Down but Never Out! Narratives on Mental Health Challenges of Selected College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines: God, Self, Anxiety, and Depression

The COVID-19 pandemic is continuously causing serious effects on the mental health of college students due to the series of lockdowns and sudden shifting of face-to-face classes to fully online. The study aims to determine and explore the various themes that play a significant role in the development of this issue by an in-depth study of selected reflection papers submitted in class. These texts were interpreted and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings revealed three major themes: anxiety and depression as serious effects of the pandemic, God/Higher Being as the first and/or last source of support and, the essentiality of self-awareness and self-acceptance in improving mental health. These themes which are contextualized in nature hope to contribute to future research in formulating effective interventions and strategies in the war against the negative effects of the pandemic most especially for the welfare of college students.