Going home to friends and family provides a much needed sanity check for some students after a stressful Fall Quarter. But for others, especially international students without local support networks, the holidays can intensify feelings of stress and isolation.

Statistics show a “suicide spike” over the holidays for lonely people.

“(Lonely people) feel it that much more because it is so salient that other people are spending time with their family and friends.” said psychology Prof. Wendy Gardner. “This is true for international students. They are particularly vulnerable because they don’t have that network.”

Although international students are not prone to higher suicide rates than other students, going to school in an unfamiliar environment adds more stress to their lives.

“It is doubly difficult for people who are adjusting to both a college and a new culture — language and norms at the same time,” Gardner said.

Other minority students find added pressures or stigmas because of their background. Each culture has different dilemmas, values and stresses. Experts say Asians often struggle to prevent failure, Latinos have a particularly strong family orientation and black women deal with the “superwoman complex.”

Race and gender are important, not just in sociology class, but in how people experience mental health and how they are treated.

“If the clients are different from the mainstream — gay or lesbian, not caucasian, students who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds — we see those cases overrepresented in our severe and urgent cases,” said Diane Lin, a Counseling and Psychological Services psychologist. “A conservative read on it is that by the time those groups come in, it must have gotten really bad.”

Americana’s influence

American culture has both positive and negative influences on mental health.

“The more and more you are exposed to American culture, the higher the self-esteem,” Lin said. “We are less realistic but happier. We take credit for success and shirk responsibility for failure.”

Although this American mentality might promote self-esteem, it also relates to some mental illnesses.

Gardner cited one study that measured rates of anorexia nervosa before and after the introduction of American television programming in a foreign country and found anorexia increased significantly after a dose of U.S. culture.

But media isn’t the only place where cultural differences shape approaches to mental health.

Gardner has researched differences between Asian and American responses to negative life events.

She described Americans as “promotion-focused” and Asians as “prevention-focused.” Americans tend to think about pursuing success, but Asians tend to think about avoiding failure and shame.

Gardner said her findings would imply that Asians are more prone to anxiety disorders, but clinical tests haven’t been conducted to examine her theory.

Family orientations of Americans also differ from those of other cultures. Americans tend to have a more individualistic attitude, Lin said, whereas other cultures place value on family.

“Mainstream Western culture — white Anglo-Saxon Protestant — is individualistic, not that we don’t value family,” she said. “For African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Middle-Eastern students, there is more of an orientation towards the group and the family and making choices based on the good of the group and the family.”

Renee Redd, director of the Women’s Center, said Latino students in particular, feel torn between competing values.

“There is an expectation for Latino students to come back and help with the family, be respectful and uphold religious values, while also trying to be a student,” she said.

Gender and Race

Traditional assumptions about masculinity and femininity cause men and women to approach mental health differently, Redd said. Some of the important issues in mental health for women include eating disorders and childhood sexual abuse. Depression also is twice as prevalent among women.

“For women they are taught to be nurturing and caretaking, but on the other side of that, they feel selfish for taking care of their own needs,” Redd said. “All boys are raised to disconnect from their feelings as early as 3 to 4 years old. What do we say to a boy when he cries? ‘Be a big boy, be a man.'”

Men tend not to seek treatment until they have reached a crisis point.

But gender is not an isolated component of mental health. Race and gender interact with each other.

“Black women have criticized the women’s movement for prioritizing femininity over race,” Redd said. “Race is a more oppressive factor than gender, but they are both powerful issues.”

Lin mentioned one recent study that addressed race as a variable in depression studies of women, comparing blacks, whites and Asian Americans on self-esteem measures. The study found black women had the highest self-esteem, followed by whites and then Asian Americans.

Redd said black women have developed a “superwoman complex.”

“They have to be strong and carry the family,” she said. “It wasn’t by choice but by economic necessity. Black men not being able to enter into jobs that other races have been able to enter has necessitated black women to step up to the plate.”

Treatment variables

Cultural and gender differences are important in diagnosing and treating mental-health disorders.

“As a matter of course, the psychologist will ask if there is a gender or cultural variable,” said Lin, adding that in her experience, only about 10 percent of patients ask for a psychologist who has a specific cultural background.

In treatment clients and psychologists try to understand how culture affects mental illness.

Students often consider how their communities will judge them if they seek treatment. Once in treatment students often struggle to realize how cultural and gender values influence their situations, Redd said.

But some students said mental health is not often discussed, and few services address cultural sensitivity in mental health.

“Mental health is not talked about as much as it should be in the African-American community,” said the coordinator of black-student alliance For Members Only, Tracy Carson. “It’s a culture where there is a taboo about mental health and it prevents people from expressing their concerns.”

Howard Lien, president of Asian-American Students United, said he is unaware of specific Asian-American mental-health services.

“In general the most significant problem is general mistrust of CAPS and University Health Service,” said Lien, a Weinberg senior. “There may be services available, but they are not adequately advertised.

“Within the Asian-American community, mental-health issues are viewed very negatively. There are certain cultural taboos that make it difficult to talk about and for people to get the help they need.”

More Coverage

* Religious leaders offer solace for students seeking a different take on troubles

* Women’s Center only counselor uses compassion forged from family tragedy to assist students

* NU study finds depression strikes black, Latino elderly populations particularly hard

About the series

Mental-health issues often remain hidden, a solitary struggle for those who shoulder the burdens of depression, eating disorders, anxiety and many other diseases. Yet suicides on college campuses and a rise in students seeking psychological treatment nationwide are forcing universities, including N
orthwestern, to face the realities of mental disorders. State of Mind is an effort to break the silence. For seven days THE DAILY will explore the condition of mental-health services on campus and introduce students to five of their peers who have battled mental illness. In hopes of sparking discussion about these issues at NU, THE DAILY encourages participation in the dialogue. Please send any feedback to [email protected].

If you or someone you know needs help …
*For 24-hour crisis assistance, call 847-491-8100
*CAPS offices are located on the second floor of Searle Hall, 633 Emerson St.
*To make a CAPS appointment, call 847-491-2151. Appointments are scheduled Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
*CAPS holds emergency walk-in hours Monday through Friday from noon to 2 p.m.