A Call for College Administrators to take the Mental Health Crisis on College Campuses More

Seriously

Taylor Pust
English 138: Section 002
15 April 2018
Abstract
This issue brief examines mental health on college campuses, as well as the
misconceptions of what the mental illnesses really are. While the issues of inadequate education
of mental health must be addressed to help prevent a greater epidemic throughout all age groups,
this brief primarily focuses on young adults at the college level who have mental illnesses. The
three major mental disorders that will be focused on in this brief include: depression, anxiety,
and eating disorders. Additionally, it focuses on the lack of mental health education provided to
these students while in college. After reviewing all of the evidence, possible responses at the
state and federal level are suggested. These suggestions all have a common theme of helping
students, professors, and administrators become more informed on what mental illnesses are in
hopes that it will help prevent them and give others the ability to recognize the warning signs in
themselves and in others.
What is Mental Health?
In today’s society, mental health has been becoming more and more prevalent, with about
one in four people being diagnosed with a mental illness each year.i Mental health includes our
emotional, psychological, and social well-being; thus, it plays a huge factor in our day-to-day
lives. It is also a huge determining factor of how we each handle stress, relate to other people,
and make our everyday decisions. Whether it be in childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, mental
health is important at all stages of life. Mental health, over the course of one’s lifetime, can
change, becoming troubled or uneasy. Many factors can contribute to these problems, including
biological factors (genes or brain chemistry), life experiences (trauma or abuse), or family
history of mental health problems.ii It is clear that whatever causes mental health problems is not
purposely triggered by the person going through it. Poor mental health is not a rare occurrence,
either. Out of the one in four people affected by a mental health disorder, a huge chunk resides
in the college-aged population. For every five students on a university campus, at least one is
seriously affected with a mental illness. While that is a huge percent, those numbers are only the
reported ones, for most students do not seek the help they need and remain undiagnosed.
The most common types of mental illness across college campuses are depression,
anxiety, and eating disorders.iii The majority of college-aged students cannot accurately define
these mental illnesses and admit that they do not have much knowledge about them.iv Many
professionals say that being informed on mental health issues is the best way to prevent them
because you are able to recognize the warning signs in both yourself and others.v Colleges and
universities say that they take mental health seriously, but are they really doing all that they can
do to ensure the safety and well-being of their students?

The Truth Behind Depression: What it Really is

Depression, or major depressive disorder, is a common and serious illness that negatively
affects how you feel, the way you act, and how you think. When people of all different age
groups were asked to describe depression, almost all of them described it as some form of
sadness.vi While many people view depression simply as being sad, that is only a small part of
what depression truly is. The issue is, many people do not understand that. Depression can have
both physical and mental symptoms, which makes the person experiencing it feel like they are
being consumed by the disorder. When surveyed, only a very small percentage of people
admitted that they had any idea that depression has physical symptoms, which was said to
completely change their perception of the illness.vii People who have depression may often
experience the symptoms and signs listed below:viii
· A persistent sad, anxious, or empty mood
· Feeling very hopeless
· Loss of pleasure in normal activities
· Difficulty sleeping or oversleeping
· Weight/appetite changes
· Thoughts of death or suicide
· Muscle pain/headaches
· Difficulty remembering, concentrating, or making decisions
· Feeling guilty or worthless
The group that experiences these symptoms at a high percentage is college students. An
approximated 36.4% of college students are diagnosed with depression, but that does not capture
the full extent of the disorder because many are not diagnosed.ix College is an exciting time, but
it is also a very hard adjustment for many students. For some, it may be their first time leaving
home, taking difficult classes, getting less sleep, meeting new people, or trying new things. They
may experience both small and large setbacks that feel like they are going to last forever. These
feelings of hopelessness often lead to students thinking about suicide. There are more than 1,000
suicides on colleges campuses every year, which makes it the second-leading cause of death
amongst college-aged students.x On top of that statistic, one in ten college students have made a
plan to end their life sometime while in college. Cold, hard facts like this are not often listed in
news outlets for the public to see because colleges do not want people to see how drastic these
numbers truly are. According to a psychiatrist at the American Psychological Association,
colleges could improve the quality of students’ lives in a life changing way by making mental
health a priority, but few schools truly do.xi If colleges and universities really understood what
depression was, they may take the issue more seriously.

Anxiety: Misunderstood and Underdiagnosed

Although it is normal for everyone to experience a little anxiety here and there, it
becomes a problem when it interferes with your everyday life. Anxiety disorders are disorders
that share a general feature of extreme, prolonging fear. This type of fear is intense, which leads
to behavioral and functional disturbances, such as panic attacks. Some common symptoms of
anxiety are listed below:xii
· Breathing difficulties
· Feeling overwhelmed
· Intense fear
· Headaches
· Insomnia/Drowsiness
· Feeling like there is a lack of air
· Nervousness
· Sweating
· Shaking
· Panic attacks
Anxiety is the leading mental disorder among college campuses, with approximately
41.6% of college students suffering from it, which is also expected to be an underestimate since
many people do not seek help or get diagnosed.xiii Students are dealing with new and unique
stressors at college, as they are experiencing a very large transition. Not feeling like they can
handle these new experiences causes students to struggle and feel as though they cannot take on
such a new environment. Additionally, there is a whole new level of pressure associated with
college, which adds a huge academic stressor. Because of this, there is palpable pressure to do
well, whether it comes from parents or the students themselves. According to Hilary Silver, a
licensed clinical social worker and mental health expert, “When students head off to college, the
familiar people are no longer there to reinforce the identity these students have created for
themselves. This can cause students to develop anxiety.” xiv Struggling to keep their identity
when transitioning to college is just one of the possible onsets of anxiety, for students have cited
a myriad of contributing factors.
The number of students struggling with anxiety continues to grow year after year at an
intense rate. As you can see in the graph below, both anxiety and depression have grown each
year, but anxiety has grown at a quicker and more intense rate. Colleges and universities need to
make more of an effort to control this ever-growing epidemic, as only a very small percentage of
students were able to accurately define anxiety.xv

Anxiety and depression have both been reported to have many different effects on the
lives of students, as seen in the figure below. They are illnesses that take over the person and
control almost every aspect of their life. These numbers are also growing each year, yet nothing
significant is being done to help reduce and stop this growing problem.
Eating Disorders: Misunderstood and Uninformed
Eating disorders are illnesses in which people experience severe disturbances in their
eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions.xvi People with these types of eating
disorders become very preoccupied with the food they eat and their body weight. However,
when surveyed, the majority of people said that they were never taught about eating disorders
and had a very low understanding of what constitutes an eating disorder.xvii Symptoms and
warning signs, that are often forgotten about, are listed below:xviii
• Behaviors and attitudes that indicate weight loss, dieting, and control of food are
becoming their main concerns
• Preoccupation with weight, food, etc.
• Uncomfortable eating around others
• Extreme mood swings
• Extreme concern with body size and shape
• Frequent checking in mirror for perceived flaws in appearance
• Noticeable fluctuations in weight
• Fainting/Syncope

The symptoms listed above are just a few of the many associated with eating disorders.
Eating disorders are common among college students because entering a new atmosphere puts a
new type of pressure on students to find friends and fit in. If they do not feel as though they “fit”
the image, then they will often start worrying more about how they look and what they are
eating. Struggling individuals often feel stressed by the demands of their classes or expectations
of their peers and family.

As seen in the image above, the statistics make it extremely clear that eating disorders are
most prevalent in college students. It ties in with other disorders, such as depression, which is
also most common in college students. While this illness can act alone, it is often tied in with
anxiety and depression, which is why weight fluctuation is often a symptom of both disorders.
Over 70% of people recognize eating disorders as a mental disorder, which is becoming more
and more difficult to do as facts like the ones above continue to grow.xix
Another large part of college-aged students’ lives that has a hefty link to eating disorders is
social media. Social media is most prevalent in people between the ages of 18 and 27, which
includes all college students. Social media makes this disorder more prevalent by creating poor
self-concepts. An astonishing 88% of college students say that they have more than one social
media accounts that consume a majority of their day.xx It has become increasingly difficult to
avoid constant pressure surrounding the “ideal body type”, especially when body shamers are
using social media to talk negatively about others’ bodies. This increasing difficulty can be seen
in the numbers: eating disorders in college females increased from 23% to 32% and 4.2% to 22%
in males.xxi The majority of these students admit that they do not how to handle or cope with
their eating disorder, which is why they do not seek help.xxii This is crippling among college
campuses. When surveyed, only 57% of respondents said that they offer eating disorder training
on their college campuses. Not only is this statistic shockingly low, the respondents that said
they did have this type of training said that it would only happen about once every few years.xxiii
Students, along with administrators and professors, should be informed on how, when, and
where they should seek so that they can feel comfortable doing so.

Practices in Place Now

When a survey was done around several different college campuses, the majority of
students admitted that they did not know much about their university’s counseling centers, and
those that did say they knew about it felt uncomfortable navigating treatment for a severely
stigmatized issue, such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.xxiv
No legislation or policies are currently in place that require college campuses to talk
about mental health or the services that they offer.xxv Some colleges and universities take this
issue more seriously than others; thus, they advertise their resources better. Penn State
University, being one of the universities that takes the mental health issue more seriously,
requires all professors to talk about the mental health services available in their syllabus, as well
as the importance of seeking help.
On the other hand, some colleges and universities mention nothing about mental health to
their students, making them responsible for finding the information themselves. Clearly, the
amount of effort put in from colleges across the nation differs from place to place. If there was a
more standardized approach, more students may be getting the help they need.

Time to Take Action

While destigmatizing the issue requires more than what college administrators can do,
they can most certainly do their part to help. The federal and state governments need to enact a
law that requires all colleges and universities to teach mental health and discuss the services that
they provide. Almost all colleges and universities have their freshmen take a first-year seminar
class, so a class on mental health could certainly be added. By informing students on mental
health, it can slowly help to destigmatize the issue and have students become more comfortable
seeking help. As presented in the statistics earlier many students do not seek help because they
do not know where they can get help or because they feel embarrassed getting help for a
stigmatized issue. It is time for colleges and universities to encourage students to seek help
when needed and let them know that they have support from others.
Additionally, a law needs to be put into place that also requires administrators and
professors to take a class and become informed on mental health. Often times, the issue resides
in the facts that people just do not know what is going on. If professors, administrators, and
students are all more informed on the issue, they may be able to recognize the warning signs and
symptoms more quickly and clearly. Preventing self-harm and prompting students to seek help
is the ultimate end goal. Preventing and treating mental health would significantly improve the
quality of the students’ lives, which should be the goal of colleges and universities.
In conclusion, the mental health crisis on college campuses is a rising problem across the
country. Year after year, the percentage of college students struggling with a mental illness rises.
Most of them fail to seek treatment or do not even know about the treatment that is available to
them. By prompting the federal government and college administrators to take this issue more
seriously, mental health would drastically improve, as well as the quality of students' lives.

i
National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI. 2018. <https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-by-the-
numbers>.
ii
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mental Health. 29 August 2017.
<http://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/>.
iii
World Health Organization. World Health Report. 2001.
<http://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/>.
iv
Ibid.
v
Ibid.
vi
Lam, Raymond W. Depression. Oxford University Press, 2012.
vii
Ibid.
viii
World Health Organization. World Health Report. 2001.
<http://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/>.
ix
] National Institute of Mental Health. NIMH. 2018. <https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression-
and-college-students/index.shtml>.
x
Neumann Organization. National Data on Campus Suicide and Depression. 2015.
<https://www.neumann.edu/life/counseling/mental_health/suicide/national_data.htm>.
xi
Neighmond, Patti. National Public Radio. 17 January 2011.
<https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132934543/depression-on-the-rise-in-college-students>.
xii
Jovanovich, Tanja. Anxiety. 2016. <https://www.anxiety.org/what-is-anxiety>.
xiii
Ibid.
xiv
Tartakovsky, Margarita. Psych Central. 17 July 2016. <https://psychcentral.com/lib/depression-and-anxiety-
among-college-students/>.
xv
Litwack, Gerald. Anxiety. Elsevier Science, 2017.
xvi
National Institute of Mental Health. NIH. 2017. <https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/eating-
disorders/index.shtml>.

xvii
Keel, Pamela K. Eating Disorders. Oxford University Press, 2017.
xviii
National Eating Disorders Association. NEDA: Feeding Hope. 2017.
<https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/warning-signs-and-symptoms>.
xix
Keel, Pamela K. Eating Disorders. Oxford University Press, 2017.
xx
Smith, Aaron, and Monica Anderson. “Social Media Use in 2018.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science &
Tech, Pew Research Center, 1 Mar. 2018, http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/

xxi
Ibid.
xxii
National Eating Disorders Association. NEDA: Feeding Hope. 2017.
<https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/warning-signs-and-symptoms>.
xxiii
Ibid.
xxiv
Brown, Joel. “A Growing Number of College Students Are Seeking Help for Anxiety, Depression, Stress, and
Psychological Disorders | BU Today | Boston University.” BU Today, 1 Oct. 2016, www.bu.edu/today/2016/mental-
health-college-students/.
xxv
American Pyschological Association. Campus Mental Health. 2018. <http://www.apa.org/advocacy/higher-
education/mental-health/index.aspx>.