Colleges should offer other ways to help students with depression because their current ways have become ineffective and harmful towards them. The students in general most likely don’t feel comfortable coming to others for help with their problem. They also don’t know how to deal with depression on their own, therefore they create bad habits to help relieve stress. During all of this students start to spiral down into despair and they can’t get themselves out of it without help. If colleges offered ways to cope with depression then these students wouldn’t have to resort to awful habits and they put themselves in a hole of hopelessness.
One of the main reasons that colleges should offer help is that most students don’t feel comfortable coming to others for help even if the student knows them. The students should feel comfortable with the person they chose to come too, to speak out with their problem. They will most likely feel ashamed about themselves over the fact they have depression. If they aren’t ashamed then they probably don’t know what questions they need to ask to get help and what they need to do to get better. More importantly, most students don’t know the teacher and staff well enough to go to them for help and they probably don’t know their classmates well enough to ask them.
Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
- Proper editing and formatting
- Free revision, title page, and bibliography
- Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
To rectify the uncomfortable feeling of talking to people they don’t know about depression, maybe some counselors and teachers could take some time to get to know the students and familiarize themselves with them. If they get to know the teachers and counselors on a somewhat personal level they feel safe coming to them about the problems they seem to have. It would also relieve the feeling of shame that some people feel when they have depression. The more the students get to know their counselors and teachers that know about their depression they will understand what questions they need to ask about what's happening to them. The colleges could establish an psychological service to help the students because according to “American College Health Association 10% of college student commit suicide and 95% have significant depression”(Hui).
The second main reason colleges should have other ways to help students deal with their depression is because they don’t know how to deal with it on their own. The students who have depression don’t truly understand what to do to cope with this mental illness and it shows. Students let their grades drop because they don’t have the motivation to do anything productive. Studies show that college students that have depression have very low academic level because they just don’t have the energy to do the work(Ebert). Students also begin to doubt themselves because they believe that they have failed and will never produce anything that looks or sounds good. They also stop taking care of themselves and never put any effort into their appearance in anyway. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they can’t look nice but there room will look messy and most days they will look like a mess too.
To assist the students deal with depression on their own, RA’s should conduct a meeting to talk about dealing with depression and things they can do to help them. Teachers can take aside the students that grades suddenly dropped and offer extra credit or maybe study packets to help them out. RA’s can become a positive support system to encourage the students to keep up their appearance and stop them from doubting themselves. These are just a few ways the colleges can help students deal with depression.
The third main reason colleges should offer other ways to help student with depression is because they create bad habits for themselves. They begin partying almost every week to cope with depression and they do it in hopes of feeling like a normal college student. Students also consume huge amounts of alcohol almost everyday to get by. They take up smoking or drug taking on a daily basis to take the edge off of themselves. Studies show that depression leads to substance abuse as one of the major effects of depression(Ebert). Since there isn’t a sure fire way to help depression or the medication becomes too expensive to buy, they take up those bad habits to help with the depression.
To correct this behavior the colleges should make a deal with a local doctors office and work out a plan to make a student discount on anti-depressants. If they are unable to do that then they should manage the alcohol and drugs that come onto campus. RA’s should start mandatory searches for alcohol and drugs to limit the intoxication. Campus counselors can conduct therapy sessions with the students that have rapidly dropping grade and suspected to heavily abuse drugs and alcohol. These solutions should help the depressed student to some degree and put them back on the track of creating a successful life.
The fourth and final reason colleges should offer other ways to help college students with their depression is because they will place themselves into a downward spiral of despair when they don’t have a good support system. Studies have proven that depression in college students leads to an increase in self harming behavior(Ebert) . Students have created a mind set that if they hurt themselves then the dark thoughts about themselves will go away. The students also begin to develop a sleep disturbance along with their depression. Sleep disturbance has connection to suicidal ideas, irritability, horrible physical health, academic difficulties, substance abuse, and bad mental health. Students with SD have trouble falling/staying asleep and have constant sleepiness throughout the day(Nyer). Students also begin to distance themselves from their friends because they believe that they act too annoying or clingy and feel like they would live better off without them. Students who have those thoughts need help and reassurance that they aren’t bothering anyone by acting like themselves.
To aid these students with these mentally and physically damaging symptoms colleges should offer a support system whether the system becomes built upon teachers, counselors, and RA’s that will come to the students that these situations have occurred to and offer their help and become a willing confident to these students. The colleges could start mandatory check ups and physicals to make sure the students aren’t hurting themselves. While there isn’t a correct way to handle sleep disturbances, students who have endured SD can be given leeway on homework and in-class assignments. If students had someone who won’t judge them on what the things that go on in their minds then they may find themselves becoming better than before when they didn’t have anyone to talk to about these problems too.
Conclusion
In conclusion, colleges should create other ways to help their students with depression because the students ways become harmful to themselves. The college students don’t know how to deal with their depression on their own. They begin to use bad coping habits to deal with depression and make it through the day. Students place themselves on a path to a downwards spiral of despair and they have no idea how to pull themselves out of it. If the colleges offered other services for students then the effects of depression could become lessened and more manageable for students to deal with on a daily basis.
Stuck on your essay?
