Anxiety in College Students

By Mandi Kerr

JRN 400

Jessica Watt is a senior

at Michigan State University.

She experiences college like the thousands of students she goes to school with.

Except that she does it with a

Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Jessica writes in her planner every day and makes lists of tasks she has to

complete to manage her time and keep her anxiety at a minimum.

She exercises as often as she can to reduce her stress. For her, that means running, walking or occasionally, yoga.

Watt made this last year for a creative process class. She had to choose a topic that was important to her. She picked anxiety. To her it means, “Don’t be afraid

to take a chance even if you’re nervous or scared to do something.”

She took a leap and built her wings on the way down.

Through the process of writing this article, Jessica taught me about anxiety.

She taught me,

How to cope with stress.

How to manage my time.

This is my daily planner.

I sat up at night thinking about what I had to accomplish to finish this article.

Then I thought of Jessica and what she did to cope with her anxiety.

“Sometimes you need to do mindless things to turn your brain off.”

Not only did Jessica teach me that watching TV could be beneficial, but that even if you don’t have a diagnosed anxiety disorder,

you can use the same techniques to cope with your stress.