Nerdify reviews team is sure about one thing: studying is, probably, the best experience you could ever have. But you guys, let’s be honest – learning is also the most challenging trial to come through. It is not a secret that diligent studying implies overcoming a number of barriers, including emotional ones. Eventually, you feel exhausted and even sick!

Take a helping hand with this tutorial from Nerdify reviews team, which has been written especially for you — the one who cares about own emotional well-being and seeks to preserve health for years to come!

Top-5 Emotional Challenges Facing Students

There’s a bunch of emotional challenges that students encounter during their studies. But I’ve prepared a list of the most common ones for being forewarned is being forearmed.

Depression

Depression is quite a common condition in learners. A recent study suggests that around 30% of college students report being “so depressed that it was difficult to function” at least once during their studies. Evidently, it’s high time to sound alarmed, since depression is connected to suicide, the second leading cause of death among people aged 15-34 years.

Fighting depression starts with understanding signs and symptoms:

1.You aren’t getting things done at college/work.

2. You retract from doing enjoyable activities.

3. You feel unable to concentrate.

4. You rely on alcohol and sedatives.

5. You feel unhappy, disappointed, and miserable: thoughts like “I’m a failure”, “I’m worthless”, “My family/friends would be better off without me” become common.

If you have one or more of these symptoms, there’s probably a need to learn more about depression and take decisive actions against the condition.

Fortunately, there’s a number of ways to treat depression. The common ones are: medication, therapy (e.g., cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, and grief therapy), lifestyle changes: diet, regular physical exercises, and enough sleep can do wonders with your wellbeing!

Anxiety

Anxiety is another problem facing college students, while its rates are truly alarming. According to recent findings,  one in five college students has anxiety, depression, or both.

When in college, we see our life-changing at an astonishing speed! But it’s not the only reason for feeling anxious. Research findings indicate that college students spend too much of their time on social media platforms, and become addicted to their mobile phones, which leads to anxiety.

The study of Adams and Kissler (2013) found that 50% of college students woke up at night to answer a text message. The same study discovered an inverse relationship between the amount of sleep and the level of stress.

You’re likely to have anxiety if you:

1.Feel overly worried about your past, present, or future.

2. Feel apprehensive.

3. Have a feeling of powerlessness or worthlessness.

4. Have difficulty concentrating or remembering things.

You can learn more about the symptoms of anxiety here. In the meantime, keep in mind that treatment of anxiety is not as difficult as it may seem at first glance, and it includes:

1.Easing up on caffeine. Once you’ve made a commitment to ease up on caffeine, check the list of foods, since coffee and soda aren’t the only things containing this “anxious” ingredient;  

2. Scheduling “worry sessions”. It may sound crazy, but you should give time to thinking over things that make you mad.  Spending 30 minutes a day reflecting on the issues that bother you or make you stressed is more productive than feeling anxious all the time;

3. Breathing deep. Deep breathing signals your brain that you are OK. Try simple breathing exercises to boost your well-being;

4. Changing lifestyle. Eating healthy food, doing physical exercises, having enough rest and sleep are the best gifts for your mind and body!    

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are prevalent and persistent among college students. In fact, it is not surprising because young people seek to be attractive, and may resort to radical methods to look nice. One study suggests that eating disorders “are characterized by behaviors aiming to achieve or maintain slim body shape; great importance is given to thinness as a requisite of self-esteem.”

While many students use the notions of thinness and fitness interchangeably, there’s nothing attractive about physical and mental exhaustion! 

So, you should consult a physician if you have one or several of these symptoms:

1.Ongoing dieting

2. Eating in secret

3. Self-induced vomiting

4. Eating to the point of discomfort or pain

You can learn more about the symptoms of eating disorders here. Understanding the problem will help you to plan a conversation with the health provider in a way to come up with an effective treatment intervention.

Some interventions that apply to treat eating disorders are as follows: intensive inpatient care,  psychotherapy, family-based treatment, evidence-based treatment.

Of course, these are just some of the treatment interventions that help college students to improve their physical health and emotional wellness by overcoming eating disorders.

Addiction

Students become addicted to quite many things, including drugs and alcohol. Addiction can destroy one’s life, so it’s high time to sound alarm if your friend has at least one of these symptoms:

1.Slurred speech or impaired coordination

2. Engagement in suspicious behaviors

3. A sudden need for money or financial crisis

4. Built tolerance for alcohol or other substances

5. A sudden change in friends and activities

6. Deterioration of physical appearance

Did you know that addiction has become a problem on campus? Recent findings suggest that 60% of college students have consumed alcohol in the past month, 21.3% of people ages 18 to 25 consumed illicit drugs, and 3.8% young people used psychotherapeutic drugs for non-medical purposes.

Fortunately, there are many places where a college student can find help when encountering the problem of addiction. First of all, consider consulting the following addiction resources:

• National Institute for Drug Abuse
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA)
• National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
• Narcotics Anonymous (NA)

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Everyone wants their body look nice and attractive, but an intrusive preoccupation with defects (often imagined) in one’s appearance is a sign of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

According to recent findings, BDD affects 1.7% to 2.4% of the general population. In young people, BDD is associated with a range of negative consequences, including school dropout.

It is time to consult a healthcare provider if you notice the following signs of BDD:

1.Camouflaging with clothing, makeup, hats, etc.

2. Constant comparison of body parts with others’ appearance

3. Avoiding mirrors or, on the contrary, constant checking in the mirror

4. Excessive grooming or exercising

5. Skin picking

Many students need help to overcome BDD. Fortunately, there is a range of treatment options: cognitive-behavioral therapy,  family-based therapy, antidepressant medication.

Also, students with BDD can find help by consulting the following BDD resources:

• Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation.
• International OCD Foundation.
• Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA)
• National Institutes of Health.
• Teens Health.   

In this tutorial, Nerdify reviews team tried to present a comprehensive list of mental health disorders, symptoms, and treatment interventions. However, in no way we want this guideline to substitute actual treatment! So, every time you notice one or several warning signs, consulting your physician is the best decision you can take!

Halloween is so old, we are not even sure who started celebrating it first. It probably began in Celtic speaking countries (modern United Kingdom) and has originated from ancient harvest rituals and the celebration of the Celtic New Year, which Celts believed to be a magical time, when the dead would “sneak in” from the spirit-realm and wander around the Earth, like so 😉 Celts used to lit huge bonfires to drive the dead spirits away.

When Romans invaded Britain, roughly 2000 years ago, they’ve merged this holiday with their own – Feralia (Roman festival celebrating the dead and deceased). It is interesting to note that other cultures, halfway around the globe, also celebrated their dead at this time of the year. For example – Day of the Dead in Mexico (Dia de Muertos). Last Bond movie portrays this holiday in the opening scene.

Merging these two traditions (evil spirits walking the streets and celebrating the dead) has given the modern Halloween such a colorful and playful character.

What is “trick or treat”?

Again, several versions on this one. Probably comes from a tradition from the medieval times, when poor would go from door to door asking for food or money in exchange for prayers honoring the dead (since Halloween was about celebrating the people who passed away).

Another version comes from an ancient belief that souls of the dead were wondering around in the night and needed to be appeased. Giving gifts and/or food was a way of doing that.

Halloween came to the USA during the immigration wave from Ireland and England in the late nineteenth century. It quickly became a popular holiday all across the USA.

Today, we celebrate Halloween as an opportunity to unwind and laugh, play jokes on our colleagues and have a good time. That’s precisely why Halloween has spread across the world – everyone can have fun in their own way.

Since sweet treats are such a big part of Halloween, we’d like to share an absolutely insane looking witch finger cookies recipe with you. It blew our minds at the office, made our celebrations that tiny bit more exciting 🙂 Enjoy!

P.S. Oh, right! We wanted to show you the real monster living at Nerdify 🙂 Well, here it is:

Yep, we have a giant spider living inside our office! This adorable beauty is called Nick (weird name for a spider, I know). That’s a tarantula and, theoretically, it can eat a small bird or a mouse! In reality, though, Nick is really shy and actually quite lazy. Pretty much sits all day in the corner and kills an unfortunate bug once a week (that part is exciting to watch). We have him in the office to keep our Nerds “on the edge” if you know what I mean 😛

Happy Halloween everyone!

It’s been a hell of a year for Nerdify. We’ve helped a record number of students this year and we’ve doubled in size (hooray!). But the New Year is on the horizon… Which brings us to the question of how we can celebrate it? Certainly, most of us will be celebrating it with our friends and family, but what if you want to do something special this year?
We’ve created a list of five creative ways how you can celebrate this New Year, check it out, maybe there’s something in this list that you may wanna try 😉

1. Visit real Santa

That means going to Finland. Yes, that’s not exactly a half an hour ride from your house, but bear with me, there are lots of awesome things you can do once you get there.

Finland has a fantastic national travel-website that has already collected all the main adventures Finland is famous about:

* You can go on a husky ride through the snowy forest (one of our Nerds actually did that – said it’s super cold, so make sure you bring warm clothes and some vodka with you. You gonna need it).
* You can check out beautiful auroras in the night sky (those are free of charge, thank you solar winds, yay!)
* You can go Gold panning (this is a perfect activity for kids – they get to collect their own GOLD, how cool is that?!).
* Cruise on an Icebreaker (and see real polar bears on little icebergs, oh… so cute 🙂
* And, obviously – see the real Santa Claus (that’s what New Year is all about, right?)
And much more actually. In Finland, you truly feel special during the New Year. You indeed think that miracles can happen during this special night, it’s absolutely magical.

2. Celebrate New Year following traditions from another country.

Just a few examples for you, of the crazy shenanigans people do across the world during the New Years Eve:

* In Burma people splash buckets of water on each other to “start New Year with a clean soul”. They certainly can do that in Burma, because it is quite hot during the New Year. I suspect that wouldn’t really work somewhere in Canada, now would it? 😉
* In Russia, people write their wishes on a piece of paper, then set it on fire in a glass. When only ashes remain – they pour champagne into the glass and drink it “bottoms up” before midnight. That way your wish will come true in the following year. For additional tips on how to “Party Like a Russian” we suggest you check out the Robbie Williams video-guide.
* In Italy, Argentina and Bolivia it is a common tradition to wear colorful underwear. It is believed that it will bring luck, love and prosperity to the one who’s wearing either red, pink or yellow underwear 🙂 What can we say, those folks are definitely not boring 🙂
* In South Africa and Peru, people tend to get more violent. In Johannesburg, South Africa, it is common to throw old appliances out of the window. That way locals “step into the new year leaving old things behind”. While in Peru it is common to have a fist fight with a person you have a grudge on. That way you can “wipe the slate clean” before the New Year.

Just make sure none of these local traditions get you in jail. As far as we can tell, no country has a tradition celebrating New Year’s Eve in jail 🙂

3. Be real Santa Claus.

Why not create some miracles yourself? You can be the master of the night by putting on a Santa Claus costume and grabbing a red bag full of goodies. Better still – gather a group of like-minded crazy people who will do a flash mob of Santas in the center of the city. You can build a huge snowman and give away presents and sweets to passers-by or baking a cookie that’s gonna crush the Guinness world record. Let your imagination go wild!

4. Outdoors

Being outdoors on the New Year’s Eve is also exciting. Imagine skiing in the mountains during the night.. Isn’t it magical? Alternatively, you can go full bananas and go camping in the forest. Greeting the New Year under the stars with a glass of champagne and a loved one. Romantic… but also quite chilly so make sure you have a heating pad with you or something. Getting a cold is not part of the plan here!

5. Do some charity-work

New Year is also a great time to think about those who are less fortunate than we are. What kind of a miracle would it be, if you could dress as a Santa and visit a local orphanage and give presents or sweets to the ones in need. Donate to the homeless shelter. Or visit a local animal shelter and adopt a puppy.

Remember, New Year is the time of miracles. It’s the only time when the whole world is celebrating, so why not do something special this time? 😉

Nerdify will be back with you next year to continue doing what it does best – helping students achieve their academic goals all across the world. Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you!