College Students and Mental Health Disorders

Each college student feels a significant amount of stress and pressure, especially around stress-induced periods i.e. midterm and finals week. This article discusses the increase and severeity of mental disorders found in college students that attend a local university, Stony Brook. Many students attend counseling that there is a waiting list and sometimes a limit to how many students the psychologist can treat. With the amount and difficulty of work, it is not surprising that many students can not handle the stress, which can lead to serious psychological problems. Mental health problems in college students are not subjected only to the course work, students also find a dificult time in adjusting to their new surroundings and coping with past experiences.

At Stony Brook there have many varied events of students being emitted to psychiatric facilities due to suicidal threats, drug over doses, and other severe cases. The most comon disorders that college students suffer from in some aspect are "depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, alcohol abuse, attention disorders, self-injury, and eating disorders". Even though some students are not clinically diagnosed or treated for these disorders, the majority of college students experience them, the most common being depression and anxiety. Stony Brook had about 24,500 enrolled students, commuters and non-commuters, at the time that the article was published. Out of these students 1,311 were being treated by school counselors, this was a 21 percent increase from the past year, and at the same time New York State budget cut 15 percent of the mental health services over the three years. Not only are the students suffering, but so are the counselors who are put under a tremendous amount of stress even more now that there staff is very limited.

A 2009 survey by the American College Health Association found that 46 percent of college students felt 'things were hopeless' and a third of the students "had been so depressed that it was difficult to function". Another shocking statistic is that there were 133 college student suicides reported in the American College Counseling Association's survey in 320 universities in 2009. Les than 20 of those students sought help on campus.

The truth is that many college students experience these psychological problems and do not know how to cope alone. Some turn to drugs, alcohol or other self-inflicting acts. Many students do not know how or where to seek help on campus, and sometimes might be embaressed. These are common problems that are happening all over the world with college students and need to be further adressed. There are many programs and helpful organizations that are out there to help students, but the numbers are still increasing. Some other factors that can be causing mental health problems are social and media pressures.

NY Times - Health/Psychology