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One in three students experience prolonged periods of depression. One in four have suicidal thoughts. One in seven report difficulty functioning at school due to mental illness.

With such statistics from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a national grassroots effort to transform America's mental health system, and Abbott Laboratories, a leading diagnostics company that makes health care products, there's much cause for concern. Put into perspective, those numbers mean one or two in your circle of friends will struggle someday. Unfortunately, half of the students in the study reported they weren't educated on mental health issues before starting college. That's why it's time for you to get in-the-know -- someone's life just may depend on it.

Looks can be deceiving.
On the surface, it appeared high schooler Ross Szabo had it all. He was on the varsity basketball team, a member of Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD), and president of his junior class. He even attended a National Young Leader's Conference.

"This was the exterior life people saw, and not the life I lived," Ross claims. "I had a general sense of fear that everyone important would leave my life."

By January of senior year, he couldn't handle his constant suicidal thoughts. He told his dad, "If you don't take me to the hospital now, I'll kill myself."

Ross was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a serious brain condition that causes extreme shifts in mood, energy, and functioning, with anger control problems and psychotic features. He received treatment, but like many bipolar teens, he experienced a relapse in college. Since then, he has rebounded with a mission. He currently serves as director of youth outreach for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, which aims to set a positive example for young adults with mental health disorders.

"You can function and you can come back and do things," the now-26-year-old says. "Once I learned to start caring about myself, it was the first step to self-recovery."

Ross has become the youngest professional speaker on mental health issues in the country. Through sharing his own experiences, he reaches over 85,000 students a year, shedding light on mental health issues and helping shatter the stigma.

Help is a click away.
Ross recognized a problem and wanted to get better. Sadly, for Jed Satow, the problem was fatal. In 1998, the 20-year-old American University (Washington, D.C) student took his own life. "It wasn't until I lost Jed that I discovered something on campus known as the counseling center," notes Jed's close friend and fraternity president Ron Gibori. After losing his friend, Ron devoted himself to addressing what he deemed his school's inadequate information system of identifying health symptoms and referring students to confidential counseling.

Recognizing a broader need for such support services, Jed's parents founded The Jed Foundation, (www.jedfoundation.org), which is dedicated to educating students about mental health issues. Ron joined on as foundation director.

"The goal is to provide students with tools they need from the beginning, where suicide is never part of the rationale," notes Ron. Ron also spends his time running Ulifeline, an anonymous online resource that provides students with supportive outreach. When he noticed that the average time it took to locate online information about a school's campus counseling center was eight to 10 minutes, he knew he had to do something.

"Most students search when they need immediate help," says Ron. One of the highlights of Ulifeline.com is a drop-down menu by state and university to locate counseling centers with the click of a mouse.

Are you depressed?
Since students may not always be proactive when it comes to severe sadness, some schools are doing their best to be.

Emory University (Atlanta, GA) officials reach out to students before there is a problem in order to establish early diagnosis and treatment. On an annual basis, Dr. Jill Rosenberg, L.C.S.W. (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences sends online questionnaires to undergraduates anonymously that are intended to detect mental problems and offer those students a one-hour confidential office evaluation. Although not everyone comes in, notes Rosenberg, "about 98 percent of the students who do [use the services] come from the survey."

While everyone's issues are different, explains Robin Holmes, director of counseling and head of the University of Oregon's (Eugene, OR) suicide prevention team, the biggest concerns are depression and anxiety.

"For a lot of students, college is the first real separation from their parents where they're trying to discover their identity. Taking one step forward and two steps backward is normal," she says.

Friends don't let friends go untreated.
If a friend were visibly drunk, you wouldn't let him or her get behind the wheel of a car, would you? The same applies if a friend demonstrates signs of mental illness. Take action by referring him/her to the campus counseling center, resident advisor, or peer group.

"Sometimes it can be difficult to talk to an adult about certain stuff," notes Cathryn Clarke, a sophomore at Temple University (Philadelphia, PA) and member of its Conflict Education Resource Team, a peer-based program for conflict management. Although the group's student advisors aren't counselors, they can relate to students and offer a listening ear.

Pamela Wilson, also a Temple sophomore, agrees. "Many students may not know where to go or whom to talk to when they have a problem. Peer counseling can be the next resource students seek after they have talked to friends and their resident advisor [RA]."

Teresa Bassi, director of counseling, disability, and health services at Seton Hill University (Greensburg, PA), indicates that RAs and faculty are important outlets: "The Counseling Center provides regular programming in residence halls and distributes pamphlets to students as part of our prevention efforts. We educate the staff and faculty in hopes that they will readily refer students they're concerned about."

The future of mental illness awareness is bright.
Schools aren't the only ones shining a spotlight on curbing depression. So is the government. President Bush recently signed a suicide prevention bill to allocate $22 million to college mental health centers over a three-year period.

"The Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act [named for the son of an Oregon senator who suffered from bipolar disorder and committed suicide last September] is an important step forward and a welcome development to assist in work that needs to be done," says Richard McKeon, Ph.D., special expert in suicide prevention and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. In fact, McKeon emphasizes that early intervention is critical in saving more lives; the majority of young people who commit suicide are not in treatment at the time of their deaths.

Warning: Bumpy road ahead!
Above all, despite advancement in mental health awareness, the pressures college students experience remain intense. It's an exciting time, but it's challenging dealing with independence, academics, friends, and relationships.

Just remember, no matter how unmanageable it may seem, there are always ways to get help and navigate your way.


http://www.vickisalemi.com
Vicki Salemi is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.

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