Majoring in Anxious

Anxiety is skyrocketing in young people around the globe and, if it can gain broader acceptance, hypnosis may hold the keys to reversing the trend.

From exams to high-pressure social lives, college students deal with a lot of things that can lead to anxiety. In 2007, one study found that about 22 percent of college students were dealing with anxiety. A 2015 analysis by Psychology Today magazine put the number at just over 50 percent. A 2020 survey by the Jed Foundation found that when you throw in the pandemic, economic downturn, racial unrest, and everything else going on in the world and the number of students experiencing anxiety skyrocketed to 82 percent. That’s almost a four-fold increase since 2007. The survey also found that 63 percent of college students say their mental health is worse now than before the pandemic.

“Students from small or remote communities may be even more at risk,” explained Randy Hampton, a Master Hypnotist at Hawaii Hypnosis Center. “The social isolation of the pandemic has a much more dramatic effect on rural students, international students, and those who lack a strong personal social structure.”

Hampton encourages parents and students to examine the resources available through university health or mental health services. Unfortunately when campuses closed or went fully remote, many of those resources became harder to find. One option available is to seek the help of a professional hypnotist who can help students achieve goals of stress reduction, self-adequacy, and better control of emotions.

Parents who find their once-stellar student coming home with a less than stellar outlook on college and life are encouraged to talk with the family physician and any trusted counselors but if time is short to turn things around and get a student back on track, Hampton says hypnosis can offer big returns in a short time frame.

“Hypnosis can provide that sense of stability and stress relief that can make a difference in getting students feeling more solid and optimistic with resources they can use to get them through the upcoming semester,” Hampton said.

Being trained to practice self hypnosis can maximize a student’s ability to slow down anxious thoughts and recognize that much of what is happening in the world doesn’t require their attention or their immediate intervention. While social and traditional media are frequently used to stir up outrage and anxiety, they can have a tremendous negative impact if a student doesn’t have the ability to balance the input with some more grounded reality.