Final answer:
Depression among college students is influenced by various conditions, including high aspirations, fear of failure, and loss of support systems, which can lead to memory and thinking impairments impacting academic performance and emotional wellness.
Step-by-step explanation:
Depression Among College Students
Conditions that contribute to depression among college students include having high aspirations with little prior experience with failure, lacking basic skills necessary for academic success while fearing failure, and students leaving their support groups behind. All of these conditions collectively contribute to college student depression. When stress hormones are raised due to depression, it interferes with healthy neuron development, leading to potential brain shrinkage, thus impacting the student's memory and thinking. This, in turn, can lead to a lack of focus, being easily distracted, struggling to learn new skills, impaired reasoning and decision-making abilities. Factors like increased tuitions, debt, difficulty finding employment post-graduation, and the transition to a more self-directed learning environment with less monitoring add to the stress, exacerbating feelings of depression.
Moving away from home to attend college sometimes results in leaving behind familiar social supports, which can leave students vulnerable to feelings of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. The combination of these psychological attributes can predict heart disease more strongly than any individual variable. Symptoms of depression in college students can be short- or long-term and impact student attendance, performance, and overall wellness. Treatments for depression include psychotherapy, medication, and lifestyle changes, aimed to address the decreased neurotransmission of norepinephrine and serotonin associated with depressive states.