes staying on task much easier and the collective energy put forth is transferable from person to person. People need people, and college students need study groups! Sitting down with a group of my friends three to four times a week for a couple of hours helped me maintain my schedule and establish a routine within my school life that drastically encouraged academic growth.
You can do it
Over the past few years, I have worked to learn to accomplish my goals without over-relying on others. Growing up, my dependency on others made it hard for me to have a deviation in my life schedule and routine. I just recently turned twenty-two and ever since I turned twenty, I have been working to be both mentally and physically independent and healthy. One of the wonderful things age has brought me is perspective and wisdom. I have learned that I am capable of doing hard things, and that often I do need to make sacrifices to be successful. By sacrifices, I don’t mean studying for ten hours straight and never going out with friends. I mean the will to change and accept this. There are some people, habits, and things in your life that aren’t serving you. Amidst my struggles Fall of 2021, I was able to come to peace with two things I couldn’t in my teenage years: change is inevitable and aging doesn’t mean my life is over. I have loved being in my early twenties. The healing and clarity I have experienced has changed my life for the better and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. Burnout, while unpleasant, does happen and the society we live in doesn’t facilitate recovery in any way. Finding community and peace within yourself is one of the most rebellious and liberating acts you can do to prevent burnout. Know that struggle under capitalism isn’t your fault and that your mental health is worth talking about and healing. Stay healthy and always seek help when you need it.