With Depression, We Get By With a Little Help From Our Friends
Addressing the mental health crisis by fostering connections
This article is part of a Wise & Well Special Report: The United States of Depression.
Forty-four percent of college students report experiencing symptoms of depression and 37 percent report experiencing symptoms of anxiety, according to the March 2023 Healthy Minds Survey, an annual web-based survey examining mental health among college students. Fifteen percent report seriously considering suicide in the last year — the highest rate in the history of the survey. Similarly dim statistics show up in surveys of other young adults, and also adolescents.
As a mom of three young adults, and a professor who teaches many college students, these numbers are heartbreaking.
But the good news is that the current mental health crisis on college campuses and elsewhere around the country is decidedly not inevitable. Empirical research, including work I’ve conducted in collaboration with my colleagues and thesis students, provides valuable insight into how parents, educators, and peers can help foster better psychological well-being, in college students and anyone struggling with depression or prone to its symptoms.
Reduce stigma of mental health support
Many college students spend considerable time and energy trying to present themselves as thriving — academically and socially. Adolescents care deeply about fitting in with their peers, and are highly motivated to hide any signs of weakness or insecurity. This tendency makes it really hard for a person to admit they need help, especially when they think they’re the only one having trouble.
This tendency is often described as the “duck syndrome,” the idea that people are paddling furiously under the surface to stay afloat while simultaneously presenting the image of a cool, relaxed individual, gliding on the water. Duck syndrome is the “feeling that everyone is doing really well except for you,” wrote Ishaan Singh, a student at Stanford University, where duck syndrome was first coined, “and the feeling that everyone around you is in total control but that everything is falling apart for you.”
This feeling of isolation — “It’s only me who is struggling” — of course makes mental health issues feel even worse.
To help correct such misperceptions, and reduce feelings of isolation, my thesis student Kate Turetsky and I designed several brief mental health workshops for college students.
- One workshop focused on correcting misperceptions about the prevalence of mental health issues on campus, given students’ tendency to underestimate how many of their peers struggle with such issues.
- A second workshop provided general information about mental health disorders and myths.
- The third workshop focused on improving mental health through stress management.
Two months later, we measured the effects of all three workshops on students’ attitudes.
We found that students clearly benefited from receiving accurate information about the prevalence of mental health issues on campus. The workshop correcting misperceptions about mental health issues on campus was just as effective as the general education workshop at improving attitudes toward seeking professional help for mental health issues. This workshop was also more effective than the stress management workshop.
Although our study did not find evidence that receiving accurate information about mental health norms led to an increase in actually seeking help, our follow-up period of two months may have been too short to see such an effect. Prior studies demonstrating the role of attitudes in predicting behavior suggest that these students might be more willing to seek therapy for mental health issues in the future. And given the epidemic of suicides among undergraduates, this kind of behavior change could well help save lives.
Build meaningful connections
Empirical research clearly demonstrates that developing meaningful social connections can go a long way toward improving psychological well-being. People who are more socially connected to their community are happier, physically healthier, and report fewer mental health problems. Such connections may be especially valuable for adolescents and young adults, who often prioritize social relationships above all else.
One of the most promising approaches to fostering such connections on college campuses is ProjectConnect, a program designed to help small groups of people get to know each other and build relationships quickly. ProjectConnect is specifically designed to build connections, and thereby reduce loneliness and improve well-being.
My thesis student, Lexa Harpel, and I conducted a study to examine the immediate and longer-term effects of ProjectConnect on participants’ mental well-being. Participants (including 59 students and 22 staff) from Amherst College were randomly assigned to participate in the program in the fall semester, or to wait until the spring semester. Those in the ProjectConnect program participated in five weekly hour-long sessions, including:
- Three sessions with guided conversation focused on increasing intimacy,
- One session with a community-building task,
- One session with a casual meal and opportunity for program reflection.
Results from the one-month follow-up revealed that people who participated in ProjectConnect showed decreases in loneliness, suggesting that even a relatively brief opportunity to build connections can lead to substantial benefits.
These findings are particularly encouraging given findings from a nationwide study of nearly 33,000 college students revealed that two-thirds of students report feeling lonely and isolated.
“Helping build stronger connections on campus may be the most powerful thing we can do to improve student mental health and well-being,” says Jessica Gifford, Founder and Chief Connection Officer of Project Connect. “Every act of connection — large and small — makes a difference. When you connect, you protect.”
Train people to support friends in need
Like many young people, college students spend considerable time with their friends: They eat together in common dining halls, attend classes and study together, and may even sleep together in the same dorm rooms. Friends are therefore likely to be among the first to recognize signs of mental health issues — and may be uniquely able to help students get mental health services. In fact, a 2019 survey by the American College Health Association found that among students who seek help for their mental health, most initially did so after being encouraged by a friend.
College students often receive training in how to intervene in the face of different types of problematic behaviors, from binge drinking to sexual assault. My students, Katie Siegel and Tommy Mobley, and I therefore conducted a study to examine different strategies for increasing college students’ willingness to help a peer struggling with mental health issues.
One hundred fifty college students were randomly assigned to one of three brief (15-minute) online workshops.
- One workshop provided specific skills and knowledge to help a peer struggling with mental health, such as active listening techniques and campus mental health resources.
- A second workshop provided information correcting commonly held misperceptions that inhibit people from helping a peer struggling with mental health, such as that asking a friend about suicidal feelings will make the situation worse.
- The third workshop provided strategies for empathetic listening and responding to a peer struggling with mental health.
Our findings from a three-month follow-up reveal that even brief online interventions can play a role in reducing the mental health crisis. Students who received training in specific skills to help a friend, or who got information correcting common misperceptions about mental health, reported less fear that intervening would hurt their friendship. This fear often inhibits people from intervening when they worry a friend needs help. Alleviating the fear may help someone intervene when they see a friend who is struggling.
Our research suggests that increasing help-seeking behavior among college students likely relies on their willingness and ability to speak up when they worry a friend needs help. Increasing training in bystander intervention for mental health concerns may play an important role in linking peers to on-campus mental health resources and improving college students’ psychological well-being.
This article is part of a Wise & Well Special Report: The United States of Depression. If you or a loved one is depressed, it’s vital to talk about it. Because depression increases the risk of suicide, consider calling the confidential National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1–800–273-TALK (8255) for English, 1–888–628–9454 for Spanish, or call or text 988. Global support in 44 languages is available from Befrienders Worldwide.
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