TL;DR
College is a weird fucking time. You're expected to keep up with classes, make friends, become independent, figure out who you are, and somehow know what you want to do with the rest of your life. Therapy can give you a place to sort through all of it without another person telling you what you should be doing. We offer therapy for college students in Athens/Watkinsville and online throughout Georgia.
Therapy for college students in Athens, GA
I just feel like I'm crashing out all the time.
There's something very perplexing about the modern structure of adolescence, where you spend four years in high school being told to grow up and know your place at the same time. Then, at the ripe age of 18, you enter college and somehow you're supposed to just function like an adult. Wdym I can't legally buy alcohol yet, but I'm expected to choose a major and decide what I want to do with the rest of my life?
Crashing out right now is valid. This shit is overwhelming for most people. And when it looks like everyone around you is handling it better than you are, remember that you're mostly seeing the parts they let you see. Come to therapy and we'll work through it together.
I can't keep up with school. I can't make myself go to class. I'm sleeping too much.
Ok, look. Elder millennial here. Admittedly, this wasn't something I experienced yesterday. And I didn't have to go to college in a post-COVID society. You're grappling with a very different world than we have ever experienced.
Feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, unmotivated, or even a little lost makes sense. But when you're sleeping through class, falling further behind, or finding that you just can't make yourself do the things you know you need to do, we don't have to write it off as “college is hard.” We can figure out what's getting in the way and what might actually make things feel more manageable.
I don't know when I get to make my own decisions and when I still need to ask my parents.
This one is a fair conundrum. I can't exactly tell you, “fuck your parents, do what you want,” when they're paying your rent, your car insurance, and your phone bill. Methinks it wouldn't end well.
In the same breath, this is an important time for learning how to set boundaries, practice assertive communication (not aggressive, there's a difference!), and explore what you actually want. Independence doesn't have to happen all at once.
I know what I want to study. My parents want me to study something else.
Again, at the end of the day, it's not as simple as just “set boundaries with your parents.” Boundaries require safety and empowerment, and you may not be there yet. You and I will work together to identify what the expectations actually are, where your personal values land, and where the discrepancy is between the two. Then we look at how to navigate that difference in a way that makes sense for you.
Everyone else seems to have sex and relationships figured out. I feel behind.
Social media has created a really vivid example of how much people tend to curate what they show others. Look at the last selfie you posted. How many did you take before you chose that one? We all know this exists, but sometimes it's hard to remember in the face of offline daily life.
The hard truth is that sex and relationships are confusing for most people. Add in the fact that your frontal lobe is still developing and we're in for a wild ride. Together, we'll navigate what you want relationships to look like, what healthy, consensual sex looks like, and what makes sense for you as you navigate this new chapter.
I feel like I should know what I'm doing with my life by now.
Fun fact: I went to college wanting to do basically what I do now, and chose psychology as my major. I hated it. This was pretty shocking for me, and rather than exploring other kinds of social sciences (like social work, where I eventually landed), I changed my major to English.
When I graduated, I was working in the customer service department at Kroger and considering a master's in business. The point is, if the choices I made at 19 were as concrete as they felt at the time, I might be in a very different place today.
The shoulds that keep getting in your way don't have nearly as much power as you think they do.