Dealing with mental illness

Mental illness-related incidents are on the rise at America’s institutions of higher learning. In 2007, a Virginia Tech student shot and killed numerous students and then turned the gun on himself, leaving a total of 33 students dead. On Oct. 26, 2009 an Arizona State University student, who, according to police ,suffered from depression, walked into a professor’s office and shot himself. Being self-aware and learning how to manage stress and understand mental illness is one way to stop these instances from increasing.
Attending college for most students will turn out to be a positive experience for most as it’s usually the first time in a young person’s life that they are experiencing the freedom to do what they want when they want without the watchful eye of their parents to keep them in check. However, this is not true of all students. Benjamin Rippel, a recent graduate of Westminster College, said he understands the pressure.
“Personally, I feel that students are under more and more pressure from family and others to family and others to achieve high grades in the shortest amount of time possible,” Rippel said, “combined with the stress of increased academic workloads and the challenge of moving away from family and friends causes many students to start to crumble under the pressures imposed on them.”
This balancing act can lead to mental health disorders among college students. According to Weber State University counseling psychologist Craig Oreshnick, the most common disorders at WSU’s Counseling Center are mood disturbances, such as depression and anxiety, relationship issues, family problems and academic problems.
According to psychiatryonline.org, statistically as many as 20 percent of college-age students have suffered from a diagnosable mental illness, which means not only are there increasing numbers of students developing mental illness while at school, there are increasing numbers of students entering college who have already been diagnosed with mental health issues.
A recent Psychology Today article noted that college campuses with 10,000 students will experience at least one suicide and numerous attempted suicides per year. The article also gave a study that found 85 percent of North America’s student counseling centers reported an increase in “students with severe psychological problems” over the past five years and that 30 percent of those same centers had experienced a student suicide.
Often students don’t put their symptoms together in their mind and realize they are suffering from a mental illness, so they do not seek help until they break down, and by then it could be too late to simply start treatment for the illness. If left unchecked, students may find themselves requiring hospitalization to stabilize themselves or dropping out of school until they are stable.
Acccording to the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, common symptoms of mental illness include feeling worthless or extremely guilty, crying a lot for no particular reason, withdrawing from other people, experiencing severe anxiety, panic or fear, having trouble concentrating or following through on plans, feeling easily irritated or angry, experiencing racing thoughts, agitation or apathy.
If an individual presents an immediate danger to himself or herself or anyone else, call campus police or 911 and let them know the person may endanger themselves or others.
For more information on mental health resources for students at WSU, visit the counseling and psychological services center, room 280, or by phone at (801) 626-6406.