LAT: More college students mentally ill

[steve2470]

http://www.latimes.com/sns-health-college-students-mentally-ill,0,1212338.story?track=rss

The number of college students who are afflicted with a serious mental illness is rising, according to data presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Assn. in San Diego

The findings came from an analysis of 3,265 college students who used campus counseling services between September 1997 and August 2009. The students were screened for mental disorders, suicidal thoughts and self-injurious behavior.

In 1998, 93% of the students seeking counseling were diagnosed with one mental disorder, compared to 96% of students in 2009. The percentage of students with moderate to severe depression rose from 34% to 41% while the number of students on psychiatric medications increased from 11% to 24%.

However, the number of students who said they had thought about suicide within two weeks of counseling fell from 26% in 1998 to 11% in 2009—a figure that could reflect improvements in suicide prevention and counseling outreach on college campuses.

more at link above.

[Warpy]

1. College itself is stressful enough, a social and academic pressure cooker

Throw on a job and mounting debt and it's no wonder a lot of kids are starting to crack.

[steve2470]

2. agreed nt

[Posteritatis]

3. Some is probably also being willing to recognize it too

Attitudes towards mental illness are still horrible - just read around DU - but they're still somewhat better than they were ten or twenty years ago, and the expel-on-diagnosis craze that hit a lot of universities seems to have started to calm down.

Of course, that doesn't conflict with the possibility that yes, more students might be having more problems in an objective sense too.

[Warpy]

4. We quietly self medicated in the 60s

first with alcohol and later with more effective drugs like grass. We also lacked the financial pressure that the majority of students face today.

[notesdev]

5. a diagnosis is not an affliction

Given that they're labeling 96% of people who come for counseling as mentally ill, I'd say this points more to bias in diagnosis than any actual change in the population. There's no money to be made off of people who are healthy, is there?

[Odin2005]

6. It's the STRESS.

People snap.

[liberal N proud]

7. With all the pressure and all the partying and relationships.

Who wouldn't show signs of mental disorders.

Nothing graduation can't cure.

[Posteritatis]

8. Graduation does not cure things like bipolar disorder. (nt)

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. I've yet to find a cure for that. :^(

[Posteritatis]

11. Pity a lot of the posters in this thread are so wrong about it

If things like that were merely situational then the world would be a lot better; it seems too easy to blow off serious mental disorders as "school's hard" when - as I gather you know too well - they're often a hell of a lot more fixed than that. It's come frighteningly close to killing my sister a couple of times too, in part because of attitudes like that or worse interfering with (or actively trying to prevent!) her treatment.

But no, we've (so far) got three people claiming mental illness is just situational and a fourth suggesting it's made up for financial reasons. Oh how far we have come. :eyes:

[steve2470]

13. You are correct

In addition to the more serious mental disorders, the adjustment disorders common to college life need to be addressed.

[riderinthestorm]

10. I was an RA my senior year

Yeah, so shoot me but I was desperate and the gig fed me and housed me, and I still worked outside to earn enough to pay the tuition....

That said, I had 75 freshman women on my floor. I was told by health services that 2 were clinically depressed at the start because the women had agreed to share the info so someone else was aware of what was going on with them. It helped tremendously to know that about them. I could keep an eye on them, I would make an effort to say hello daily. I knew I had others who were "troubled" but I didn't know how to reach them. My troubled ones didn't return to school second semester while the ones I KNEW were depressed went on to finish that year.

Students who come to school with issues like bi-polar need all the support they can muster. It helps that nowadays (instead of the old times - snort!), mental illness isn't as stigmatized. Sometimes a student will "accept" another student's perspective of what's going on with their behavior ("you're behaving like a jackass, are you okay?"), and a short "don't forget your meds today!" can help.

[Posteritatis]

12. You are insufficiently common. (nt)