Reversing the Statistics: Universities & the Mental Health Epidemic
I never knew that an empty bed could change everything. I mean, a sheet and some pillows don’t mean anything, right? Wrong. To me, an empty bed served as a representation of life and death. An empty bed opened my eyes to the devastation that could result from mental illness. My junior year of college, I lost a friend to suicide unexpectedly. One day he was there, the next he was gone; simple as that. He lived with me in my fraternity chapter house, and the day after he passed, a bed that used to be his was now empty. I saw that empty bed and got sick to my stomach; it was officially real. Suddenly, the issue of mental illness among college students was not something I could run from anymore. It was my reality.
It’s no secret that stress is a routine aspect in the life of every college student. The stressors are as diverse as they are frequent. However, despite the widespread awareness among students, educators, and university administrators, the issue of mental illnesses in college students continues to grow with time. Anxiety and depression are common on college campuses, causing universities to shift their attention and address this issue in their student body.
A 2013 survey of college students found that 57% of women and 40% of men experienced “overwhelming anxiety” in the past year, many of whom reported experiencing depression that made it difficult to function as a result (Henriques, 2014). The rate of depression in college students increased from 32.6% to 40.2% from 2013–2017 (Brody, 2018). Yet despite these figures, most students leave their mental illnesses untreated.
“I never experienced anxiety until college,” a friend of mine told me. “when I got here, everything changed for the worse. I wasn’t myself. It got to the point that I needed to seek help because I knew something was wrong.
When these stressors aren’t properly addressed, they can manifest themselves into unhealthy, self-destructive, and dangerous behaviors. These behaviors that we have come to find commonplace in the “college lifestyle,” such as poor eating habits, excessive binge drinking, drug-use, erratic sleep patterns, are directly tied to mental health. Studies have found that 30% of college students meet the criteria for alcohol abuse and 20% meet the criteria for an eating disorder, which can all be linked to illnesses like anxiety and depression (Henriques, 2014). Even worse, in the past 50 years, the suicide rates for young adults aged 15–24 has increased by 200%. In order to combat these problems on our campuses, there must be an effort to address the mental illnesses that trigger these behaviors.
“Stigma against mental illness is a scourge with many faces, and the medical community wears a number of those faces.”
― Elyn R. Saks
Combatting this issue can be difficult, especially because signs of these illnesses can often go unnoticed by peers and professors. While it may seem like it would be easy to notice someone who is suffering from depression or anxiety, the truth of the matter is that identifying these symptoms can be tricky. Even if they are noticed, many students don’t know how they address these symptoms in themselves or their friends.
Most, if not all, universities offer on-campus resources, such as a counseling centers, where students can receive treatments. However, addressing the mental illnesses issue means that these centers need funding from universities that are often allocating recourses to other entities. Other programming, such as exercise classes and education resources, are also employed by universities to help students combat these issues.
The goal for universities, parents, and students must be steps in the right direction. While the issue of mental illness in students will never eliminate itself, there should be a concerted effort with stopping increases in mental health statistics. Suicide, depression, and anxiety rates have all increased as the years pass. In order to turn these figures in the right direction, there has to be an honest look at the college lifestyle and how it can be manipulated for the benefit of their students.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/well/preventing-suicide-among-college-students.html
https://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/top-5-mental-health-problems-facing-college-students/
http://www.collegedegreesearch.net/student-suicides/
https://www.marianuniversitysabre.com/951/news/mental-health-in-college/