Mental Health – Special Challenges for International Students

Münster, Franz Hitze Haus | 03.02.2025 - 06.02.2025
Manager:Dr Anselm Feldmann, KAAD
Spiritual Advisor:Father Professor Thomas Eggensperger OP

Studying can be extremely demanding for the mental health of students: their own expectations and those of others create pressure; the precarious housing market and inflation in Germany are additional stressors.

For international students, the pressure to succeed is usually much higher, while a supportive social environment is often not available to them, or only to a limited extent. The physical separation from family and friends combined with culture shock in a foreign country often acts as a catalyst for the development of psychological problems.

The seminar will first look at the scientific background to psychological problems in everyday student life in order to differentiate between natural mood swings and mental illness. Subsequently, the participants will identify possible stressors and work out ways of dealing with them preventively to avoid an escalation of pressure, feelings of exhaustion and powerlessness and ideally avert mental illness. Participants will also be shown where to seek help for mental health problems.