Many of those same students report that freshman classes are exceptionally difficult and impossible to succeed in, yet by their senior year they're performing at significantly higher levels with relative ease. I think they report their lower division classes as being way too difficult because those classes represent their earliest experiences with course work that is genuinely challenging and they're simply not accustomed to that level of challenge, so they perceive it as extreme. I suspect the same phenomenon contributes to their self perceived "emotional health." They view their experiences as especially emotionally difficult because they're experiencing performance anxiety, outside the context of family and extended family support, for the first times in their lives. That doesn't necessarily make them less emotionally healthy than normal-- it just makes them more aware of their predicament, which they interpret as severe emotional distress.

I'm also cynical about the motives of universities in addressing these issues. In my experience, the primary motivation is usually preventing students from leaving the university, i.e. to prevent the loss of their revenue and to inflate graduation rates.

But the article is discussing the trend over a long period of time. The classes did not suddenly become more difficult in 2014.

[font size=4]It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

-Jiddu Krishnamurti[/font size]

I would do anything that I could to lift that cloud from her.

She has always been a great student (but not as good as she wanted to be - she's a perfectionist). She was in the Cambridge Program in high school (her own idea, and she compiled the application and essays required). That's a high school program higher than Honors, and gears HS freshmen up to take AP classes for their last 2 years of high school.

She entered college with 18 credits, and her Freshman semester made the Dean's list. The semester after that, she was inducted into the Russian Honor Society. Forward to her Junior year, and this last semester she just blew off 2 classes (Russian) after Nov 1 and we didn't know what was wrong. Now, she had recently lost 2 friends to a fatal car accident, and, always the responsible one, she babysat 2 falling down drunk friends, having to call the paramedics on one because she was exhibiting signs of alcohol poisoning -- that all happened the week before she started blowing off the classes. She's been diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder, possibly on/off since Sr. year in high school.

Right now, we're looking for a dr. she feels comfortable with and keeping watch over her because she had mentioned that she had some suicidal ideation. For the family, it is like walking on eggshells, except that you don't know where those eggshells are located, or like I told someone that it felt like I'm walking through a dark room and someone blew my candle out.