Helping Students Succeed The number of people who are afflicted with mental illnesses like depression and anxiety is rising with suicide as a leading cause of death among college students. It is understood that the amount of “students seeking counseling for "’severe’" psychological problems jumped from 16 percent in 2000 to 39 percent in 2012”(Baker), which shows how quickly the rate of mental illness is increasing. Many students who suffer from these disorders feel that they don’t have a good support system built to help them deal with their problems. Over 1000 college students commit suicide every year, which is why this issue needs to be taken more seriously.
One explanation for the surge in depression could be that technology and new social …show more content…
In 2006 it was documented that around “50 percent of students have been so anxious they struggled in school” (The Top Mental…). Society would care more about helping these people if they knew more about how easy it is to procrastinate and just not be able to do work at all when you are mentally ill. In a study done by the American College Health Association “stress was cited as the single greatest impediment to academic progress by both genders” (Data Highlights). I believe that the number one reason college students often suffer silently with their mental illnesses is because no one has instructed them on what to do if they need help. Students who completed a survey for the National Mental Health Association reported that their “parents lag in their awareness and understanding of these symptoms” (Mental Illness...), and half of the students disclosed that they had never had any substantial education on the subject through parents, teachers, or friends. NAMI also recorded in an analysis that “sixty-four percent of students who stopped attending college are no longer attending because of mental health related reasons” (Mental …show more content…
One of the ways to achieve this is to educate as many people as possible about mental disorders. If people learned how to spot signs for things like depression and anxiety in the people around them, then it would be feasible that we could lower the number of people deciding to commit suicide. On one college campus, a junior student decided to take matters into their own hands and created NAMI’s University of Arizona club. The student describes their personal experience dealing with mental illness and expresses how much creating the club helped to educate themselves and the people on their campus. I believe that suicide prevention lines or ways to communicate easily with other students on campus would be a great help as well. Though counseling centers do exist, some campuses have been noted for their excessive wait times, which could be extremely dangerous to students who are contemplating suicide. It is for this reason that I suggest a peer-run student mental health group, similar to a NAMI organization, be created on any campus that is seemingly lacking in mental health
One explanation for the surge in depression could be that technology and new social …show more content…
In 2006 it was documented that around “50 percent of students have been so anxious they struggled in school” (The Top Mental…). Society would care more about helping these people if they knew more about how easy it is to procrastinate and just not be able to do work at all when you are mentally ill. In a study done by the American College Health Association “stress was cited as the single greatest impediment to academic progress by both genders” (Data Highlights). I believe that the number one reason college students often suffer silently with their mental illnesses is because no one has instructed them on what to do if they need help. Students who completed a survey for the National Mental Health Association reported that their “parents lag in their awareness and understanding of these symptoms” (Mental Illness...), and half of the students disclosed that they had never had any substantial education on the subject through parents, teachers, or friends. NAMI also recorded in an analysis that “sixty-four percent of students who stopped attending college are no longer attending because of mental health related reasons” (Mental …show more content…
One of the ways to achieve this is to educate as many people as possible about mental disorders. If people learned how to spot signs for things like depression and anxiety in the people around them, then it would be feasible that we could lower the number of people deciding to commit suicide. On one college campus, a junior student decided to take matters into their own hands and created NAMI’s University of Arizona club. The student describes their personal experience dealing with mental illness and expresses how much creating the club helped to educate themselves and the people on their campus. I believe that suicide prevention lines or ways to communicate easily with other students on campus would be a great help as well. Though counseling centers do exist, some campuses have been noted for their excessive wait times, which could be extremely dangerous to students who are contemplating suicide. It is for this reason that I suggest a peer-run student mental health group, similar to a NAMI organization, be created on any campus that is seemingly lacking in mental health