Something’s happening this year. College students are struggling more than ever with anxiety and depression (yet not so much with drugs/alcohol) but the one issue that’s truly concerning is how their motivation has been so depleted.

When I ask my clients to list their stressors, they increasingly talk about poor job prospects, fear related to COVID, and ongoing conflict and uncertainty in the country. These college students are starting to feel hopeless. They’re being hit from so many directions and are unprepared for dealing with hard things. I’ve written for years (and within my book) about how our society is not role modeling and preparing kids to be gritty and work through challenges. The lack of distress tolerance combined with a genuinely stressful time means college students are at their most vulnerable positions and don’t have a safety net or a clear path through the chaos.

What can we do?

Parents can focus less on grades and more on the process (e.g. studying). Keeping our sights on near-term and more measurable action steps can get us through hard times. Clinicians can encourage students to break big goals (e.g. getting an internship) into more manageable steps with observable progress. We are all in unchartered territory. College students are in the weird gray area between kid and adult so let’s make sure to not assume everything is ok.