Some warning signs serve as key indications for seeking help from counseling. Frequently this experience is accompanied by physical symptoms such as palpitations, breathlessness, restlessness, excessive sweating and similar reactions of the autonomic nervous system. Phobias can develop out of such anxiety, which links the fear to particular persons, situations or events. Anxiety is often a warning signal that our sense of psychological well-being is under threat and that there is a need to seek help in order to achieve a better sense of balance. Signs of depression include a sense of sadness or blocked emotion that interferes with the person's sense of optimism about the future, or interest and pleasure in life.
Students complain of inability to concentrate or organize their studies and activities.
There is the desire to withdraw from social and class activities, to ruminate excessively, to feel a loss of energy. Sleep patterns can become disturbed and marked by too much or too little sleep, early morning awakening or difficulty falling asleep. Eating patterns can also become disturbed with either a loss of interest in food or an onset of particular food cravings that are hard to control. Any threat of suicide should be taken seriously and responded to promptly. Frequently a depression follows on the heels of this kind of episode.