An article in The New York Times offers some explanations
and advice, stating that a lot of anxiety comes from being educated and
jobless, it also mentions that as of 2009 we are in one of the worst job markets
since the Great Depression. Even if you
put yourself through college, and don’t have the extra guilt of costing your
parents for school, the mounting debt of your education can also take its
toll. Even with a decent job the
pressure is there to find a career that utilizes and even better yet pays you
for your degree.
The Huffington Posts writes how recent grads are going from
frustration to clinical depression, and while they seem to focus on college
students living from home who have problems reverting to life with mom and dad,
the loss of freedom they experienced in a dorm, and handling increased
expectations, they do acknowledge the reduced job prospects and increasing college debt that would affect
all graduates.
It makes sense for a graduate who lived at home with mom and
dad, went to a dorm, and had a completely different life to have some anxiety about
a complete life change but what about college graduates that have been out on
their own, paying their way without the help of mom and dad, and working their
way through school. They don’t have the
sudden acclimation to deal with but they do have a mountain of debt, and
decreased employment opportunities, and they are also finding career paths and
future educations ambitions blocked by financial challenges or economic
concerns.
So keep an eye out for a recent graduate who seems
depressed, negative, lethargic, or distracted, you could try offering an
observation in a nonjudgmental manner and perhaps let them know it is not all that
uncommon to feel the way they do, especially if they are unemployed or in a low
paying job, have serious financial stress or both. You could add the reminder that having an
education puts them one step above those that do not and for those obtaining a
graduate level degree they are now among a very small percent of the country
with less than ten percent obtaining a graduate level degree.
Another critical issue is goal setting, a graduate student
has a clear goal, once that goal is achieved it is time to set a new goal, a
healthy mix of attainable goals and challenging goals lends purpose to life and
can help graduates feel like they have a purpose. Don't forget to write your goals down, look at them, and revisit them, and most of all, don't be afraid to revise them as needed!
According to igrad there are a few tips that can help graduates
cope, Jot down three happy occurrences everyday, write your stress away, techniques
for this can be found in the article “Write Your Stress Away: The Miraculous
Question." Look for the silver lining, force
yourself to look for the positive coming out of a situation, it might not be
easy but there is something good to be found, search until you find it. Start Anywhere, detach yourself from the
bigger picture so that you can focus on smaller tasks, take it “One Day at a
Time.” Don’t fight the feeling,
acknowledge the feeling, think about why or the root of the feeling, then let
it go, and set a goal to defeat the root.
Reframe failure, a life changer, it states we are too attached to
perfection, and often what we perceive as a failure is in our perception! One
person could consider an accomplishment a failure because it was not achieved
on a personally set level, yet another person would consider it a great
achievement, we are often either too hard on ourselves or not hard enough, how
do we find the balance.
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