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I attend Cornell University where there have been 12 student deaths this year. We have recently made front page news because of the 3 suicides that occured in the past 2 months. I wanted to take this opportunity highlight the mental health issues that young people face sometimes without adequate attention or treatment. This overview website by the NIH gives a very startling and realistic view of mental health in America which is something that is so commonly ignored by the mainstream media.
A high-pressure atmosphere such as a competitive university can definitely bring stress and impact the mental health of a young person. But one does not have to be in that specific situation to undergo mental illness. Stress from working, family and the general growing pains of young adulthood can all lead to mental illness.
Some conditions that affect young people with a bit of relevant information is posted below:
1. Unipolar Depression and Bipolar Depression - Depression is the most common form of mental illness and is unfortuantely also the one that can lead to suicide. It is important to educate young people about this and make sure that they can seek help and treatment.
3. Self- Mutilation - Is another important mental health issue in young people that I have noticed recieves mixed attention. In certain circles it is very common and can be seen in celebrities yet in other circles it is something done painfully and shamefully. One study in colleges noticed higher rate of self-mutilation than previously thought:
About 17 percent of college students -- 20 percent of women and 14 percent of men -- report that they have cut, burned, carved or harmed themselves in other ways, reports a new survey by Cornell and Princeton University researchers, the largest study on self-injurious behavior (SIB) in the United States to date.
4. Eating Disorders - I have noticed this particularly on my campus and in my own life. I struggled with an eating disorder in high school and knew that I was not alone. Even in college as I have moved on I still notice many of my peers still engaged in these behaviors. I think we need to talk about these things more and make it easier to seek treatment. It is also extremely unhelpful that we have the influence of the media and the size 00 models as the standard of beauty
5. Bignge Drinking (from the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse)
Many people think that the college campus environment itself encourages heavy drinking (14). Alcohol use is present at most college social functions, and many students view college as a place to drink excessively. Yet several studies have found that heavy drinking and related problems are pervasive among people in their early twenties, regardless of whether they attend college or not (15,16). In fact, a recent survey shows that college students drink less frequently than their noncollege peers (that is, 3.7 percent of students report daily drinking vs. 4.5 percent of nonstudents). However, when students do drink, such as at parties on the weekends, they tend to drink in greater quantities than nonstudents5 (17). (5 In this study, 41.7 percent of college students vs. 37.1 percent of young adults reported drinking five or more drinks during the last 2 weeks [17].)
On the other hand, students tend to stop these drinking practices more quickly than nonstudents—perhaps “maturing out” of harmful alcohol use before it becomes a long-term problem (16). Rates of alcohol dependence diagnosis appear lower for college students than for 18- to 24-year-olds in the general population (15). And people in their thirties who did not go to college reported a higher prevalence of heavy drinking than people who did go to college (18).
