The first thing that comes to mind when reading about stories such as these which have societal pressures at the root is the issue of mass media and social media. When comparing yourself, who you know everything about, to someone on Instagram or Facebook where you only get to see what they want you to see, can be impossible. It should be obvious, but comparing your whole self to the perfect moments of someone else can be disastrous.
It is extremely important that universities, where this can be an issue, are working towards solutions for the problems at hand, but it is not all on the university. It must come from within society, and from within oneself. In a capitalistic world, there will always be competition, there will always (almost) be someone superior to yourself but that does not mean you are worth any less because for everything they are better than you at, you are likely better than them at something else. This means that although internal pressure is important and a great driving force, it should not be such a driving force that one is considering suicide as the only way out. Luckily for myself, although I do hold myself to a higher standard I will never beat myself up over a failure, as long as I gave it my all, and that is something I think is very important.
Another thing that I believe could help students who feel lost is to find something to get involved with, the feeling of a lack of importance or purpose can be damning to a student in their first year or two away from their home as well as family and friends who make up their support structure. To find another group of people or thing they can delve into can definitely improve their feelings towards their time at school as well as give them that purpose they desire.
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