WE ALL heard the story and followed the media frenzy surrounding the so-called "Runaway Bride." Whether you think that Jennifer Wilbanks is a spoiled southern belle looking for attention or not, one fact, which was not revealed until her interview with Katie Couric, remains: Her decision to do the "running" was between a bus ticket and a bottle of pills, indicative of serious underlying emotional distress. Skeptics cry that Wilbanks had nothing to lead her to such a grave situation given her privileged life and loving family.
The same thing is said easily about the typical University student. We go to the "best" school in the "best" town. What could possibly be so wrong in our eighteen to twenty-something year-old lives that could lead us to face a similar decision?
According to the National Mental Health Association, college students are generally more overwhelmed and stressed than they were fifteen years ago. A recent UCLA survey of college freshman found that more than 30 percent of college freshmen report feeling overwhelmed a great deal of the time. For specifically college women, that number jumps to 38 percent. Alarmingly, in 1998, while suicide was the eighth leading cause of death for the general population, it was the second leading killer in the college population. The University even saw its share of suicide deaths last year. At the University, many student resource groups attended to a number of mental health crises.
Keeping in trend with my fellow columnists, I offer these words of advice for the first years: College is a time of rapid and profound adjustment, and each student will come to terms with those adjustments in his or her own time. Fear, stress, anxiety and even sadness are common and can be normal, healthy aspects of your coming of age. It is when those feelings become so unmanageable, or morph into depression, that you feel like your only option is between filling out a transfer application to the University of South Dakota or drinking your troubles away, or worse. The American College Health Association reported that in 2003, around 40 percent of University students reported to have felt so depressed within the previous 12 months that it was difficult to function normally. That is the time to seek help, and find no shame in doing so. Unfortunately, far too many students are reluctant to.
The problem certainly isn't with the abundance of resources here at the University. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), part of Student Health, offers individual counseling sessions, as well as group psychotherapy, extensive online resources and a yearly depression screening day in the convenience of Newcomb Hall. Rather, the problem lies in the lack of awareness and attention to potentially deadly mental health issues, underutilization of University resources and, most notably, the profound stigma associated with using those resources.
The Peer Health Educators offer outreaches on mental wellness, which is constantly revised and updated with the latest information, yet it continues to be the least-requested outreach. Similarly, another grossly underutilized resource is the HELP Line, a Madison House program. HELP Line volunteers go through a rigorous semester-long training program which includes extensive suicide-prevention preparation, yet while the 24-hour anonymous and confidential hotline is well-equipped to provide referrals for any student from the mildly to severely depressed, only about a quarter of calls come from University students. For those of you too intimidated to seek help face to face, the HELP Line can be your first line of support.
I'll admit: I was miserable for a portion of my first year -- something that I was not able to admit or discuss until recently. But when I did start exploring this with others, I found that I was not alone in my first-year blues. Everybody feels it at some point -- it is just that nobody talks about it.
Wellness in college goes beyond avoiding sexually transmitted infections and managing the Freshman 15. I applaud initiatives, like those taken by the newly formed Students for Mental Health Awareness, to bring this issue to light, normalize counseling, and guide those suffering out of the darkness.
Steph Shaw is a peer health educator and director of Promoting HIV Negativity. She is also a Cavalier Daily contributor.
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