As college students, we can all agree that spending time with your best pals and/or your significant other is always a great time. But what happens when you break-up? Let’s be honest, friend break-ups are almost as bad as relationship break-ups, and if you have been through one, you understand how awful it feels. 

Attending such a great university, of course you have the opportunity to meet loads of people every day. However, it is the friends from back home or perhaps your significant other that keep you grounded. Too often, people around us don’t take our break-ups seriously enough. 

Helen Fisher, an anthropologist from Rutgers University, and her team looked into heartbreak and how it actually affects people, and they found that missing your significant other lights up the same area of the brain as users of cocaine who are waiting for their next line. Not getting that love is akin to withdrawal. These symptoms absolutely affect the impact of how an individual can focus, understand and even function. These symptoms can be, and are, the reason that individuals can suffer from mental health problems for a short or long period of time after break-ups, or during long periods of separation.

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Most people make heartbreak seem like something we are supposed to get over in one night. Since it happens to everyone, they give a simple “You’ll be okay.” Partially, they are right, because yes, you will be okay, but your feelings are very real and everyone goes through it very differently. It is important for people to understand that no, you are not being dramatic when you just want to stay in bed, cry and eat a tub of ice cream instead of getting up for school.

About 40 percent of students on college campuses do not seek help for their mental health issues. However, 50 percent of students have become anxious enough to have struggled in school, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. 

As a college community, we need to do better with being there for one another. Everyone has their own story, and no matter how someone looks on the outside, they can be going through the worst time. 

It is important to check in on your “strong” friends as well. I can speak for myself: I am the type of friend who is always there for my friends and those who matter most to me. My friends know that I will give an arm and a leg just to make sure they are okay. Although I can be strong for you, it does not always mean I can be strong for myself. 

At the university level, it is so important to seek help. It is okay to do so, talk to a friend, family member, or even visit the UA’s Counseling & Psych Services. There, students can speak with mental health professionals about anything. So, NO, you are not being dramatic. You are just a functioning human being with feelings.

Ariday Sued is a junior studying journalism and political science. Follow the Daily Wildcat on Twitter