College campuses across the nation are starting to experience a rise in mental health issues. Students have been reporting to counseling sessions and have been trying to take advantage of other resources offered by their college or university. Mental health awareness has been receiving more exposure to society and because of this, many people believe that students are paying more attention to their mental health and state of mind.
Mental health refers to a person’s psychological or emotional well-being. Students and organizations at Southeastern Louisiana University(SLU) have been trying to bring more awareness to mental illness.
Professor Michael McGee, a theology professor for a local seminary school in New Orleans, claimed he blames social media for most of the mental issues college students experience. McGee also does a lot of counseling for married couples, teens, and troubled youth. He has been teaching and counseling for over 20 years.
He stated, “The majority of the counseling sessions involving students and young adults, all were centered around something related to social media.”
McGee also suggested that if college students did not use social media as much, then they wouldn’t experience as many emotional or mental issues. When asked to further explain his suggestion, he expressed how he has many students both in college and in grade school who suffer from depression or anxiety. The majority of their issues cycle around them wanting to be or do what they see on social media.
McGee further explained, “Usually female students are not happy with themselves because of their appearance. They are insecure or do not think they are beautiful and would rather look like the women or models they see on social media, which leads them into a deep depression about themselves.”
As for the males, McGee said, “Most guys also deal with depression but do not like to admit it. They usually experience depression because they too don’t fit a specific description or cannot be, or do things they see other men doing on social media.”
Depression consists of feelings that relate to unhappiness, self-doubt, misery, sadness, sorrow or even melancholy. Depression is considered a very common mental illness that most people suffer from. It is a real disease that often can lead to suicide.
SLU Junior, Brittany Cunningham, indicated that she also has battled deep depression and that it took her, “Years to conquer”.
Cunningham stated, “After my grandparents passed away, my boyfriend of six years broke up with me which made me insecure or feel like I wasn’t good enough. That was a very hard moment for me. My mother fell ill, my sister moved away, my parents were getting a divorce, and I was failing most of my classes and was about to be suspended.”
She also said, “ I didn’t have anyone to talk to since I had no friends, and my family members were not great listeners. At the time, I was not aware of the free counseling services through SLU so I battled all of these things alone.”
At one point Cunningham expressed that she attempted to take her own life but did not succeed. That is when she took it upon herself to get help. She explained how she received counseling and became more spiritually aware because of her experiences. She stated that she is doing fine now and is trying to help other friends and family overcome depression as well.
“At one point, I thought to myself, that if I changed my looks, styles or even my body to look like an Instagram model, my boyfriend would take me back. I’m so glad I didn’t do any of those things; I had to find myself and recognize my beauty and self-worth,” (Cunningham).
On a university or college campus, depression can come from anything. More and more students are committing suicide because of it. It is important to look for signs of depression within students because it may help save someone’s life.
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