Hefner Mental Health

Mental disorders are as common among college students as same-aged non-students, and these disorders seem to be growing in amount and severity. It is not unusual for undergraduate students to experience varying levels of anxiety, depression, and stress during their matriculation; some college students experience academic stressors as well as non-academic stressors. Non-academic stressors could include seemingly obvious issues like moving away from family for the first time or some issues that may be harder to recognize like private health concerns. Dr. Richard Kadison, chief of mental health services at Harvard University and author of “College of the Overwhelmed” reported that almost 50% of college students are likely to suffer some degree of

Mental health among college students has been proven to be a relevant social issue that our society faces. There are certainly a few different institutions that play a large role within the development of this social issue. The first institution, and the primary institution at play with this issue, is the higher education system. In terms of mental health and having access to resources, college students haven’t always been as lucky as they are today. One study in 2007 explains the story of Junior at Syracuse University (Kravets, 3081). Anita Rutman had a history of mental health issues; she even found herself being admitted to a mental health hospital. One morning in February, she threw herself off of the eighth floor of Boland Hall and landed on a patio and fortunately lived. However, her attempt stemmed from the university sending her letter three days prior that informed Anita that the school was planning to dismiss her because of her suicidal tendencies (Kravets, 3081). Anita later sued Syracuse for ten million dollars for malpractice and negligence in handling her condition.

Deadlines, Midterms, finals, papers, all while trying to have a social life can become overwhelming. According college degree search, there are 1,100 suicides at colleges per year. That’s 7.5 per 100,000 students. It has been proven by research being a college today student is much harder than in the 1950’s. College students encounter a great deal of problems, such as depression, time management, and having personal relationships.

Depression, anxiety, and suicide are relatively common phenomena among college students (Klerman & Weissman, 1989; Twenge et al., 2010).

As the research suggests, there are an obvious number of students on college campuses that are exhibiting the detrimental behavioral, social, and academic effects of mental health issues. I wanted to observe whether the number of suffering college students is increasing or not to identify the severity of the problem on college campuses and determine the best approach to deal with these numbers. In a 2012 study directed by Mark Salzer, he states that college students suffering from mental health are “enrolling at increasing rates” also making note of the fact that “Eighty-six percent of students with mental illness withdraw from college prior to completing their degree” (1). This discovery further shows that mental illness is affecting more

Mental health and well-being are leading areas of research in current societies as concern about the number of illnesses related to mental health and the effects of these illnesses are of growing popularity. In light of this recent interest, the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH) has been coordinating an awareness week since 1992 which focuses on alleviating the stigma associated with mental illness (Richard, 2010). Many other organizations are showing their support and creating awareness weeks of their own. A Canadian study states that “20% of Canadians will personally experience mental illness during their lifetime” and that everyone is, in one way or another, affected by mental illness (Health Canada, 2002). Mental health is considered to be of great importance during youth and adolescence which is why further studies on post-secondary aged students are crucial. The objective of this research is to identify what causes stress for students, what resources are made available to them through the institution, if those resources are widely used, and how students cope with stress. The information used as findings in this paper was gathered through conducting an interview with a post-secondary student who was taking a full course load, was involved in extra-curricular activities, and had a part-time job.

Mental health is a serious topic that is often not taken seriously. Due to my own struggles with depression, I have experienced the impact mental illness can have on a student’s life. Mental illness can make everyday life feel unbearable and can have just as serious of an effect on a person as a physical illness. The causes of increasing mental health problems in college students are numerous, and it will take work from both students and universities to overcome this problem, but change is necessary for the health of U.S. college students.

The third article is associated with psychological disorders increasing in college campuses. Back in 2008 and article reported that half of college students experienced having suicidal episodes or have considered suicide. Many suffered from depression while others were on medication for anxiety or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD). As stated, “Major depressive disorder, for example, has nine criteria including depressed mood; loss of interest or pleasure in activities; changes in appetite or body weigh; changes in sleep patterns; feelings of worthlessness; and suicidal thoughts.” (Reifman, A. ,2011) Stress can contribute to a state of mind easily causing depressed moods along with mood swings. For instance, when bills need to be paid and a worker has been underpaid by his or hers employer things can get stressful. Multiple mental problems can contribute to thoughts of suicide as well. So long as university administrators are aware that mental health is very important to college

Relate to Audience: A lot of college students suffers from depression daily. The stress from being in an unfamiliar environment, working and going to school at the same time can be a very heavy load to deal with. On

Thesis: Mental Illness in colleges needs to be addressed because of the rise in college students being diagnosed in mental health problems.

Students need to have a support system to help them through tough times in high school or at any stage in their life. When I had told my best friends that I was depressed, their answer to me was “why, you have nothing to be depressed about”. I thought I was able to turn to them during this hard time in my life and they gave me no support. According to Rueger, Malecki, Aycock, and Coyle, social support has been shown to be an important factor in adolescent development while they are dealing with depression (2016). A strong social support for adolescents help build their self-esteem and well-being and having little to no support can cause an increase in depression. A lot of people do not know how to help others when they need it most and can cause more harm than good.

According to Valerie (2001) “socialization helps to lessen the stress of a person due to her illness or sickness while the adults mainly take it seriously” therefore adults are more stress than teenagers. and earning a good grade was one way to earn degree in college and earning a good grades can stressful by doing assignments and other schools activity with the time pressure that you need to attain in every activities given to teenagers. There was a significant correlation between quality of social support and illness levels. Quantity of social support played a minor role in predicting illness levels. Finally social support was significantly linked to mental health scores such that under low stress the level of support did not have an effect

   Today a college education can overload students with too many stressful situations. Not only does Stress overload today's college students, but it is also the leading cause of personality disorders. In her essay, Cathy Bell explains that major depressive disorder strikes 5-12% of men and 10-20% of women; half of these people will have more than one occurrence and 15% of them will commit suicide ("Depression for the young"). For instance, many depressives are first recognized and treated during their years in college. For a large amount of people, depression exposes itself because of traumatizing experiences, such as leaving home and/or academic stress. For other students alcohol and drugs become a

Depression and anxiety among college students is something that experts have focused on for the past twenty years. The information they have been gathering ranges from the different stressors of college life to the effects of one's culture on how they deal with depression or anxiety symptoms. They have identified a few core characteristics of depression and thoughts of suicide. These are both serious concepts in which people need to seek help for. It is important for students to reach out to friends, family, or professionals to support them during this time. Many campuses offer counseling centers which are seeing many more people over the past few years.

Campus mental health statistics paint an alarming picture of the incidence of suicide rates on college campuses and by some measures they are getting worse. Almost one in three students have admitted to considering suicide. Mental health needs on campus are real and serious, they are also growing, which is