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Anxiety issues among college students range from the sublime to the ridiculous, at least to us parents or those of us who have "been there" albeit it may moons ago. It is funny how we tend to forget those tumultuous days as teens entering college, going away from home for the first time, gaining that autonomy we coveted but were petrified to enter at the same time. We tend to take for granted the everyday occurrences and road blocks we are fraught with. Having a son who is a "rising college freshman" it never seems to amaze me how anxious he is about issues I would never consider to be on the radar. But to him they are very real and almost totally encompassing.

His main concern to date is not what courses to take or what to major in, although they do seem to be of some concern, but more anxiety producing energy is spent on what dorm he will be assigned to, who his roommates will be, and where he will use his flex points to eat. Ah, to be that nave and carefree! He is most fortunate to have been accepted to a University where there is only suite housing. His dorm, most likely will be the honors dorm, as he is among the 150 students out of 2700 in his class accepted to the honors program. Unfortunately, there are only 56 rooms assigned in this one dorm specifically designated for honors students. The criterion for obtaining a space in this particular dorm was the timeliness of submitting his housing application along with the obligatory $200 deposit. This we did on cue. I wish I could say he did everything that expediently, but only things that "matter" warrants that type of treatment. In this dorm he is most fortunate to have a private room within a suite of rooms and a bathroom shared by 2 other people. So now there is more anxiety about cleanliness particularly that of the bathroom area. My son is not the neatest or cleanest of individuals, so he is anxious that others he rooms with will be or that even worse there will be a "germaphobe" among them who will insist on the utmost cleanliness and sanitation. He is anxious he won't be able t deliver this. I assured him that this can easily be done, as long as he keeps a handle on it and continues a pattern throughout the school year.

His next anxiety issue is that of fitting in, especially with those of the opposite sex. Throughout high school he has had various girlfriends, but never someone special for a long period of time. He wants so desperately to fit into this genre, but has no clue about how to attain this

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