College Anxiety and Burnout: The Silent Pressure in College Life
- Wisdom Kemakolam
- Aug 24
- 3 min read
Picture this. It’s 2 a.m. Your laptop screen is glowing, your eyes are burning, and you’re on your fourth YouTube video, desperately trying to see if miracles do exist, with 5 hours to a potentially life-ending exam. The group chat is dead silent, but Instagram is alive with people who seem to have their lives together. They just aced their Calc 2 exam; he just landed a crazy Meta internship; she’s building nice muscles from gym routines; he’s having matcha with a bunch of friends, and well, sprinkles in occasional brain rot scrolling too.
And then there’s you- running on caffeine, anxiety, and the fear of falling behind, not just in this looming final exam, but life in general.
Sounds all too familiar, right?
The Race We Didn’t Sign Up For
Honestly, college often feels less like a learning journey and more like a never-ending, ever-evolving race, which can lead to college anxiety and burnout for many students. A race for grades. A race to seize opportunities. A race to prove you’re “doing enough.” You know the worst part? Everyone else often seems to have a rulebook they follow, but we look down at our own hands, empty.
This pressure can be invisible. No one sees you panicking over an exam or crying quietly in your dorm room. Your caring parents don’t know that their bright-eyed boy or brilliant baby girl doesn’t have the slightest clue if they’re making the right decision for their future every day.
Your friends don’t know just how scared you are to keep doing this- to keep groping around in the dark without even a ray of sunlight from anywhere to guide you.
Yet the pressure doesn’t relent. It whispers on and on: “You’re behind. Everyone else is ahead. You are not enough.”
Understanding College Anxiety and Burnout: Why It Happens
What you’re feeling isn’t just you. Stress, anxiety, and burnout are collective experiences most students share, but don’t always talk about. Poor mental health isn’t a “you” problem; it is a real, human thing we all deal with in different ways.
The problem is, so many of us try to handle it in silence. We bottle it up, pretending we’re okay while we’re running ourselves into the ground.
Because, somehow, our upbringing and our values demand we suck it up and push on like a highway truck running on fumes. Because somehow the race can’t be run by the tired?...
Why Mental Health Matters Here and Now
Think of it like this: you wouldn’t run a marathon without water, right? Then why do we try to survive college without mental rest? Good mental health should go hand in hand with success. You don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.
Taking care of your mental health is not a feminine thing, or a Western civilization thing, or a “weak person” thing. It is not cowardly to admit that you’re struggling. It is strength. It means that you’re aware that it’s almost impossible to do it on your own, and more importantly, you don’t have to. It means you love yourself and your dreams enough to seek help to get you both to your future, safe and unscathed.
Where Mental Aid Comes In
That’s why Mental Aid exists. We’re a student-run NGO built on one belief: you are not alone in this.
We’re here to raise awareness, to normalize talking about mental health, and to remind every student that needing help doesn’t make you “less.” It makes you human- someone who refuses to give up on themselves.
Our team isn't made up of fancy, high-end therapists who only listen to you if you can afford a $100-per-hour rate. We’re just regular students, like you, who happen to know firsthand how chaotic things can get for all of us.
Through our blogs, events, and resources, we want to keep the conversation alive, push back against stigma, and create a space where students can breathe, learn, and heal.
Final Word: You Don’t Have to Win the Race
College isn’t about outrunning everyone else—it’s about finding your pace, protecting your peace, and remembering that your worth isn’t tied to your grades, productivity, or social status, even though society can make it seem that way sometimes.
Life is the Great Surprise Planner, so understand NOW does not mean FOREVER.
Take it one step at a time. Check on yourself, check on your friends, and remember: help is always here, and so are we.
Stay tuned for more posts from Mental Aid. This is just the start.