Mental Health on College Campuses

When you think about it, how often do you feel stressed on a given day? Perhaps you have a paper due at midnight that you have barely looked at or maybe you are thinking about how you will pay for next month’s rent. Either way we all experience stress one way or another. Stress may be impacting your mental health like it does so many others. The issue of mental health is a growing crisis in today’s society. Mental illness presents a large challenge for college students and colleges and universities are becoming responsible for assisting their students in getting the help they need.

Stress in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, however many people are experiencing chronic stress that impacts both one’s mental and physical health. Robert Sapolsky, a neuroscientist, explains in HBO’s One Nation Under Stress that stress is a necessary part of our animalistic nature to be used for emergencies and, “humans are not supposed to be living in the constant state of stress many are.” The physical impact chronic stress has on the human brain is astonishing. Amy Arnsten, a neuroscientist at Yale University, has found that the pre-frontal cortex is vulnerable to stress and may lose some of its function as a result. She also found that when exposed to chronic stress, the brain changes and it can become difficult to then handle additional stress. Stress can also contribute to other health problems including headaches, stiffness in the body, chronic blood pressure, depression, anxiety, risk-taking

behaviors (like alcohol and substance abuse), and suicide. All these negative effects

of stress are putting a generation of college students at a significantly high risk of

future health problems.

It is important to note that everyone experiences their own unique set of stressors. Stressors found specific to college students include, feeling lonely, missing family and friends, experiencing interpersonal relationship conflicts, academic pressure, worrying about financial problems and personal health. These stressors are related to the rapid increase in mental illness in college students. In Foreign Affairs’ “Generation Stress,” the current generation of college students experience more stress and anxiety than previous generations. The reasons for this boil down into three factors: safety, economics, and technology. We are a generation that has grown up with the increasing number of deadly mass shootings, rising price of college tuition, and the latest technology at the palms of our hands. Stress plays a role in the day to day challenges of college students and it may cause, “affected grades, difficulty paying attention in class, trouble maintaining social connections, insomnia and fatigue, decreased confidence and self-esteem.” Stress on college students puts them at a very high chance of mental illness like depression and anxiety. In fact, 40% of college students throughout the U.S. have reported frequently feeling stress and 10% have reported suicidal thoughts. However, the issue is that not enough of these students are getting the help they need.

The stigma attached to mental health has been engraved over centuries and presents a modern issue for individuals needing help. Although mental illness is much more acceptable nowadays, stigma still influences an individual’s decision to seek out the help they require. Stigma is defined as “negative attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors that influences the individual, or the general public, to fear, reject, avoid, be prejudiced, and discriminate against people with mental health disorders,” by the Journal of Undergraduate Ethnic Minority Psychology. Some attitudes surrounding mental illness can include viewing mental illness as a weakness, thinking it is perfectly normal, having nonwestern views on the cause of mental illness, and parents expectations of perfection for their children. These attitudes tend in impact college students the most. In an article by Time Magazine, several college students described their struggle with mental illness and seeking help while in school. One student, Emmanueal Mannesson said he was initially “too proud” to get help when he began experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Some individuals will refuse to admit they need help or think they are capable of handling it themselves. Many do not understand when it is time to get help and are unsure if what they are experiencing even warrants seeing a counselor. Normalizing going to therapy or finding a healthy outlet will play an important role in lessening the stigma attached to mental health and allow students to feel more comfortable seeking assistance.

Despite the stigma of mental health, the number of college students seeking help has grown, but many universities are ill-equipped to deal with these rising numbers. According to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health, “Between 2009 and 2015, the number of students visiting counseling centers increased by about 30% on average, while enrollment grew by less than 6 %.” It is great that more students are seeking the help they need however, most college counseling centers have limited resources to provide proper care. Time's magazine found that, “The average university has one professional counselor for every 1,737 students — fewer than the minimum of one therapist for every 1,000 to 1,500 students recommended by the International Association of Counseling Services.” This is an issue discussed similarly in Foreign Affairs’ “Generation Stress,” noting that 34% of college counseling centers had to put students on a waitlist in 2016-17. If a student needs help with their mental health, it is crucial for them to receive assistance and guidance immediately. Waitlists will only deter students from making counseling appointments. Therefore colleges must increase their funding in their counseling centers as well as focus on raising awareness of the mental health issue. They should start focusing on early prevention, detection, and treatment for students who are at risk. Counseling centers must be accessible to anyone whether they are experiencing a crisis or are just feeling down and need someone to talk to.

Fostering a better sense of campus community may play a key element of addressing mental health on college campuses. Humans are social creatures and need connections to survive. On Brené Brown’s podcast on “Loneliness and Connection ” with Dr. Vivek Murthy, Murthy said that people with strong social relationships are 50% less likely to die prematurely than people with weak social relationships. By nature, we need one another to live happily and survive. The Journal of American College Health performed a study on Understanding stress as an impediment to academic performance and found that social support is positively associated with GPA and students who are heavily influenced by stress have less social support. When students are a part of a group, they are most likely to succeed and be happy. We all love to complain and sharing the weight of our problems with the people we are close with helps us to relieve stress. Since the link between social support and success is strong, campuses should strive to build more inclusive communities, especially in regard to minority groups on campus. They can help raise awareness of clubs and groups on campus and invest in activities that will drive the student population closer.

Stress and mental illness are at an all-time high, especially on college campuses across the U.S.. College students today experience a multitude of stressors and the stigma attached to mental illness presents a barrier to receiving help. On the other hand, college campus counseling centers are not equipped to handle the influx of students seeking help for their mental health. Colleges must fixate on how they can better help their students by providing them with the necessary resources and focusing on unifying their campus community.