More College Students With Mental Illness

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I think, it is perhaps a combination of all of the above. With more "mental-health-awareness" there is less of a stigma to seek help, and Dr's do indeed seem to be willing to more quickly diagnose depression, mood/thought issues these days, and many types of mental illness do tend to show up in the late teens to early 20's. That said, are there students who take advantage of that just to get "drugs"? I'm sure that there are.. I work with people (many younger adults) who fall into the criminaly "mentaly-ill" catagory, and thus have some sympathy for that condition. Do some just need to "Grow-up"? Definitly

On a side note, having my life, or life as I knew it for 22 years destroyed in many ways years 2 years ago, and realising what a chemical imbalance and PTSS can do, I do have much empathy for folks who may fall into that catagory. I am a Very strong willed person, but it is a terrible thing when you simply cannot turn your mind "off"...I feel that many of the drugs are good, but have to be used with caution, and that simply "because someone is in college, and life is hectic" should not be a blanket perscription for their use.
 
As stated its a combination of them plus misdiagnosis. Like a majority of kids get prescribed medicine for ADHD for hyper activity, when kids are usually hyper, full of energy always wanting to do something. But because a child won't sit in a class room and "pay" attention they get recommended for that treatment.

I can go on about escape for some students as a "means" of getting it easier(ie faking) for special treatment. But now a days almost everything we do has a medicine to fix.

Feeling sad or mourning the loss of a friend? Take SmileUP!, side effects include, death, vomiting, diarrhea, coma, etc.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
http://www.latimes.com/sns-health-college-students-mentally-ill,0,1212338.story?track=rss

Agree/Disagree?

Scam by pharmaceutical companies to get doctors to prescribe more drugs?

More students seeking psychological services because there's less of a stigma to do so?

Doctors doing a better job of diagnosing conditions now?

Discuss.


With today's broken homes, divorce rate, and most everywhere else, success measured in dollars rather than integrity, etc. what else would/could you expect.
Children are mostly the product of their upbringing, if the children are becoming damaged you HAVE to look at their environment.
It's as simple as if the cars coming off the assembly line didn't perform as expected, as corp. president what would you do??
Thank you for asking for my $0.02.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Originally Posted By: Summerwind
I think, it is perhaps a combination of all of the above. With more "mental-health-awareness" there is less of a stigma to seek help, and Dr's do indeed seem to be willing to more quickly diagnose depression, mood/thought issues these days, and many types of mental illness do tend to show up in the late teens to early 20's. That said, are there students who take advantage of that just to get "drugs"? I'm sure that there are.. I work with people (many younger adults) who fall into the criminaly "mentaly-ill" catagory, and thus have some sympathy for that condition. Do some just need to "Grow-up"? Definitly

On a side note, having my life, or life as I knew it for 22 years destroyed in many ways years 2 years ago, and realising what a chemical imbalance and PTSS can do, I do have much empathy for folks who may fall into that catagory. I am a Very strong willed person, but it is a terrible thing when you simply cannot turn your mind "off"...I feel that many of the drugs are good, but have to be used with caution, and that simply "because someone is in college, and life is hectic" should not be a blanket perscription for their use.


I hear you on the side-note. Those that haven't been there don't appreciate it.

I agree with everyone about a combination of reasons for the content of the article.
 
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Originally Posted By: Papa Bear

With today's broken homes, divorce rate, and most everywhere else, success measured in dollars rather than integrity, etc. what else would/could you expect.
Children are mostly the product of their upbringing, if the children are becoming damaged you HAVE to look at their environment.
It's as simple as if the cars coming off the assembly line didn't perform as expected, as corp. president what would you do??
Thank you for asking for my $0.02.



+1
thumbsup2.gif
 
From PapaBear
Quote:
Children are mostly the product of their upbringing, if the children are becoming damaged you HAVE to look at their environment.


True. But, there are different types of mental issues. What you talk about is the cognitive type. How people process thoughts and the background that drove them to their thought processes.

The other type is a true physical condition not unlike other body diseases. Some people lack the "chemistry" or the "electrical circuits" to process thoughts effectively.

Quote:
It's as simple as if the cars coming off the assembly line didn't perform as expected,


Not quite. An OBDII code scanner will not turn up any codes for misfiring brain circuits. However, a shot of MMO every morning seems to do wonders.
 
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I think it's worth mentioning that drugs for mental illness have come a long way in recent years. The chance for dependency, fewer side effects, and faster results are making it much easier to handle these kinds of things.

It's easy to just say "take it like a man", but until you've been there please don't judge. As a person who had these issues in college, I can say that it's easy to blow anxiety/depression/etc. off as weakness until you actually have it.
 
If mental illness manifests itself in behavior and it was simmering under the surface during high school... able to be hidden at home or excused for... then yes college is a great time to notice it.

I didn't go to a particularly competitive (engineering, medical, law) school so I didn't witness the simmering and backstabbing they seem to create and the stress reactions that follow. That would mess up a certain percentage, the kind you can't, and perhaps shouldn't screen for during the admissions process, if it's a curable/treatable disability.

I bet the military has good info on this, being a similar age group, about those who "wash out" and why, and what percentage is faking and what is legitimate. Be interesting to compare draftees at an 8-week boot camp vs West Point as well.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
http://www.latimes.com/sns-health-college-students-mentally-ill,0,1212338.story?track=rss

Agree/Disagree?

Can't help but notice you left out an important piece of the story: the study also found that the incidence of suicidal thoughts decreased by more than half. Evidently the picture isn't all bad.
wink.gif


All-in-all, none of this is surprising to me. I'll say "agree."


Originally Posted By: The Critic
Scam by pharmaceutical companies to get doctors to prescribe more drugs?

No. If drugs are being over-prescribed, it's because the people writing the prescriptions are overzealous -- which I know happens a LOT.


Originally Posted By: The Critic
More students seeking psychological services because there's less of a stigma to do so?

Absolutely.


Originally Posted By: The Critic
Doctors doing a better job of diagnosing conditions now?

Beyond a shadow of a doubt.


Originally Posted By: The Critic
Discuss.

Somehow I doubt whether anyone reading this forum is interested in anything more than sound bites on this issue.
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Originally Posted By: Papa Bear

With today's broken homes, divorce rate,
and most everywhere else, success measured in dollars rather than integrity, etc. what else would/could you expect.
Children are mostly the product of their upbringing, if the children are becoming damaged you HAVE to look at their environment.
It's as simple as if the cars coming off the assembly line didn't perform as expected, as corp. president what would you do??
Thank you for asking for my $0.02.



+1
thumbsup2.gif



+2 Money plays into it too for doctors and the companies selling the meds. Remember the medical profession is a business, and businesses are for making money.
 
Not just college students, and not just mental illness. Why? The billions of dollars spent on advertising by drug companies.

What we have morphed into is a self-diagnosing society, largely because of the advertising. It used to be if we had a problem/symptom, we would go to the doctor and get his opinion. Now we go to the doctor with a clear self-diagnosed problem and literally ask for the medication we saw on TV.

And your doctor knows that if he doesn't give it to you, you will find another doctor who will. Not wanting to lose a "customer", he writes the prescription.
 
Originally Posted By: hate2work

Not just college students, and not just mental illness. Why? The billions of dollars spent on advertising by drug companies.

What we have morphed into is a self-diagnosing society, largely because of the advertising. It used to be if we had a problem/symptom, we would go to the doctor and get his opinion. Now we go to the doctor with a clear self-diagnosed problem and literally ask for the medication we saw on TV.

And your doctor knows that if he doesn't give it to you, you will find another doctor who will. Not wanting to lose a "customer", he writes the prescription.


Very true, it is big business. I laugh when I watch the commercials and see the side effects of some of this stuff. Nothing like creating repeat business trying to cure something else. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of good doctors, but the system has become one big business.
 
When I was between 13 - 21 I was severely depressed and was even suicidal due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. I tried to take my own life a few times and then committed myself to a mental help center willingly because I knew I needed a change.

Through counseling and prescription drugs I overcame it and eventually got off the drugs and have been fine ever since.

While the drugs helped make the emotional pain easier to deal with by numbing it and making it less intense, it was the counseling and positive thinking that was the cure IMO.

As someone who has dealt with this and almost lost everything I can tell you it's very scary and it's hard to understand how bad it can be unless you have experienced it first hand. Best way I can describe it is like being in a dark place with no way out and being fearful that you will never see day-light again.

Not fun at all.
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Originally Posted By: The Critic
http://www.latimes.com/sns-health-college-students-mentally-ill,0,1212338.story?track=rss

Agree/Disagree?

Scam by pharmaceutical companies to get doctors to prescribe more drugs?

More students seeking psychological services because there's less of a stigma to do so?

Doctors doing a better job of diagnosing conditions now?

Discuss.


With today's broken homes, divorce rate, , success measured in dollars rather than integrity, etc. what else would/could you expect.
Children are mostly the product of their upbringing, if the children are becoming damaged you HAVE to look at their environment.
It's as simple as if the cars coming off the assembly line didn't perform as expected, as corp. president what would you do??
Thank you for asking for my $0.02.



I agree entirely. Plus, with the future of the US looking more and more uncertain (for those paying attention) and with tremendous uncertainty for college grads as far as job prospects and college debt, it's a real problem for some people to handle.
 
Originally Posted By: StevieC
I can tell you it's very scary and it's hard to understand how bad it can be unless you have experienced it first hand.


I took Effexor for two years and it was a life saver when I needed it. The side effects motivated me to get off it. Haven't taken it for eight months and I am doing fine. I'll take it again if I need it.
 
If I were a child today, I have no doubt that some well intentioned doctor would easily diagnose me with ADHD.

Now, he probably wouldn't be completely wrong... but I seriously doubt that it would be treated correctly.
 
I have a light case of major depression - always have, likely always will. I've tried various forms of antidepressants, but the side affects were too extreme - most made me feel much worse.

I know I have something wired wrong in my brain with the serotonin levels and things like that being wrong, but I've found that I simply have to fight it with positive thoughts and doing activities that make me feel happy.

I've been infatuated with the outdoors and especially severe weather since I was young; if I hadn't taken up storm chasing a few years back, I don't know what I'd do. It seriously makes me feel so alive and happy that I look forward to it every year now and it brings me peace and tranquility.
 
Agreed. I don't like how people are so quick to judge depression, GAD, etc. as a sign of weakness or whatever. Again, if you haven't experienced it, you don't know what it's like.

I do somewhat agree that we need to let kids be kids and not medicate the [censored] out of them because school bores them...it's perfectly normal for them to hate school! I know I sure hated school but I turned out to be successful.
 
Everyone is classified with some level of disorder. Those defining personality/character place each and every one of us in some "box". I feel assured that not one of us could possibly get a "perfectly balanced and 100% devoid of even the hint of (whatever)".

For some it's merely an inventory of characteristics of no particular consequence. For some it's an excuse for hanging any other unfavorable outcomes on. For example, someone labeled ADHD might be unable to manage to stay on task even with repeated direction, or they can really be anti-authority and use ADHD as an excuse to do as they please. That is, a legit diagnosis, if managed improperly, can/will manifest other unrelated inappropriate behaviors.

So, I'll take a yes and no position. People should be encouraged to seek counseling when they're disturbed to the point of it interfering with conducting their affairs. That's different than an inability to manage in a given environment and seeking a diagnosis to explain it.
 
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