I have been reading Daily Kos for almost two years now, but signed up for a much shorter period of time. After joining this community, I have spent a lot of time deciding whether of not to post a diary and just what the first topic would be. I am 19 years old and have not had as much experience in the world as many of you, and would hate to make this wonderful community spend time reading a diary that is not up to its standards. However, I am making my first diary be on something that affects my world, that world being one of a college student in this day and age. These days, the affects of mental illness on my classmates is apparent. All the signs and symptoms are there.
I recently came across a study released this month by Cornell University that states that 17 percent of college students have reported intentionally harming themselves by cutting, burning, or any of the other techniques used by those who are self-injurers. Among those people, less than 7 percent have gotten help for it or the other mental illnesses that often occur at the same time, such as depression. Self injury has been on a rise these last few years. Like I said, I am a college student, and this statistic doesn't surprise me one bit. You can often see the marks on the arms and legs of your classmates and know they are intentional. These students aren't stupid - in fact, the students in this study come from Cornell and Princeton University, some of the most prestigious colleges in this country.
Some of the other findings in this study include:
* Many people who self injure are likely to have questioned their sexual orientation
* 55 percent were female
* 75 percent have done it more than once
* They were more likely to have considered suicide, have a history of emotional abuse, have reported high levels of psychological distress and stress
Almost half of all self injurers reported starting between the ages of 17 and 22. That's the age when many people are starting, in college, or about to graduate. They often hurt themselves as an extreme coping mechanism to relieve stress or as a result of emotional distress. Due to the rise of this practice, Princeton University's health services are now encouraged to ask students about self injury if they appear to be distressed.
While self injury in college is getting the most recent media attention, the rates of depression and suicide and attempts have also received a lot of coverage. In a recent national college health survey, 10 percent of college students have been diagnosed with depression and 7 percent report anxiety disorders. Often times, there are inadequate resources to deal with the numbers of students coming in to mental health services. After Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, where I go to school, it was almost impossible to get an appointment with any of the counselors at the college. They were already working long hours with low pay before the hurricane hit and it would take weeks, if not months, to get an appointment with them. If a student tries to go off campus, the cost of an appointment with a psychologist is often very expensive even with insurance (and quite a few students just don't have insurance), and the smaller towns usually don't have many therapists available. So, with the rising rates of depression and other mental illnesses among students, just what can we (the students) do to get help? Options are few and the government seems unwilling to help. Counselors are trying hard to help but are already overworked. The stigma attached to mental illness is overwhelming and many college students simply don't want to have that attached to them.
At Monmouth University, those students who are believed to be suicidal are taken to a local hospital for an assessment and are discharged if there is no imminent risk. The student is not allowed to return to their dorm until they are cleared and must agree to follow-up care. Non-residents at the college go through a similar procedure. After the hospital assessment, they are referred back to the counseling center at the university. As long as the students comply with the recommendations, they can return to school. This follows the line of thought of many psychiatric leaders that the treatment of severally depressed and suicidal students on campus is ideal and that they should not be dismissed from school, especially if they are seeking treatment.
Since 1984, the University of Illinois started a formal program that would require any student who either attempted suicide or threatened it to attend four sessions of professional assessment. If the student did not comply, they would be forced to withdraw from the university. Since the program was implemented, there have been 2017 reports submitted, and the rate of suicide has decreased from 6.91 per 100,000 enrolled students during the eight years prior, to 3.78 in the 21 years since then.
College students must be able to have a safe place to go to if they need help, without the fear of people looking down at them or shunning them. Sometimes they can find it on campus, sometimes they can't. To help college students with mental illnesses, mental healthcare in this country must be improved. I urge you to go to the website for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI, www.nami.org) and check out your states mental healthcare grade. Don't get your hopes up: no state received an A. The average grade in this country is discouraging: it's a D. Then contact your representatives! Talk about how this system is in shambles and they must improve it for the children and parents, siblings and friends. Do it for the college students and those who will be there soon, for we are supposed to be the future of this country.
Sites used for this diary: (sorry for the length of some of these)
http://www.nami.org/
http://mentalhealth.about.com/...
http://www.foxnews.com/...
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/...
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/...
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/...
http://www.nmha.org/...