I (20F) have severe anxiety, and it has never hit an all time low and it's all thanks to my college. For context: this is my 2nd year, I know it's not that much experience compared to people doing 4+ years of college, but my first year was so bad that I was debating on coming back.

In my first year of college, I had this roommate that would harass me. I got so scared of her that I couldn't even leave my room to eat or get ready for class. I remember the first night before school officially started. I was sitting in my bed talking to my friend on the phone. She came in with 2 girls and a guy. She made it a point to open and close her snack bins loudly by smacking them around and banging on them. She then turned on her speaker and played music loudly around the room- it was almost 1am on a school night. Then she took this jar that had stuff inside and shook it around- walked up to my and shook it in my ear. Then she went to the lights and started flicking them on and off fast. She doesn't know anything about my medical history, what if I was sensitive to the lights and had a seizure? Thank goodness I didn't, but she was just that comfortable doing that. At some point she had "accidentally" dropped her ChapStick near my bed and went over to pick it up. She shook my bed and I was terrified. I was shaking- either I was that scared or just cold because she kept the room freezing. To this day, I don't know if I was that scared or cold. Anyway, she eventually left and I just broke down on call and kept asking my friend "why does she hate me? Am I that unlikeable? I've done nothing to her- I've always stayed in my lane- why is she like this to me?" I felt so unsafe in that dorm. I had called my mom to get me out, but she was out of the state. My mom called the RA on duty and he came up to my room. They tried helping me, but it didn't work. All they did was move up the roommate agreement meeting. Roommate agreement did nothing, she was still the same bully.

My roommate would also steal things from me- she stole a $200+ fridge by claiming it was her when really it was mine. I emailed the fridge company to make sure that it was mine three times, no one under her first or last name had ordered from them. They also said that the fridge in our dorm was the fridge from my old dorm and was moved to this dorm (I emailed them when I realized my room was switched and they said they would send the fridge over). When I told housing about her, they didn't do anything for almost 2 months. One day, I overheard her conversation with her friend and she told her that her mom gave her advice on "annoy to destroy" ... what? what kind of mother would advise that? I've literally just stuck to my own lane and let her push me around. Her and her mom did not like me when all I've done was sit in my bed because I was too afraid to move or eat. By the time I moved out to my own dorm, I had gotten like some type of PTSD from keys jingling in the hall because that's how I knew she was coming back to the room. Whenever I heard keys jingling, I would freeze up and hold my breath- I was terrified in my first year.

This year, my roommate was passive aggressive- she didn't harass me, but I knew she didn't like me. I would, again, stay in my own lane. I was actually supposed to be in a single this year, but, again, didn't happen. Because of how bad it was last year, I really didn't want to have a roommate. She also didn't want one. I told staff about how we both didn't want a roommate- I also told them about last year and how I have anxiety and that I'm seeing a therapist for it, but they downplayed my anxiety into me just being shy. No. It's not me being "shy," it's me being incapable of breathing or functioning like a person because of the fear of judgement and living with someone is making me so nervous that I can't be a human- I'm basically a rock in the room doing nothing so I don't piss off anyone. It really made me upset, so when Spring semester came around, my mom let me stay at home since my anxiety wasn't getting any better and my mental health was going down. It's about an hour commute from my house to my college, so not bad. However, I just felt chased out of my dorm again.

Anyway, I signed up for housing lottery in the fall 2025. This is where we can select our rooms. I made it a point to select a single room. I made sure it said single before confirming. However, I somehow ended up with a roommate. I was furious since it literally said it was a single one-bedroom dorm. I emailed them immediately, stating that it felt like a scam and shared my experience of my first year and last semester- my hands were shaking while I was typing it. I told them that if I have to pull out medical documents to get a single, I will. I was telling my mom and broke down crying. She told me to email my therapist to get her to write/email a document or letter (literally anything). This is to tell my college's housing that I have severe anxiety and that I'm seeing her (my therapist) for treatment and that I need a single dorm.

I can't do this again, my mental health has decline so badly from my experiences with a roommate. I honestly might transfer because of how bad this college has been to my mental health. It's either transferring or deeply consider getting an emotional support animal- which is something that's come up in conversation with my mom, but she's against it since she felt it wasn't necessary. I hope that with this experience I can maybe get one.

Anyway, throughout my time at this college and with my roommate experiences, I've emailed the staff many times talking about how bad my health has been with my anxiety. I feel like each encounter has gotten worse with each staff I talk to- the last one being the one who downplayed my anxiety into shyness. With responses like that, I can't help but sometimes feel like a Karen annoying them about the same problem, AITAH?