It’s Time We Had The Talk About Mental Health And College Students
The following content may contain information that could be triggering.
Before the pandemic struck, California State University, Northridge student Holly Howell would keep her phone inside her backpack and not even bring a laptop to class. Now, with classes being conducted via Zoom it is easier for students such as Howell to become distracted. Her grades are not what she used to receive, especially now that she has to teach herself for one class.
Howell has been dealing with depression and anxiety for most of her life. With COVID-19 she has been suffering more with social anxiety. Every week Holly has therapy twice, meets with a dietician, and with a therapy group through CSUN.
“Another thing that has been really huge in my life is allowing me to feel my feelings and honoring my emotions instead of suppressing them. So I cry all the time now. I don’t view that as a bad thing because I view that as a healthy thing where I am allowing myself to express my emotions,” said Howell.
From May to July 2020, the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium conducted surveys pertaining to mental health in nine public research universities. The subjects used in the survey were 30,725 undergraduate students and 15,346 graduate students. The surveys analyzed how the COVID-19 pandemic has been impacting their mental health.
The SERU COVID-19 Survey proved that college students’ mental health disorders increased during COVID-19 when compared to previous years. The results showed that 39% of undergraduate and graduate students screened positive for generalized anxiety disorder. Also, 32% of graduate students and 35% of undergraduate students screened positive for major depressive disorder.
“We can be as ‘fit as a fiddle’ I think they say . . . but there are all these distractions going on for all multitude of reasons . . . past what’s going on right now and they can’t perform optimally,” said Dr. Thomas Chan, a developmental and health psychologist who teaches in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Northridge. An individual can look healthy and function in a society but in reality, the individual can be suffering internally.
Every individual deals with their own personal mental health, meaning multiple people can suffer from the same mental health illnesses such as depression or anxiety, but we do not experience it the same way.
Chan noticed an increase of students struggling with their mental health during the middle of the spring 2020 semester. As the globe prepared for COVID-19, the CSUN community faced many events that triggered their mental health. Chan became informed of heartbreaking stories from students whose family members and friends were infected with COVID-19. Students were laid off from their jobs, which made matters worse for those who were the sole financial providers of their families. Events such as these are triggers that can throw off the mental health of any individual.
The pandemic and the lockdown could have triggered a wave of more intense symptoms.
According to Dr. David Kyle Bond, a clinical psychologist for SHIFT Psychological, a symptom could be used to categorize a mental illness. From a clinical perspective, identifying a symptom requires looking for the distressors, or impactful discomforts, in an individual’s life. As we live through the pandemic, our lifestyles are adjusting with discomforts that can be mentally draining, but different for everyone. People should look for signs of a normal response to an abnormal situation, versus a response that is interrupting their ability to function.
During the pandemic, it can be challenging for an individual to treat their mental health since some recommendations are being blocked by social distancing, such as physically interacting with an individual. “In a situation where we really don’t have a lot of control and we really are uncertain about how it will come out what we tend to do is focus, really, very particular on things that feel very much under control,” said Bond.
Doctors recommended to separate things that cannot be controlled and focus attention on what can be controlled. But it’s also important to acknowledge the pain of what cannot be controlled and learn to let go. “The acknowledgement part is so key that I think people just try to deny it,” said Chan, adding that instead of repressing the pain, it’s better to invite the pain and create a response that will calm and soothe it.
COVID-19 took away a routine that college students once had and contributed by adding additional stress. College students want a sense of autonomy but many students have to readjust their lives. As students become laid off they cannot afford to live on their own especially in expensive cities such as Los Angeles. College students are remote learning through Zoom but not all students have their own private space where there are no disruptions.
California State University, Northridge student Fatima Serrato has been struggling to interact with students. Serrato is majoring in mechanical engineering and not being able to interact with students who help one another in the computer lab or in tutoring; her academic year has been more difficult with the lack of resources.
“A lot of students might not even realize that they have some mental health issues and they might ignore it or they might think, ‘I don’t have that; that’s not happening to me.’ I feel like if you keep ignoring that it’s going to get worse and you can hurt yourself,” said Serrato.
Lila Doe is a student at California State University, Northridge who has always avoided taking online classes since she enjoys taking classes in person. Without the physical interaction of checking in with a professor, she stresses herself more to make sure she is completing and learning the workload of assignments.
Doe has struggled with mental health her whole life, which concerned her parents about having her isolate alone during quarantine. She likes to plan her schedule and keep a routine but admits she is like a hermit crab now. She enjoys living alone for the moment but hopes once this pandemic ends she can begin to socialize.
Doe said she likes to work on arts and crafts, which helps her feel relaxed and feel productive instead of being stuck on her phone. “I think finding something that is enjoyable but also you can get that satisfaction of ‘oh yeah I’m completing it’ at the end,” she said.
Doe is the president of The Blues Project at CSUN. The Blues Project focuses on spreading awareness on depression and suicide prevention. With the campus working remotely one of their main focuses was finding new methods to spread outreach virtually where students can access resources.
“I was lucky enough to grow up with parents who were very supportive and helpful when it comes to mental health but I know there are so many students whose parents didn’t even discuss it, really talk about it and didn’t take into consideration that it was mental health that nothing was wrong,” said Doe. She wants to spread awareness for any student, especially in college, who is not aware about mental health.
“Think about it. If you break a bone you’re going to go to the doctor to get it fixed. Why would you treat your mental health any different than your physical health?” said Doe.
For more information:
The Blues Project
(818) 677–2610
blue.project@csun.edu
Instagram — @thebluesproject
Twitter — @thebluespr0ject
Website — https://www.csun.edu/counseling/blues-project
SERU Consortium Website — https://cshe.berkeley.edu/seru
If you need mental health support please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273–8255.
NSPL Website — https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
