Retarded. Crazy. Nuts.
Considering the stigma associating these words with mental illness, the dearth of public dialogue surrounding mental health goes virtually unquestioned.
The range of disorders covered by the umbrella term “mental illness” often are hidden, yet all too prevalent among college-aged people in the United States.
From anxiety disorders to depression, obsessive compulsive disorder to anorexia nervosa, mental illnesses affect one in five adults and children in the United States, according to multiple government surveys and reports.
Many aspects of mental illness can be controlled or managed by a combination of medication and therapy. Northwestern offers multiple avenues for treatment, including Counseling and Psychological Services. The 11 counselors and three psychiatrists on the Evanston and Chicago campuses last academic year assessed more than 1,700 students — about 13 percent of NU’s combined undergraduate and graduate student populations — and handled about 600 after-hours emergency calls, according to CAPS Director Kathy Hollingsworth.
And while the number of new cases CAPS handles does not appear to be increasing, the number of emergencies the center handles is certainly on the rise.
After the death of Weinberg freshman Charles Kim last year, which medical examiners ruled a suicide, CAPS implemented a number of changes to make mental-health services more accessible and readily available to students. Such changes included an increase in New Student Week programming and outreach to students, faculty and staff through workshops and training. Associated Student Government senators also had lobbied for some of the changes during Winter Quarter.
But William Banis, vice president for student affairs, stressed that the increased presence of CAPS and other counseling services on campus also resulted from a close examination of students’ needs — not just from one student’s death.
“The expansion of the system and the shifts we make in priorities are based on our local research,” Banis said. “It’s grounded on the information we collect on our students.
“One of the things that we have noticed and concerns us is we have some percentage of students who tell us upon intake into CAPS that they feel a sense of isolation and loneliness. We’re trying especially hard to make sure that no student is anonymous and no individual falls through the cracks.”
Some administrators and experts have speculated that modern medications and readily available mental-health treatment on college campuses enables more and more students with pre-existing mental illnesses to attend NU.
But many students develop mental-health problems while attending college, a time when most of them begin living on their own for the first time.
The stress and anxiety caused or exacerbated by the environment of a selective university such as NU also strains students. Some students feel more pressure from their parents to succeed — and other students, driven by an abiding sense of perfectionism, pressure themselves.
“Our students are very achievement-oriented, high-achievement-oriented,” Banis said. “As a generation they have been pressured to perform well throughout their lives.”
Banis added that for some students, college was a capstone that followed strenuous primary and secondary education.
“Many of you arrive here already stressed out and burned out from working so hard in high school,” he added.
Environmental factors extend beyond the university level and encompass economic troubles and political unrest, such as the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and subsequent wars fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many students’ family members lost their jobs, saw their stock earnings and retirement savings fall dramatically or were called to active duty in the military.
Even students whose families predominantly were unaffected could feel less secure in their own chances for securing a job after graduation.
University officials and counseling professionals are quick to point out that students are not immune to what goes on in the world beyond college campuses.
“Northwestern is a microcosm of a world that is more threatened than what our students knew just three years ago,” Banis said. “It may not be in their thinking every moment, but it’s in the background.”
Other environmental issues, such as pop-culture images of ultra-thin women and men, are believed influence students who develop eating disorders.
Disordered eating habits and diagnosable eating disorders can develop even from the simple desire to stave off the dreaded “freshman 15.” Many athletes also develop disordered eating habits, especially in competitive sports such as wrestling and crew where weight regulation is an integral part of the game.
The manifestation of mental illnesses for college students varies, just like the degree to which various disorders can be treated. It is a distinct challenge for today’s college administrations, and for today’s college students, to understand the scope of mental illnesses and their ramifications for the entire university community.
The Daily’s Kimra McPherson contributed to this report.
