“I just thought it was sadness… I could not function, life had no meaning at all, I felt like the only way out would be to kill myself.“ These are the exact words used by one of the college students featured in a new documentary ‘The Truth about Suicide: Real Stories of Depression in College’ by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. This documentary was made by families who have lost their children through suicide. Most of the participants in the documentary are real college students who have experienced the debilitating effects of suffering through depression and constant pervading thoughts about suicide.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH),“As many as 15 % of college students may have symptoms of depression, and about 10% of college students arrive on campus with a history of depression” (NIMH, 2009). Students feel pressured to go through the college experience without experiencing difficulty, but the truth is that stressful life in school can be quite overwhelming.
Depression is a serious mentail illness because there is usually a significant change in how a person perceives themselves and their environment, and there is usually a major mood disturbance. The debilitating effects of the illness usually impairs a person so severely resulting in deterioration of a person's quality of life.
Unfortunately, mental illness in the society has a negative stigma attached to it making it difficult for most people to recognize and acknowledge depression as a debilitating illness. When depression is left untreated, a person may eventually suffer from serious mental impairment that may affect every aspect of their lives and eventually lead to suicide.
Resources on Suicide Detection and Prevention
National Institute of Mental Health and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention .
In the US: For those who are having thoughts of suicide or know someone in danger call 911 immediately!! To talk to someone dial 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) or 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).
References
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The Truth about Suicide: Real Stories of Depression in College (DVD Documentary).
Cook, L. (2007, April). Striving to help collegestudents with mental health issues. Journal of PsychosocialNursing & Mental Health Services,45(4), 40. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database.
Dzurec, L., Allchin, L., & Engler, A. (2007,December). First-year nursingstudents'accounts of reasons for student depression. Journal of NursingEducation, 46(12), 545-551. Retrieved April 18, 2009, from CINAHL Plus with FullText database.
National Mental Health Association. (2003). Finding hope & help: College studentand depression .
Sloan G; Hobson J; Leighton J; McFarlane B; Law R.(2009). An overview and history of interpersonal psychotherapy. Mental Health Nursing Journal. Retrieved April 18, 2009, from CINAHL Pluswith Full Text database.
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Most college students have to deal with stress as part of their daily routine, therefore there can be an assumption that one should “handle” the stress because that is what college life is all about. College students are at risk of suffering from clinical depression and most if not all, may not seek help from the proper resources like the counseling and health centers. L.J. Cook is the author of ‘Striving to help college students with mental health’. He reports that in a recent national survey of 13,500 college students nearly 45% reported being so depressed that they had difficulty functioning, and 94% reported feeling overwhelmed by everything they had to do.
Most students have to juggle between schoolwork and life away from their family members or loved ones, and some have to work. These factors may increase the chances of a person developing severe depression. Other stressors mentioned by the author include, “meeting expectations of parents, meeting new people, lack of transportation, relationship problems, balancing workload and class schedules with fulltime workload, racism, great academic demands, need to fit in with peers, loneliness, unfamiliarity and transition to college, inadequacy and incidental event among several other factors."
Due to the normal stresses of college life, most students resort to maladaptive coping strategies like drinking alcohol or abusing substances. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, most students engage in binge drinking and/or substance abuse without realizing the consequences of making poor judgment that further exacerbates mental illness . This negative mentality may be encouraged when a student feels the need to fit in with his/her peers and be “normal”. Friends may be asking them to “snap out of it” whenever they notice a student withdrawing or losing interest in peer related activities such as partying.
For those students who do not seek help when experiencing depression, the results usually end up tragically for the friends and family members of a suicide victim. As expressed by the college students featured in the documentary by AFSP,“Depression is a lonely illness, no matter how hard you try to be like everyone else, you just cannot be like them, its like walking with a heavy chain hanging from your neck every single day."
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The authors of An overview and history of interpersonal psychotherapy (Sloan, et al), a mental health nursing journal, explain the use of interpersonal psychotherapy as a means to help a depressed person get better by use of, “attachment, communication and social theories”. This method of therapy focuses on helping a depressed patient by using psychological means to help one cope more positively. College students may benefit from this type of therapy because it will enhance the psychosocial aspect of their lives through social interactions helping a depressed student to express himself/ herself more, and avoid withdrawing away from social activities with their peers.
So how can one know that they are suffering from depression? What are some of the signs and symptoms? According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “People with depressive illnesses do not all experience the same symptoms. The severity, frequency and duration of symptoms will vary depending on the individual andhis or her particular illness.” However, some of the common symptoms include significant changes in sleeping patterns, eating habits or appetite and a constant feeling of sadness that may persist for weeks or months even years. For a student, the changes may be very noticeable in their class performance and in peer related activities. There can be a significant drop in grades and there can also be lack of class attendance. “There is no single known cause of depression rather, it likely results from a combination of genetic, biochemical, environmental, and psychological factors,” NIHM reports. In this case, students can benefit from some form of education about recognizing the signs and symptoms of depression in themselves and in their friends or peers. Most students may respond more to their fellow students (peers) than they would to adults or faculty members.
When a clinically depressed person does not seek immediate help or health services, they may begin to feel absolutely overwhelmed and when reasoning from a negative state of mind, they may result to suicide as their only means of “fixing” the problem. According to Sloan et al, most people suffering from the illness never believe that depression has a positive prognosis. One can be guaranteed to get better and actually begin to enjoy life like they did before the illness.
Cook explains that students may be aware of the counseling services offered in school, but will avoid seeking help for fear of embarrassment. Other students may not even be aware that they can get help whenever they need it within their campus. Most campuses have counseling services and emergency hotlines incase a student feels overwhelmed or debilitated by constant thoughts of suicide due to severe depression. However, the author explains that, most school may not be well staffed to handle the growing numbers of students seeking help. This may be discouraging to some students who may need a one on one care or those who need immediate attention.
Students should be encouraged to report any pre- existing conditionsof a psychiatric illness (at the beginning of the semester) in order to receive ongoing therapeutic support . Giving health history information to the counseling services within a campus (before an episode of depression) can prevent the occurrence of depression and promote a better environment for a student to achieve their educational goals.
In conclusion, depression is an illness that can easily be managed if a student seeks help from the right sources during the early phases of depression. All campuses should encourage students to seek immediate help when feeling suicidal or homicidal (like the student who shot students in Virginia Tech). The college experience should not be a reason for a student to end their life prematurely.
© 2009 Loreen Nyambok
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A person's temperament dictates a lot in his life from the childhood. I think that this usually plays a major role in a person's life when it comes to dealing with stress and depression. According to Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian Philosopher and Esotericist, talks of four temperaments; sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric. He notes that these temperaments make someone react to situations in different ways; the way a choleric person reacts to a situation is not the same way a melancholic will. He notes that a person could have a combination of two or more of these temperaments - and this significantly shapes a person's reaction to situations. The energy-filled choleric can as well be bad-tempered - this will define his reaction to situations;he light-hearted sanguine can be arrogant - this will shape his take on issues and situations and people too;the calm phlegmatic is informed by 'unemotionlessness', passion and curiosity - this gives him/her the ability to perservere in such situations; while melancholics are said to be easily depressed becuase of their strange thoughtfulness but at the same time, they can convert their sorrow into works of art, i.e., poetry, etc. Melancholics are concerned with the insanity and cruel realities in the world and in most cases they are insatiated. This therefore plays a role in how he handles his difficult moments.
I therefore think that it is useful for psychology experts and even those around people suffering depression to understand and capture the slightest of temperaments of the victims of depression. In that way, we will be able to reduce such cases in their earlier periods.
I don't know what you think Lo, but I certainly know that in a way, one's temperament can lead him/her to seek a 'solution' in suicide or can make him seek a better solution, i.e., seeing the half-full part of the half-filled glass, and not the half-empty part.
Thanks Lo, this was a wonderful article. It confirmed what I have always thought of you. Congrats!
Ciao.
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Otieno-Adipo.