Introduction

Sometimes in life, strange things happen. Say you learn a new word. Suddenly, that very
word starts appearing everywhere, and you think Surely this word wasnt so common before I
learned it! I would have noticed it by now if it were! Similarly, there are times when you feel
uneasy about something even while youre not entirely sure what youre uneasy about, and this
unease builds and builds until you feel like youre going to burst. Just when you cant take it
anymore, you find something. Or someone. Or someplace. You find something that tells you
exactly what you need to hear exactly when you need to hear it, and not a moment sooner. It was
an experience like this that led me to realize I have something called social anxiety.
Obviously, I had heard the term social anxiety before. I knew, generally, what it was,
but I never would have dreamed I might have itto me, social anxiety only applied to people
who are so petrified at the thought of interacting with others that they refuse to leave the safety
and seclusion of their homes. I always thought it was for the crazies, the truly extreme cases.
After all, social anxiety is a disorder. Its not for someone with friends and family they talk to
regularly, its not for someone who acted a large role in every play and musical her high school
put on, and its certainly not for someone who aspires to one day be a lawyer. Id always
rationalized that my own reluctance to try new things or attend the popular parties was just
laziness paired with extreme introversion.
After all, Ive always been awkward and introverted. A good friend of mine likes to refer
to me as The Queen of the Introverts. If you know me at all, youll know just how well that
title describes me. I first discovered the term introvert in high school, and I remember thinking
This is it. This explains why I am so different. There was an analogy used to explain the
difference between introverts and extroverts, and I still remember it well. Introverts feel that their

emotional battery is drained when they socialize and that it charges when they are on their
own, whereas it is the opposite with extroverts. However, this does not mean that introverts
dislike socializing, and I was delighted to realize there is nothing wrong with being an introvert
over an extrovert. I wasnt broken, as I used to worry.
While this introversion discovery explained a lot and saved me from constantly
worrying Is this normal? there were still questions that remained unanswered. Do other
introverts have to be warned at least a day in advance before having social events sprung on
them? Do other introverts panic when plans are sprung on them? Do other introverts worry about
an event for days before it actually happens? In class, do other introverts have to rehears their
answers several times in their heads before raising their hands? Do they have to be one hundred
percent be sure their answer is correct before they risk answering, for fear of being laughed at?
When visiting a new place, do other introverts have to research everything about it to make sure
they dont end up looking stupid? How many introverts let their shyness get in the way of them
living their life?
All of these fears were what I brought to college with me, and without answers, my social
anxiety continued to grow worse.
My low point came at the beginning of sophomore year. A friend was throwing a small
back-to-school get together in her apartment and I was invited. The apartment was further off
campus than I had ever been on my ownbut still close enough to walk and while I knew
roughly where it was and how to get there, I knew Id also have to wing it and see how things
looked when I got close. That in itself was terrifying, and was something I fretted over
ceaselessly in the days leading up to the party. Though I cant remember what it was (I think

perhaps I did everything I could to repress the memory of that night), I had some obligation that
day that led to me having to show up at the party late. Alone.
On shaky legs, I made my way over to this girls apartment, and by some miracle I found
it. But of course, when I tried to buzz in, nobody answered. I tried several of the other rooms, but
I got no response. My heart rate doubled. Was this the right building? Was this the right night?
Was this all some really elaborate joke to humiliate me? I checked my phone, looking at the
official Facebook event for the party. Everything seemed right.
Calling all of the friends I knew would be at the party, I desperately hoped that someone
would pick up. No one did. I was stuck outside the building when I knew my friends were just
inside, and all the while strange, slightly terrifying-looking people walked past and saw me just
standing there stupidly, and I was sure they saw through my be cool faade and were secretly
laughing at me.
It started getting harder to breathe. I was sweating and my heart was beating out a samba,
and for a second, some annoyingly detached part of my mind absently wondered if I was having
a heart attack. It studiously avoided thinking the phrase panic attack.
I made myself sit down, and after a few deep breaths I was already starting to feel better.
I wasnt dying, then. It was probably just a weird fluke, I reasoned, nothing to worry about.
Besides, I had no other explanation at hand for what Id just experienced.
It was by mere chance that I learned the real reason for my panic.
Several weeks before my panic attack, I bought a book by a Youtube star Im fond of
watching. It was called Graces Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-up. I had neither the
time nor motivation to start reading it until the day after the party incident, when I was sitting in

Starbucks and decided Id finally look at it. It was just as funny as I predicted, but it really got
interesting when I reached a chapter called Tips to Manage Your Anxiety. As I read on, I found
that everything Grace described about her struggle with Social Anxiety paralleled my own
story.
It threw me. After all, Grace Helbig is a professional comedian. She has two million
Youtube subscribers. One million twitter followers. She has her own book. It was recently
revealed that shes getting her own show on E! How can she have social anxiety? As it turns out,
social anxiety can affect anyone. And it doesnt mean someone is bad at socializing, or that
theyre some sort of whack-job, as Id first assumed.
Grace shares in her book that she didnt know what she had was social anxiety until she
was past college age because she hadnt been much exposed to the idea of anxiety, much like
myself. When discussing her experience, she said, I even posted a video in 2010 on YouTube
discussing my social anxiety, but in more of a joking way because I still didnt totally recognize
what my feelings were. I thought I was just prone to nervousness and eventually my totally
irrational, paralyzing fears would melt away, (NOTE: citing pages when its an ebook????).
Both Grace and I experienced severe anxiety and social anxiety without even knowing
what it was, and I began to realize this may be more common than I initially believed.
Curious about the reach of anxiety on college campuses, I consulted the internet. My
search resulted in millions of relevant articles, from well-reputed medical articles to student
blogs. One of the most recognizable links I saw was from Everydayhealth.com. Their article lists
anxiety disorders as the one of the most serious mental health issues facing college students,
second only to depression and suicide risks (Iliades). According to the article, a recent survey of

college students found that 80 percent report feeling stress frequently and 13 percent have been
diagnosed with a mental illness such as depression or an anxiety disorder. The term anxiety
disorder can include social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and others.
There are many different ways an individual can suffer from anxiety, and it affects everyone in
varying degrees even those not officially diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. In the more
severe cases, however, anxiety can be completely debilitating and can really affect a persons
life.
When I began this research project, I was initially curious about what is being done to
make the college experience more comfortable for students with social anxiety. As I began
conducting my research, my area of interest expanded to include anxiety as a whole. I was
curious about how anxiety can affect life as a college students and how it can get in the way of
both a students education and social life. Furthermore, I was curious about what options are
available to help these students and whether more options could be offered.
Out of this curiosity came my initial research question: what are the resources available at
Marquette University for students with anxiety and social anxiety?
Methods
Research Design
My research project is a mixed-method qualitative study using a variety of different data
sources including personal experience, interviews, social media posts and other online resources,
and relevant scholarly literature. Each of the data sources used in my project relate directly to my
research topic.
(**Can I bullet point this following part??)

My personal experience with social anxiety, for example, is what led me to pursue this
subject, and I thought including my own story with my project might make it more relatable to
both those who do and do not suffer from anxiety. With my interviews, one was conducted with a
college student who suffers from severe anxiety. The interviewee is a good friend of mine, and I
have witnessed her struggle with anxiety over the yearsit is what led me to realize how serious
a panic disorder can be. The other interview was with Chris Daaod, who is the outreach
coordinator at Marquette Universitys Counseling Center. To substitute for field observations
because anxiety is a difficult thing to monitor through observationI looked to the internet. The
first two of my online sources come in the form of social media: Yik Yak, an anonymous
messaging community, and Tumblr, a widely-used blog site. Im an avid user on both outlets, and
while perusing them for my own interest I noticed a good deal of posts pertaining to anxiety and
social anxiety. My final form of online source involves the Counseling Center webpages for
Marquette and other colleges, which I explored because I was curious how rival schools
compared to Marquette in the online resources they provided for students with anxiety.
Data Collection
As I stated above, Ive pulled data from many different sources in order to get a full
picture when studying Marquettes resources for students with anxiety.
Personal Experience
The data source I began with was my own personal experience. This includes a book I
read at the beginning of my sophomore year, where the author discussed her experience with
anxiety and social anxiety. For this, I pulled relevant quotes from the book. This category also
includes my own experience with panic attacks.

Interviews
I conducted two interviews, one with a friend from high school who I knew suffers from
severe anxiety and one with Christopher Daaod, the outreach coordinator at Marquette
Universitys Counseling Center. The student interview was conducted over the phone, as the
interviewee attends Condcordia University. I interviewed Chris Daaod with a colleague, Breanna
Klugiewicz.
Social Media and Online Resources
In addition to my minimal field work, which includes pictures of Mental Health Week
flyers I happened to see hanging around campus, I looked online for anxiety and social anxiety
resources.
First, I typed social anxiety into google and perused the results, finding many posts
from the popular blogging site tumblr. I took screenshots of these posts. I randomly came
across the anxiety posts on Yik Yaks while perusing it for my own pleasure. I took screenshots
and recorded the date when I came across these.
Relevant Scholarly Articles
Finally, I gathered additional data. The first among these data sources is a book I
stumbled across before I even began the project, called Graces Guide: The Art of Pretending to
be a Grownup. I also visited the Raynor Library archives, looking for possible past mental health
awareness campaigns at Marquette or even in the general Milwaukee area. While I didnt find
anything particularly useful in the archives, I did find several other scholarly articles that fit my
topic.

Data Analysis **revise this sectionexpand and address each item individually (in order)
Once I gathered all of my data, I began analyzing it. I pulled quotes from Graces Guide
as well as incorporated the pictures and screenshots from online, from Yik Yak, and from fliers
around campus into my observational field notes, noting how common concerns on anxiety and
social anxiety seemed to be. I coded both of my interviews, creating some codes that would
emphasize the severity of anxiety in student life and some codes that have to do with methods of
managing anxiety (seen below). I also sorted through the data I gathered from the library by
relevancy.
Findings
Through the course of this project, Ive made several interesting discoveries:
In many cases, students endure unnecessary suffering because they dont realize what theyre
experiencing is anything unusual and therefore do not seek help.
Most students dont realize how severe anxiety can be.
Marquette Universitys Counseling Center already has many different, well-developed and
helpful resources for students with anxiety and social anxiety.
These resources could be better advertised, as many students arent aware that resources such as
group therapy exist on campus.
Anxiety is the Counseling Centers biggest concern.
Proposals for Change
Educate the general Marquette Community about anxiety so that

a) Those individuals who have it and may not know can learn more about the issue
b) Those that dont have it will be more knowledgeable in their dealings with a
friend or family member who may have anxiety (expand this whole sectiontalk
about classes, participation, etc.)
Find ways to better advertise the Counseling Centers resources, such as their group therapy and
individual sessions.
Increase our online presence to better support those students with social anxiety that may not feel
comfortable expressing themselves in a one-on-one meeting and provide more online resources
for them (include idea about app/online anonymous thing?)