College students, campuses cope with mental illness

Michelle Davis spent two weeks in college before dropping out, discarding her prized volleyball scholarship.

"I let it go," she said.

She worked full time on a night shift at a Cape Girardeau factory and attended cosmetology school before abandoning her job and a possible career as a beautician.

"I was cutting hair, and I started crying," she recalled.

Davis, who suffered from a bipolar disorder, walked out of cosmetology school in the middle of giving a haircut and never returned.

Laura Simon

Davis said hitting the books was hard for her, even in high school.

"Comprehension is hard for me. I get distracted easily," she said, adding she was "an emotional child, high-strung, just always into something."

Like Davis, Jeffery Frazier never made it through college.

"I have been to three different colleges," he said. "I didn't graduate. I was doing well, and sometimes I would just get sick."

Frazier, who also suffered from bipolar disorder, said he would have hallucinations.

"I was 19 years old when I had my first nervous breakdown," said Frazier, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. "I was in denial for years. I didn't believe I had anything wrong with me."

Frazier was in and out of mental hospitals. Davis tried to commit suicide.

Medications helped Frazier and Davis.

But at times, they quit taking the medicines, adding to their mental-health problems.

Frazier and Davis are feeling better these days, thanks to medication and counseling.

Both are assisting with programs at the Community Counseling Center in Cape Girardeau.

Their experiences in college are not unique.

Growing problem on campus

One in four college students has a diagnosable mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). More than 40 percent don't seek help. About 80 percent of students feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities. Fifty percent of college students have been so anxious, they struggled in school.

About 64 percent of young adults who drop out of college do so because of mental-health-related reasons, NAMI said.

Across America's college campuses, a growing number of students are seeking help for serious mental-health problems at college counseling centers, the American Psychological Association said.

That situation is mirrored at Southeast Missouri State University.

"We are seeing such an increase in demand for services," said Torie Grogan, director of counseling and disability services at Southeast. From 2014 to 2015, the number of counseling appointments rose by 20 percent, from 2,380 to 2,819, Grogan said.

The increase has been more dramatic over the past five years, jumping nearly 60 percent since 2011, she said.

Anxiety and depression

Grogan said anxiety and depressive disorders top the list of mental-illness issues dealt with by the school's counselors -- a situation that is similar at all colleges.

Students who need additional services, such as treatment by a psychiatrist, typically are referred to Cape Girardeau's Community Counseling Center. The university also has access to a consulting psychiatrist when necessary.

A 2010 survey of students by the American College Health Association found nearly 46 percent of those surveyed reported feeling hopeless, and nearly 31 percent reported feeling so depressed they had difficulty functioning during the previous 12 months.

Grogan said that's not surprising. Students often are transitioning to a new environment, away from family and friends. In addition, students face academic and social pressures. Signs of mental illness often show up between the age of 18 and 24.

According to NAMI, almost 73 percent of college students living with a mental-health condition experienced a mental-health crisis on campus. Yet 34 percent reported their college did not know about it.

The stigma of mental illness keeps some students from seeking help, Grogan said. But she said the situation has improved.

"There are more students who are entering college with a history of mental-health treatment who are looking to continue counseling services in the college setting," she said.

In addition, Southeast has worked to increase awareness of mental-health issues among faculty and staff. As a result, the university's counseling services has seen "more treatment referrals from faculty and staff who have noticed students in their classrooms and on campus who could benefit from mental-health resources," Grogan said.

Educating students

Grogan said her office educates students about available counseling services during student orientation.

"We do a lot of screenings," she said.

But the university can't spot everyone needing help. Some students won't disclose their mental illness or don't feel they need help, she said.

"Sometimes we don't connect until a crisis has occurred," Grogan said.

Southeast has a crisis-response team of staff members that responds to students with mental-health and medical emergencies that occur in the evenings or on weekends. Students can contact the school's Department of Public Safety if they experience a mental-health crisis, Grogan said.

In addition, Southeast's College of Education and its educational leadership and counseling department opened a training clinic in 2014. The clinic provides students the chance to learn their craft while offering others a resource for the counseling services they need.

The free counseling services are offered in conjunction with Counseling and Disability Services office on campus. The clinic soon will begin to offer low-cost, sliding-scale counseling services to the greater Cape Girardeau community while training master's-level counseling interns through hands-on counseling experiences, said Kirsten LaMantia, clinic coordinator.

The clinic offers options not provided by Counseling and Disability Services, including the ability to see a counselor late at night. The clinic is open from 1 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays.

Across the nation, violent incidents on college campuses have drawn public attention to mental illness. But Grogan said, "The majority of students we see are not violent at all."

Grogan said she and other counseling professionals are less concerned with campus violence than with students who may contemplate suicide. It is reported more than 1,000 suicides a year occur on our nation's college campuses.

NAMI, the mental-health organization, said on its website more mental-health services are needed at colleges.

As for Southeast's Counseling and Disability Services, it continues to work to meet the mental-health needs of its students in person and on its semo.edu/ucs/ website, which offers an extensive amount of mental-health information for students, parents, faculty and staff.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

Dearmont Hall, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

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Signs and symptoms of a student in distress

• Excessive procrastination and poorly prepared work, especially if it is inconsistent with previous work.
• Infrequent class attendance with little or no work completed.
• Dependence, e.g., the student who hangs around a staff member, or makes excessive appointments to see a staff member during office hours.
• Listlessness, lack of energy, or frequently falling asleep in class.
• Marked changes in personal hygiene.
• Repeated requests for special consideration, e.g., deadline extensions.
• Impaired speech or garbled, disjointed thoughts.
• Homicidal threats.
• Behavior that regularly interferes with the decorum or effective management of a class.
• Overtly suicidal thoughts, e.g., referring to suicide as a current option.
• High levels of irritability, including unruly, aggressive, violent, or abrasive behavior.
• Inability to make decisions despite repeated attempts to clarify and to encourage.
• Dramatic weight loss or weight gain.
• Bizarre or strange behavior that is obviously inappropriate to the situation, e.g., talking to “invisible” people.
• Normal emotions that are displayed to an extreme degree or for a prolonged period of time, e.g., fearfulness, tearfulness, nervousness.

Source: Counseling and Disability Services, Southeast Missouri State University