Anxiety and Depression are often portrayed as “invisible illness.” But people who suffer from these disorders experience evident symptoms in their day-to-day life.
Krislyn Brown, a twenty-year-old junior child development major at the University of Memphis, has struggled with anxiety and depression throughout her college experience.
“I made my first C in college because of a break up,” Brown said. “It put a stand-still on my academics. Getting up for class was hard enough, but my mind was completely blocked from being able to focus on anything other than that sense of loss.”
Brown is a member of a growing number of college students who suffer from mental health disorders. More than 25 percent of college students have been diagnosed or treated for a mental health condition in the past year. Over 11 percent have been diagnosed or treated for anxiety. More than 10 percent were diagnosed or treated for depression.
For those suffering through these disorders, the symptoms may seem like second nature: feeling discouraged, sad, hopeless, unmotivated or disinterested in life.
But research from the National Institute of Mental Health indicates that depressive illnesses are disorders of the brain, where important neurotransmitters, chemicals that the brain cells use to communicate, are not balanced.
Brown said she is unable to focus on schoolwork in the evenings, because her anxiety goes into overdrive at night. She has to study early in the morning, when she can’t fully focus.
“I can’t pull all-nighters like everyone else, I have to pull all-mornings,” Brown said.
It’s a lose-lose situation, but she doesn’t want to rely on anti-depressants or other medication to try and feel better.
Anxiety and depression can cause several issues — lack of sleep, inability to concentrate, lack of motivation or fear of attending class and a withdrawal from social activities — for students in and out of the classroom, according to Robert Maichrowicz, the associate director of the University of Memphis Counseling Center.
“Anxiety can cause someone to not want to go out and interact with others, to not even try to go to class, sometimes, because they’re just too anxious,” Maichrowicz said.
The Counseling Center has walk-in hours Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students can see a counselor, free of charge. If they want to pursue therapy, they can schedule weekly appointments.
“I would say that 20 to 25 percent of all University of Memphis students will have some issue with anxiety over the course of the 4 years or so that they are here,” Maichrowicz said. “Of the students we see at the counseling center, probably 50 percent have an issue with anxiety or depression.”
Brown said she felt like no around her understood her mounting anxiety. But she isn’t alone. Anxiety affects 3.1 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Many of which suffer in silence.
While depression is a biological disorder, it can be easier to disregard, minimize or overlook since it largely goes unseen.
How society views these disorders is not the only problem, according to Jim Whelan, an associate professor of clinical health and director of Psychological Services Center at the University of Memphis.
“Ideas that are considered psychological or psychiatric problems are used so colloquially that they sort of minimize what they really are,” Whelan said. “Because of how we culturally use language, and about mental health, the meaning of anxiety and depression, colloquially, means something different than it would to a mental health professional.”
If they aren’t assessed, generally depressive symptoms can affect a student’s ability to perform well in class, Whelan said.
“People need to pay attention to when their moods change,” Whelan said. “Culturally, we’re raised to assess and attend to physical changes in our body, but the flip side is that we tend to ignore the psychological changes that we experience. It’s sort of like trying to bail water out of a leaky boat. You think you are getting somewhere in the bailing, but the water keeps coming in. And in such situations, the boat simply needs to be repaired.”
Research from the National Institute of Mental Health indicates that depressive illnesses are disorders of the brain where important neurotransmitters are not balanced.
