Your son or daughter is likely to experience a tremendous amount of growth and change at Cornell. Typically, this is an exciting and healthy time, leaving students exhilarated, challenged, and expanded in their identities. Other times, students become overly-stressed, anxious, or depressed.

Some try to cope with stress by skipping on the essentials, like proper nutrition, sleep, and healthy social connection. Others over-indulge in practices such as alcohol or other drugs abuse, risky sexual behavior, gambiling, or other forms of risk-taking or self-injury in order to temporarily escape the stress.

This section provides information for parents to talk about the following "tough topics:"

• Mental Health & Emotional Wellbeing
• Alcohol & Other Drugs
• Sexual Health

Students benefit from support

While these feelings often resolve themselves without assistance, it can be helpful for students to discuss their concerns with a family member, staff or faculty member, or trained professional.

For students coming to Cornell from a culture or context in which problems are typically worked out with the help of a family member, seeking help from another source may be awkward. If this is true for your student, we hope you will be able to offer respect for the courage it takes to ask for help when it's needed, and trust that our staff will meet your student with expertise, insight, individual care and compassion.

If you become concerned about the emotional well-being of your student, please share what you know about services that exist on campus.