10 Free Mental Health Resources for College Students
Trigger warning for mentions of self harm, suicide, trauma, and mental illness. If you are experiencing an emergency, please stop reading and call your local emergency number. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, again please stop reading and call one of your country’s crisis lines. Lastly, keep in mind that I am not a mental health professional, just someone who deals with a lot of mental illness.
Introduction
Hello everyone! I don’t know how long it’s been since I talked about mental health but I thought month 11 of lockdown was a pretty good time to share some free mental health resources with you. Before I start, I’d also like to mention that as a little bonus, I created symptom trackers that can be found in my free resource library. If you want something with some more mental health help, I also sell a low cost digital planner with a focus on mental/chronic illness management and faith for Christians in my Etsy.
University Counseling and Psych Services
Every university has it’s own kind of psychological services. Many offer events and programs to learn more about healthy coping skills or how to manage general mental illness symptoms. In addition to that, most universities have individual and group therapy. While every university is different, they at least have the bare minimum available to you for free or at a very low cost. As far as the quality and length of these mental health resources, every university has a different policy so make sure to check out yours. Who knows? Your college may even offer more than I mentioned.
Assuming you’re a college student, another benefit to going through CAPS for free mental health resources is that they can connect you to programs and treatments you may not be aware of. While those may end up costing you, this is INVALUABLE when it comes to the (US) medical system. This is the easiest way to find great doctors, medications, therapists, treatments, and other options in your area that are also affordable.
Disability Resource Center (DRC)
In addition to basic psychological services, all colleges have a DRC. Many people work with the DRC to get testing accommodations or interpreters, for example. However, there are certain mental illnesses and neurological disorders that may also require accommodations because of the massive role it plays in your life. As someone who uses accommodations, I’m not gonna lie: it’s life-changing. Here’s a list of some examples of situations that might benefit from working with someone at their DRC:
- Panic attacks that are causing you to miss class or not participate as a result of your anxiety
- A manic episode that leads to your very wise (sarcastic) decision to not do any of your assignments on time
- A condition or symptom that makes you function poorly with strangers/others in general and leads you to needing a dorm by yourself
- Severe depression symptoms that can be aided by an emotional support animal
When you have the right documentation, these are all things you can receive accommodations for and usually must receive in order for professors/administration to respect your needs (without them, it looks like you’re just trying to get extra time for no reason). Just make sure you have all of your documentation because without it they won’t be able to help you.
7 Cups
I, personally, have never used 7 Cups and have read that it can sometimes be hit or miss. However, if you are in need of free mental health resources, this one is definitely a good place to start. Through 7 Cups, you can speak anonymously with others going through similar things for peer support and read self-help guides as well speak to a volunteer listener at any time. They do offer low-cost paid therapy, too, if that’s something you’re interested in.
Therapy Assistance Online (TAO)
The reason why I’m bringing up TAO is because many (unfortunately not all) universities have a partnership with TAO that allows you to use its program for free. If you already have a therapist, this can be something you use in addition to or without your therapist to give you that little extra oomph before your next appointment. However, it can also be used as a self-guided tool. Another cool thing about TAO, is that they have research supporting their work that shows just how big of an impact its program can make. If you want the technical terms for what they do, their programs use a variety of techniques based in mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, positive psychology, and more.
NAMI
Most cities and states have a NAMI branch. In addition to being a great educational resource on mental illness, they also hold weekly support groups where you can meet others struggling with their mental health in your area. As a university sponsored club, they host awareness events, support groups for students only, and fun get-togethers where you don’t have to worry about your panic attack freaking someone out!
Sanvello
This is an app I discovered in doing research for free mental health resources for college students. While they do have a lot of paid options, many U.S. insurance plans actually make it free. So, if you qualify, yay! Additionally, there is a free plan for self-help/mental wellness use. Regardless of what plan they were using, the reviews spoke very highly of this app so I knew I had to include it.
Kati Morton
In my own very not-professional opinion, I believe Kati Morton to be the best licensed therapist on youtube. She has educational resources on a wide variety of conditions and even has videos that teach coping skills for specific symptoms that can be scary without any prior knowledge or experience. This is one of the free mental health resources in this list that is mostly for education, but very helpful nonetheless.
Insight Timer
I’ve mentioned this app in previous posts about mental health, but I still cannot say enough good things about them. This is the first meditation app I’ve used that doesn’t only have meditations that make me dissociate and leave me unable to ground myself. They have a really wide variety and I find a lot of their most popular sleep meditations are amazing mental health resources for long nights.
Bliss
This is another mental health resource that I discovered while doing research. It’s very similar to TAO from what I can tell and also has lots of evidence to support it. Bliss is a free eight session interactive computerized cognitive behavioral therapy toolkit for depression. CIMHS (not gonna write it out, can’t remember) is also a not-for-profit organization based in Canada that strong believes in providing effective, accessible, and confidential care.
Crisis Lines
In every mental health post I write, I mention the international list of hotlines I have on my disclaimers page. If you are currently experiencing an emergency, please call 911 or your local emergency number. I’d also like to mention that crisis lines are not just for people who are considering suicide or who have attempted suicide. Of course, you shouldn’t call because you’re bored as most are in need of more volunteers. However, if you find yourself unsure of what to do during a really severe panic attack with no one to help or struggling to keep yourself from self-harming, there is no shame in reaching out. Crisis lines are here for you, too.
Conclusion
I hope you and your friends find this to be a helpful guide while you’re in college. Of course, none of these resources are perfect and there are many other free mental health resources that I didn’t talk about! Let me know if you have other favorites in the comments below. See ya next time!
