Depression and College Students
College students right now are an incredibly depressed and anxious demographic and it is hurting their success and happiness in life. A 2013 APA survey revealed that about one third of college students had experienced some form of depression in the last year and that it affected their performance. This statistic shows that depression is a huge problem among college students. Interested in what was at the crux of this situation, I scoured the internet to find possible causes to this rampant issue in college age students. I also sat down with three college students to talk about depression and possible causes. We discussed a plethora of topics including but not limited to: religion, social media, and the perception of the millennial generation. One common theme that spanned all three of the students is that when asked, they all admitted to have suffered from depression before. The three students all had different answers on most of the topics, but they all identified as Christians, spent at least 3 hours on the internet, and believed that depression is very common in college students. These conversations helped to provide me with a unique perception on depression and other relevant issues. Clearly, depression is an issue in this demographic, and psychologists, theorists, and authors have many different opinions on why this is. These theories range from the attitude towards mental health to the downfall of an agreed existential narrative. In this article, I will break down some of the most important and substantive theories.
One of the largest theories of the cause for depression is the accelerating technological advancement that is becoming an integral part of teenager’s lives. Technology makes life for people simpler, but it also detaches us from the physical world. This digital world that college students are constantly engrossed in could lead to issues in life. Author, Tom Friedman explains in his book, The World Is Flat that the world is “flat” which is his way of explaining that in the 21st century, the world is hyper connected. He explains this as bringing many great opportunities, but also creating a constant sense of confusion and chaos. This implication lies to a couple of different issues. First, this constant connection causes an “Information Overload”. Greg Henriques, writer at Psychology Today, explains that “Psychological research on choices shows that in many cases, more choices lead to more anxiety.” The other issues is the constant exposure to troubling events that we are exposed to. This leads to stress over things that we would have never thought about. Constant connection to super celebrities also creates a social comparison for college students which creates a sense of inferiority. This is also seen with students comparing themselves with other peers on social media to a similar effect. Another theory is that we are striving further and further away from our original environment, the one we evolved for. The idea is that the more and more we move away from it, the more distress we will feel, because we are not fulfilling certain evolutionary drives. This could be one of the possible reasons the students I talked to have suffered from depression before, having all logged at least 3 hours a day on the internet. Technology being the consequence of a flourishing society, but along with it comes many issues, that we may not properly address or understand for years to come.
A big issue that is becoming very evident in our modern world is the lack of existential comfort. Atheism is on the rise shown in this graph from Pew research.
This is not not inherently bad, but when a country has a large religious base, it allows for a comfort and uniformity among the people. The breakdown of Christianity in America can be seen in different light by many different people. One may see the rise of science and atheism as a great strive to logic and reason as author Barry Schwartz does, but the problem is atheism creates a void, that organized religion fills: existential purpose. Millennials are more atheistic than any generation before, and Schwartz explains their situation as, “They don’t seem to know where they belong. They don’t seem to know that they are doing the right things with their lives. They don’t seem to know what the right things are.” Dr. Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert, explains that the focus on “methodological naturalism” in schools, which leads to “The only “true” truths are claims that are divorced from any supernatural context and impose no moral obligations on human behavior. People today are subjected to an enforced secularism” Once again, logic and reason is incredibly important, but the lack of any alternative mode of thinking, leaves college students with no tools to deal with existential dread. Even though Christian students have the spiritual tools to deal with existential dread, I think society’s nihilistic outlook on existence begins to rub off on them. This could explain why the students I interviewed are depressed even though they are Christian. This is not to imply though, that all religious students are content, and have not suffered from depression.
The approach to mental health in the modern world, may be a large factor of the depression rates in college students. Depression is commonly seen as a “rare disease” to most, that only really scarred people get, but it can be seen on this graph that depression and mental health concerns are much more common in college than people perceive.
This disconnect between reality and perception causes depression to not be seen as the very real, common issue it is. Depression and mental illness is still a tough topic to talk about with a lot of stigmas attached. Another issue with the approach to mental illness is what Psychology Today calls, “Psychopharmacology and the Rise of the Disease-Pill Model of Mental Illness” or the concept of seeing mental illnesses as a disease that can be fixed with pills. The issue with this concept is that it may be seen as putting an emphasis on using drugs to fix mental health completely, instead of using talk therapy, and other healthy life changes to combat the issue.
One of the last theories on why depression rates are so high in college students has to do with society at the moment. College students are mostly in the young millennial range, which is commonly criticized as a generation that was coddled too much. “Sensitive, rebellious, and selfish” were all words used to describe millennials by the students I interviewed. Times writer, Joel Stein explains that, “in the 1970s, people wanted to improve kids’ chances of success by instilling self-esteem. It turns out that self-esteem is great for getting a job or hooking up at a bar but not so great for keeping a job or a relationship” and this is one of the biggest reasons why millennials are so focused on themselves. Social Psychologist, Roy Baumeister explains that when self-esteemed is worked on, it commonly increases narcissism too. Narcissism has a tendency to lead to many mental health issues and provide a general lack of ability to deal with life’s problems. Narcissism is commonly seen as a non fulfilling thought pattern. Another possible issue that can be examined about to provide insight into depression in college students is the breakdown of traditional family structure. Traditional family structure in this scenario is not inherently about straight or gay marriage, but the encouragement of marriage and families in general. Society as a whole is striving further and further from traditional family structure by creating a hookup culture, which leads to constant fluctuation in relationships and high divorce rates that can cause mental health issues in individuals.
At the end of the day, there are probably many factors that are causing high depression rates in college students. I believe that the studies on depression need to be kept up and resources should be dedicated to understanding depression on college campuses. College is one of the most important times to carve a path towards success for yourself, and depression can throw a wrench in that plan.
