Students Forced into Parents' Chosen Academic Paths Suffer Severe Mental Health Crises and Career Ruin

Summary

Many students, especially in high-pressure cultural environments, are coerced by parents into prestigious fields like law or medicine, completely ignoring their talents, interests, and mental well-being. This leads to years of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and academic underperformance, followed by a career mismatch that leaves graduates with no useful skills, deep regret, and a shattered sense of identity. Existing career counseling and support systems fail because the root cause is parental control and cultural expectations, not a lack of student self-awareness. No effective service helps students either resist these imposed paths or reconcile with their families, making this an unsolved and devastating issue.