Understanding Communicative Strategies Of Depression Essay

CENTRAL IDEA: Today I am here to talk to you about the symptoms, treatment and how to cope with depression in your daily life.

College can be extremely hard, emotionally and intellectually. Students are thrown into an environment where they have to become completely self-sufficient, if they weren’t already, and find out who they want to be. Classes are harder and the homework is more involved, and we are expected know what right and wrong is, in a world full of completely wrong choices happening around us. Simply put, college is stressful and confusing, but wonderful at that. Some students find themselves struggling with alcohol, or dating. My struggle over the past year has been my inability to ask for help with depression.

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

From what I understand, you are attempting to shed light on the topic of mental health, namely clinical depresson, on college campuses. After reading your work here, I also sense that you want to bring a topic, that often remains rather marginalized, into the scope of understanding and awareness. In the second sentence of your first paragraph, you stated, "To some, depression could be used in a trivial setting, and to others, depression might have a serious connotation. To a few, depression can be a word used to describe a certain mood or feeling after a sad or traumatic event. Others may think of depression as a serious mental illness." This definitely serves to establish a foundation for the purpose of your work which is to create awareness for the topic of depression.

Students’ self-esteem is another important factor that influences college experiences and mental health. In a study with first-year college students, conducted by Lee, Dickson, Conley, and Holmbeck (2014), it found that students with lower self-esteem may consider themselves unsuccessful in many domains and have negative views about others and their relationships. Thus, they were inclined to perceive less social support, which leads to higher level of depression. Moreover, incoming freshmen’s

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.

Connect: “44 percent of American college students report having symptoms of depression. 75 percent of college students do not seek help for mental health problems.”(Kerr, 2012)

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

"College Mental Health Fact Sheet: Depression." Healthy Minds. Healthy Lives. American Psychiatric Association. 2 Apr. 2008 .

Before the main problems for college students were homesickness and relationships. Now the majority of students struggle with depression, anxiety, and self-harm.

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.

Anxiety and Depression disorders are two of the most common mental disorders in the United States (Falsafi, 2016). It appears that the two disorders are widespread amongst college students and most cannot manage the high demands and stress (Falsafi, 2016). Therefore, they feel more prone to depression and anxiety (Falsafi, 2016). According to the authors Miller & Chung, mental health amongst college students in the United States is a growing public health concern and educators are concerned about the low academic performance of college students and how it influences their mental health (Miller, & Chung, 2009). Research indicates that university students suffer with low grades and poor academic performances, while trying to manage depression and anxiety (Falsafi, 2016). With the consistence of higher drop out rates, it is imperative that colleges and universities create programs that assist students with managing their depression and anxiety to help them through their education.

With more and more college students becoming depressed and anxious, researchers have been working hard to try and improve college student lifestyles. According to Therese Borchard, associate editor of World of Psychology, at least 44 percent of American college students reported feeling symptoms of depression this past year (Borchard).

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