March, 2009 | Bloomington, In / Chicago
Lying in his dorm room bed, Mike Marshall knew something was not right. He couldn’t work up the energy to pull the sheets off his bed.
“When you have the flu, you can see the symptoms; you can see you have a fever,” said Marshall, a junior at DePaul University in Chicago.
“Depression is just much more difficult to diagnose.”
Two years ago, while a freshman at VanderCook College of Music on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Marshall first started feeling distressed.
“It seems like something that happens gradually,” said Marshall. “Something like that can creep up.”
With such seemingly abstract and subjective symptoms, depression can catch any student off guard. Almost half of all college students say that they have felt so depressed that they had trouble functioning, according to a 2004 survey by the American College Health Association. And almost 15 percent of those students met the criteria for clinical depression.
Nancy Stockton, a psychologist and the director of Indiana University’s Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, has seen many students walk into her office with what she describes as self-defeating patterns: A loss of energy while sleeping a lot, increased irritability and withdrawal from friends and family.
While these symptoms are not readily noticeable to the sufferer, depression can quickly consume a college student. However, there are tips to help you see the warning signs in your peers.
| Sleeping the Days Away |
Marshall loves music. That’s why he originally attended VanderCook: To hone his skills as a musician. But a few months into school, Marshall’s saxophone sat ignored in its black, tattered case.
“Part of it was probably the work level,” said Marshall. As the responsibility of his freshman year began to pile up, Marshall began to lose some of the drive that brought him to VanderCook.
“I was sleeping 14 to 16 hours a day, I couldn’t go to class,” said Marshall.
He wasn’t playing music. He wasn’t leaving his dorm room. He wasn’t eating. Even personal hygiene became a chore. Depression had effectively sapped all his energy.
Stockton has seen these symptoms before. The students that she counsels often find that a loss of energy goes hand in hand with oversleeping. Stockton also said that the increase in sleep does not help students regain energy because the stages of sleep have been disrupted.
“A very regular routine has been helpful,” said Marshall, who now has a self-imposed regular bedtime. But regularity should go hand-in-hand with exercise, according to Stockton. Walking around Chicago 20 minutes a day has also helped Marshall stay energized.
“Doing the simple things is important,” said Marshall, but the hardest part is taking the first step.
| Taking It Out on Themselves |
It’s 11:30 on a Sunday night and Indiana University junior Saud Rana sits studying in the Herman B Wells Library on campus.
“I’ve been in a funk today,” Rana said, peering wearily up from his book, Biochemistry – sixth edition. “Everybody feels down sometimes.”
While Rana insists that he remains positive most days, he admits that he’s had ‘off days.’
“I’m mad at myself for not being responsible,” said Rana. When he lets school work pile up, he never quite feels like the amicable guy he usually is.
“I’m just all tense and on the edge.”
Stockton says that these feelings of stress and irritability only compound the issue instead of solving it.
“Feelings are influenced by thoughts,” said Stockton, and the more negative thoughts you have, the worse you feel. It’s another self-defeating pattern. Stockton says that students have to be realistic.
“When we’re depressed, we can distort things,” Stockton said. Looking back, Marshall can now see how much one insignificant thing could ruin his day.
“I was short with people for little or no reason,” said Marshall. He also found things he used to love, like music, became so difficult that he began to hate them.
“Now it’s become a matter of keeping things in perspective,” said Marshall. Being able to rationalize stress levels and keeping things in perspective is one of the best ways to fight off depression.
| Isolation |
Odds are, when you picture of the city of Chicago, you don’t see the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. Located in the poor Southside neighborhood of Bronzeville, the campus is a few miles from the famous ‘Loop’ of downtown Chicago but is within earshot of the fireworks that shoot off at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox.
“There weren’t enough outlets outside of school,” said Marshall. Once he started to feel stressed, Marshall had no way to channel some of his energy or frustration. Instead, he stayed in his room all day, sometimes not even leaving his bed.
“There were parties on Saturdays that I wouldn’t feel up for,” said Marshall. He turned down invitation after invitation by friends who began to notice that these weren’t isolated instances.
“I think part of it is that it builds up and you don’t have a means to deal with it,” said Marshall. He tried to distract himself with other opportunities to be social outside of class but none of them helped him psychologically.
Stockton said that withdrawal is a common symptom of depression, and one that can end up doing the most damage. If students don’t want to talk to friends, family or counselors, Stockton said they shouldn’t feel pressured to do so – but it may help.
“That’s fine, that’s your decision,” said Stockton, but she tempers that by saying that any stigma attached to talking with psychologists is impractical.
“You know to go to the doctor when you have the flu,” says Marshall who says talking to a counselor, in retrospect, was vital in his recovery.
As the founder of the Active Minds organization, Alison Malmon knows that getting help and diagnosing issues are two of the most important things students can do. Malmon says that Active Minds was founded to encourage a dialogue about depression on college campuses so that students know they are going to get better.
“We can get them help to set up their lives later,” said Malmon.
But, admittedly, it is hard for depressed students to see the symptoms in themselves. Often, peers play the role of a catalyst.
“I wasn’t ultimately the one who did anything about it,” said Marshall. “I got taken to see someone.”
| Road to Recovery |
It took three or four months of depression until a friend finally confronted Marshall. She woke him up, walked him over to an IIT student counselor’s office and told him words he still remembers today: “None of this is your fault.”
“She was present in every step,” said Marshall. “I didn’t have the energy to be stubborn about it. I was willing to take any advice that would make me feel better”
But at first, Marshall thought of counseling as a means to an end. Now he realizes just crucial that first step was.
“I was in a pretty heavy downward spiral.”
Once he started attending regular sessions, Marshall said that, “There was a lot of mental clarity. It was easier to think. It was easier to perform simple tasks. When you’re depressed, you blame yourself for not doing them but ultimately, it wasn’t your fault.”
Marshall doesn’t think college students take mental health serious enough.
“One of the best things a student could do to keep things in check is to keep an open discussion about it,” said Marshall. He thinks it helps to talk with other students because it keeps a clear perspective on your personal experiences.
Stockton and Malmon agree, students either don’t take mental health serious enough or feel that there is a stigma attached to it.
Malmon says that, as a society, we don’t talk about mental health enough.
“We want to promote a dialogue – an educated dialogue – on mental health,” said Malmon. “The most effective way to remove the stigma is peer to peer contact.”
“You don’t have to be sick to come to CAPS,” said Stockton. In fact, some come when they have a bad day, when they’re sad or when they just want someone to talk to.
The most important thing, according to Malmon, is that you let the person know that they are not alone and that there is a life beyond a diagnosis.
“‘You’re not alone’ and ‘there’s hope’ are two phrases not heard too much in this world,” said Malmon. “Be a physical crutch.”
Marshall now realizes just how important that first session was.
“It was a breath of fresh air.”
