Students in fashion colleges: Mental health issues and solutions

September 01 2025 TalktoAngel 0 comments 432 Views

Fashion and design programs regularly demand 50–60-hour workweeks, often at the expense of sleep, health, and social life—with anecdotal reports like “if you sleep more than four hours, you’re set to fail.”

Crucially, this expectation comes before clinical anxiety, depression, and even suicidality. It also causes cognitive overload, emotional exhaustion, and creative paralysis..

The education system is implicated in perpetuating toxic overwork, performance anxiety, and perfectionism, with faculty burnout contributing to unstable mentorship and support structures.

The trend is still evident in the industry: high levels of burnout, low compensation, unstable contracts, and widespread "quiet quitting" in the face of mental health problems are all reported by fashion professionals.

Consequences for Individuals:

Stress, poor concentration, physical illness, irritability, hopelessness, breakdowns in relationships, and deteriorating creativity and executive functioning.
Depression, anxiety, emotional detachment, and in extreme cases, ideation or suicide due to chronic unresolved burden.

Therapy as Resilience Strategy: Why CBT & DBT Matter

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT is the gold standard for stress-linked disorders. It targets maladaptive beliefs like “I’m not creative enough” or “I failed the critique”—common among fashion students under chronic criticism.
Structured interventions teach behavioural activation, time management, and stress reduction, helping students regain control over schedules and self-evaluation.
In South Asia (including India), culturally adapted CBT models—such as those by researchers like Farooq Naeem—improve accessibility and minimise stigma by tailoring idioms, examples, and relational styles to local contexts (e.g., hierarchical critique culture, respect for elders.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

DBT provides emotion regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness—particularly useful during high-stress episodes like show deadlines, critiques, and social media comparisons.
Techniques like TIPP (Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, Paired muscle relaxation) and grounding enable students to tolerate emotional overload without avoiding or self-critical reflexes.
DBT has been tested in college-aged populations and shown to significantly reduce depression, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation while improving resilience and interpersonal skill sets.

Comparison & Synergy

A randomised controlled study among medical students comparing group-CBT and group-DBT (GCBT vs DBT) demonstrated both approaches boosted psychological capital—i.e. optimism, self-efficacy, resilience—with DBT showing slightly stronger gains in stress flexibility and emotional regulation.
CBT identifies and restructures cognitive distortions, DBT helps students manage emotional volatility during creative and critique pressure, making a hybrid schema optimal.

Expanding the Framework: Lived Experience & Peer Context

Lived Impact in Fashion School

Imposter syndrome, loss of artistic joy, and constant fatigue are all described in first-hand accounts:
"I drew once. Right now, I feel inadequate. I want to rediscover my passion.
Narrative reporting like “Caffeine, critiques and creative burnout embody my fashion school reality” underscores the invisible emotional toll behind portfolios and presentations.

Institutional & Cultural Pressures

Academic culture valorises overwork; faculty resignations in leading programs hint at unsustainable expectations on both students and educators.
The industry perpetuates this: surveys show 25 % elevated mental health risk in fashion workers, plus lack of work-life satisfaction, low pay, and emotional exploitation.

Therapeutic Framework: Tools & Modules for Students

Self-awareness & Psychoeducation

Teaching fashion students to interpret exhaustion not as failure but signal to pause, using stress inoculation tools: small breaks, structured rest, reframing rest as productivity.

CBT Skill-Building

Cognitive restructuring around core beliefs: “If it’s not perfect, it’s worthless.”
Behavioural strategies: energy budgeting (e.g., tracking sleep, shifted deadlines), graded exposure to critique events, time-logging to detect overcommitment cascades.

DBT Skills Practice

Mindfulness grounding: simple routines before critiques to center awareness and reduce reactivity.
Emotion regulation: TIPP and paced breathing when anxiety rises.
Stress tolerance: a radical acceptance of subpar goods or critiques is are example of stress tolerance.

Interpersonal effectiveness: putting emotional honesty and vulnerability into practice when receiving peer criticism.

Small-Group Cohorts (Peer Cohorts)

Simulated critique architecture where peer groups—guided by trained facilitators—provide feedback while integrating DBT and CBT tools; promotes emotional vulnerability in a safe context.

Implementation at the Institutional Level

Curriculum Integration

Burnout prevention modules as required micro-courses: psychoeducation, CBT/DBT basics, sleep hygiene, boundary-setting.
During orientation and the busiest project seasons, guest workshops are held to reinforce emotional control and self-care.

Accessibility Measures

Subsidised counselling offerings, online drop-in CBT/DBT webinars, culturally-aware formats (e.g., shared language groups, flexible hours).
Normalising therapy—from faculty modelling balance to alumni testimonies on burnout and recovery.

Outcomes & Benefits

For the Student:

Reduced stress, anxiety, and depression; improved resilience, self-efficacy, and creative capacity.
Increased ability to withstand critique performance cycles without physical or emotional depletion.

For the Program & Culture:

improved mentor connections, reduced mental health crises, and increased student retention.

Shift from toxic perfectionism toward sustainable creativity and wellbeing.

For Mental Health:

Early intervention prevents escalation from burnout to clinical disorders. Long-term emotional dysregulation is moderated by CBT and DBT.

Practical Sample Programme (Module Outline)

Week 1–2: Psychoeducational foundation—understanding burnout, perfectionism, and cognitive distortions.
Week 3–5: CBT workshops—identifying and reframing negative thoughts; time-management planning.
Week 6–8: DBT skills—mindfulness, emotion regulation, TIPP, and distress tolerance practices.
Week 9–11: Interpersonal effectiveness—peer critique simulations, assertiveness training.
Week 12: Integration and relapse plan—rest routines, stress sign-posting, restarting cycles.

Conclusion

Fashion education’s relentless pace frequently triggers burnout—eroding creativity, emotional health, and overall well-being. Long hours, perfectionist standards, and competitive environments often leave students struggling with stress, depression, and anxiety. Yet, interventions grounded in evidence-based approaches such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and culturally sensitive formats (including Indian-adapted CBT) offer hope. These therapeutic methods empower students to reframe self-criticism, regulate overwhelming emotions, and develop sustainable routines for both learning and life.

By integrating counselling support within academic spaces—through peer-supported group models, accessible online counselling platforms such as TalktoAngel, and curriculum-embedded wellness programs—institutions can pivot from an endurance culture to one of resilience, authenticity, and creative flourishing. Connecting with the best counsellors in India ensures students have access to professional guidance that nurtures not only their skills but also their self-esteem, relationships, and long-term wellbeing.

When therapists encourage students to build creative trust and self-trust, they replace cycles of exhaustion with growth, balance, and confidence. Through relationship counseling, stress management programs, and targeted interventions, fashion education can evolve into a space that values both artistic innovation and emotional sustainability.

Contributed by: Dr (Prof) R K Suri, Clinical Psychologist & Life Coach & Ms. Nancy Singh, Counselling Psychologist

References

Elfina Health. (2025, March). 5 best online therapy platforms in India. Elfina Health Blogs. https://elfinahealth.com/blog/best-online-therapy-platforms-india thehubnews.org+9elfinahealth.com+9elfinahealth.com+9 practo.com
Healthy Minds Study. (2022). Increased rates of mental health problems among college students during COVID-19. Journal of Affective Disorders, 306, 1–9.
Psychowellness Center. (n.d.). About Psychowellness Center: Holistic mental health care. https://www.psychowellnesscenter.com/about-us/ psychowellnesscenter.com
Singhal, S. (2024). Fashion and mental health: Exploring the psychological impact of fashion choices on consumer identity. International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, 6(6), 1–10.
TalktoAngel. (n.d.). Online counseling in India: Services and FAQs. https://www.talktoangel.com
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