It is very important to seek professional help when mental illness becomes a health killer for overseas students in Britain.

　　China Overseas Chinese Network September 2, according to the British UK-Chinese Times report, China has become the largest international source country for British universities. When a large number of China students start to live in a foreign country, they may not realize that psychological problems will become killers on their way to study in the future. Research shows that China students are more vulnerable to mental illness because of language and cultural differences.

　　Mental Health of Neglected International Students

　　Annie is a graduate student majoring in media in Leeds. Before that, she studied English as an undergraduate in China. Annie has been under great psychological pressure since she came to England this year. She said that as soon as she started school, she asked her tutor for advice, saying that she had no relevant professional knowledge and was worried that she would not be able to produce good works. In the following year, this kind of pressure has been with her. Every time she shoots a work and writes a paper, Annie becomes restless. She said that during that time, she would refuse to eat and chat with her friends until she submitted her homework.

　　Sylvia is also an international student from China in the UK. After breaking up with her lover, she fell into depression. Sylvia told reporters that she was used to the life accompanied by someone. After breaking up, she suddenly became alone, and her loneliness intensified. She felt that everything had no motivation and passion. "She often cried for no reason and her emotions were out of her control."

　　Learning and emotion are two obstacles that college students must face. If they are not handled well, they may cause psychological diseases. If depression gets worse and you don’t seek medical advice in time, it may even lead to extreme consequences.

　　Earlier, The Mirror reported that Daisy Ho, a 20-year-old Hong Kong student in the second year of education and sociology at Cardiff University, committed suicide. Before she committed suicide, she sent a message to a friend on Facebook and said, "I don’t want to live, I don’t want to breathe." According to the investigation, she has been struggling with depression for many years, feeling excluded from society and failing in life. In a short message before her death, she wrote: "It’s five minutes before midnight. If I don’t contact you within five hours, it means I’ve left." She finally chose to end her life.

　　Mental illness has become a killer in British universities.

　　In 2018, the British Bureau of Statistics published the "Suicide Data of British College Students" for the first time since 1950. The data shows that from July 2017 to July 2018, 95 British college students committed suicide.

　　In 2018, there were 10 student suicides in Bristol University, which even provoked student demonstrations to protest the school’s inaction on students’ mental health.

　　According to a study by the Royal College of Psychiatry, today’s students are at higher risk of suffering from anxiety and depression than the previous generation. The reason for this phenomenon may be that compared with the previous generation, today’s students are not fully prepared for studying, bear higher learning debts and face more bleak job prospects.

　　Last year, the British government issued an ultimatum to all universities in Britain, warning to pay attention to the mental health problems of college students. Samuel Gemma, British Minister of Higher Education, made it clear that the situation is urgent and British universities must take students’ mental health as an important task.

　　The British government is also trying to establish an "early warning system" to let parents know the danger of students when they encounter psychological problems.

　　Language and cultural differences have the greatest influence.

　　Li Man is a graduate student of clinical health psychology at the University of Clyde. She has been doing a qualitative study on the experience of international students in China and the influencing factors of happiness. Li Man said: The most important problem facing students in China is language.

　　Even though the language performance is very good, I still feel that there is a gap with native speakers academically, especially in writing and reading. This gap will, to some extent, make China students feel that their final grades are not fair enough. Because the unsatisfactory grades are caused by language rather than professional knowledge.

　　Besides language, cultural shock also has a great influence on mental health. The process of adapting to the new British culture is not easy. Including food, living habits, etc., and being far away from home, parents and friends is also easy to cause loneliness. This loneliness is likely to cause negative emotions or do some dangerous things, such as smoking, drinking and promiscuity.

　　Annie, the aforementioned foreign student, was in a particularly heavy mood after failing a class. She felt a little depressed. "I feel unbearable and the pressure is too great. I really don’t want to study and want to go home." She didn’t contact anyone for more than a month, and finally went back to China to chat with her parents, eat well and sleep well, and then went back to England to rewrite her paper.

　　Sylvia, on the other hand, said that she later made an international standard psychological test for depression on the Internet, with a score of 33, which showed that she was very likely to suffer from severe depression. Sylvia didn’t give up on herself, and immediately went to the doctor for consultation. At the same time, she also tried to chat with friends and travel together, and got better under active treatment.

　　The most important thing is that mental illness can’t be carried for help.

　　Dr. Liu Xi is a teacher in the School of Psychological Science and Health, University of Clyde. His current research focuses on the shame, self-stigma, knowledge and quality of mental health, attitude and behavior of seeking help of foreign students. He said that there are two reasons for paying attention to these aspects at present: first, existing studies show that mental health quality and knowledge, as well as sense of shame and self-stigma, are related to not seeking mental health help and not using mental health services;

　　Second, improving mental health quality and knowledge, as well as prevention or intervention projects with decontamination and naming elements are effective in protecting the mental health of international students and encouraging them to ask for help when they encounter problems.

　　He said that it is particularly important to seek reasonable professional help after discovering mental health problems.

　　Li Man told reporters that people don’t know enough about mental health problems such as low happiness. In particular, how to judge whether they need to seek help from professionals, most students in China are influenced by traditional thinking, and always feel that something will pass if they stand up. Personally, she strongly agrees that students choose to talk to friends or seek help from professionals when dealing with emotional problems.

　　She said: "It is a good way to talk to someone, and it is also simple and convenient. However, if you encounter serious problems and can’t solve them, it is recommended to seek the help of professionals, such as GP and psychological counselors. " A serious problem means that it has not been alleviated for a long time, or it has affected normal life. Li Man added: "Personally, it is a good idea to cry sometimes, which can relieve the pressure. But drinking this method is not recommended. " (Sun Xinyi)