Running head: MENTAL HEALTH IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Mental Health in College Students

Andrew Tomasello
University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract
The college environment is an environment filled with competition, stress and possible
drug abuse. There are many college students who want to be the head of the class and some even
struggle just to pass their classes. These things, as well as paying for college, can lead to high
amounts of stress in the college space. Another popular tend in colleges is that younger students
tend to want to experiment with drugs and have a high-tendency of abusing alcohol. These
factors tend to persist around the world in many higher-level education settings and can
sometimes lead to the deterioration of not only the students physical health but mental health as
well. There are many forms of mental illness and different causes for them.

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Mental Health in College Students

There is a growing crisis of mental health problems among college students in America
and it is being caused by many factors but the biggest culprit being stress. There is also a
constantly growing number of reports dealing with anxiety and depression among college
students and many counseling centers nation-wide are starting to become more and more
concerned. One of the most concerning issues when dealing with depression would be the
possibility of suicide for that individual. This is one reason why the majority of American
colleges focus their attention on preventing suicide and helping students through depression. One
of the more common causes of mental illness among college students is sleep deprivation.
According to Henriques (2014), college students average just over 6 hours of sleep. There are
many negative effects of having a continuously poor sleep schedule and can enhance problems
associated with mental health and can cause the problem to grow.

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Is there a problem of mental illness for college students?

There is a definite crisis of mental health issues of college students in America as well as
other countries such as Chile. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Almost 73
percent of students living with a mental health condition experienced a mental health crisis on
campus. Yet, 34.2 percent reported that their college did not know about their crisis. There is a
large amount of students who have to stop attending college due to mental health reasons. The
National Alliance on Mental Illness also claimed that of the percentage of college students who
dropped out due to mental illness depression, bipolar disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder
were the primary diagnoses of those young adults. Many college directors and counseling centers
across multiples colleges agree that mental health issues in college students are on the rise and
you can see some of the problems attributed with that in the graphic below.

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What is considered to be a mental illness?

According to the National Alliance on Mental illness, A mental illness is a condition that impacts
a person's thinking, feeling or mood may affect and his or her ability to relate to others and
function on a daily basis. Each person will have different experiences, even people with the same
diagnosis. There are certain mental disorders that are common and typically most people will
have them but some people will have them to a far lesser extent. Sometimes mental disorder can
even be temporary and will have no real psychological harm to that person such as experiencing
depression when a loved family pet dies. The more easily definable and common mental illness
are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorders, autism, bipolar disorder,
borderline personality disorder, depression, dissociative disorders, eating disorders, obsessivecompulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia.

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All mental disorder can make attending higher-level education more challenging if not treated
but some are even more difficult to deal with in the education setting such as ADHD and anxiety
disorder
It is often times hard to identify if someone has a mental illness without personally asking
them which makes it more difficult for students and staff at universities understand the hardships
that a student with a mental illness is going through. Students that have a mental disorder will
typically refrain from opening up to others about their disorder. It is typically very rare for
people with mental disorders in general to seek help regarding their illness. However, when a
certain mental illness is easily identifiable the student with that illness can face even greater
hardships due to the way they are treated by their academic community.
Typically mental health disorders are caused by many factors and not just one event.
There are two very serious problems that are attributed with having mental health problems one
being the disabilities from the disease itself and the other being the stereotypes and challenges
the inflicted person has to face as a result from the misconceptions about their illness. There
tends to always be a stigma on people with mental illness. This stigma tends to make it harder for
people to search and receive help for their illness especially in the college setting. The National
Alliance on Mental Illness found that More than 45 percent of young adults who stopped
attending college because of mental health related reasons did not request accommodations. 50
percent of them did not access mental health services and supports either.
What could cause mental illness for a college student?

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There can be many causes for mental illness but some are more powerful than
others such as stress and sleeping disorders. According to a study done by the Department of
Biostatistics at the University of Washington at Seattle on Chilean college students, In an
unadjusted analysis, participants with poor sleep quality had 4.65-fold higher odds of
experiencing common mental disorders compared with those with good sleep quality. This
study shows that sleep depravity can seriously harm ones mental health and if a college student
were to persistently have high instances of common mental disorders due to poor sleep they
would be likely have their disorder develop into something more serious. There are many causes
for sleep deprivation and it is seen at a higher rate since most of the time students will have to
balance things such as work and schoolwork. Some students are forced to have a job at the same
time as attending college since the cost of higher-level education is constantly growing. Students,
often times, will transfer over their poor sleeping habits from high school over to higher-level
education believing there will be no negative effects in doing so.
Another common cause for mental disorders would be stress. There are many causes for
stress and it can be natural at times but when multiple sources of stress are piled on the increased
level of stress can be harmful. Many of the things that cause sleep deprivation for students are
also the cause for stress since the stress may be what causes them to reduce their sleep. Freshman
attending Universities are especially at risk for stress because they may not know how much of a
work load they can handle and end up scheduling large amounts of classes as well as maintaining
a job so that they can continue attending their university. Stress levels can even be harmful for
students physical health especially if the student is older than the norm for college-level
students. Often times, older students in higher-level education were previously in the military

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and have to attend college so that they can support their families which can make them even
more susceptible to stress. It is more common in younger students in higher-level education to
feel stressed about letting their families down if they do not succeed in college since they would
be wasting their parents and time and money if they fail. All college students are constantly
reminded if they fail their courses they will be wasting their time and money and that can be very
stressful at times. Stress is very common among college students and can easily develop into
anxiety and later on into depression.
A seemingly harmless activity that can lead to mental disorder is alcohol-abuse and drug
usage. According to research done by the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, our research
clearly confirms the existence of a close relationship between mental health related variables and
substance misuse in general (whether involving alcohol, illicit drugs, or unauthorized
prescription drugs). This is a very dangerous cause for mental illness since drug abuse and
alcohol consumption are very common in the higher-level education setting and is often times
seen as the norm without many consequences. The most common drug that is consumed in the
American college setting is widely known as being alcohol. At times, universities will even
promote the consumption of alcohol at school sponsored events such as basketball and football
games. Alcohol is a depressant which means it can damage your brain and cause you to feel more
depressed than usual. This is very dangerous for college students since they are very susceptible
to depression and the consumption of alcohol will only amplify the effects of their mental
disorder. Although universities try to cut down and mental disorder within their students by
encouraging their students to seek help from their counseling centers they may want to consider
not selling drugs at their school sponsored events.

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What can college administrations and student organizations do to limit the causes of
mental illness for their students?
The majority of people who are college dropouts have some sort of mental disorder.
There are various supports and barriers for people with mental illness when trying to receive
higher education. According to a study done by Richard Stockton College of New Jersey at
Galloway, 42% of the victims of mental illness that were surveyed believed that the symptoms
of their illness affected their ability to receive education the most. This shows if universities
start accommodating to the symptoms of the more common mental illnesses (such as depression)
in their classrooms they may improve students ability to learn with mental health problems and
prevent students from having mental health issues.
Many counseling centers across America are already very active in preventing serious
cases of mental illness. It is impossible to stop all forms of metal disorders in every student since
there are common disorders that cannot be helped. Jorge Marquez, Licensed Psychologist and
Clinical Counselor at The University of Teas at El Paso, claimed that The first thing the campus
can do to address mental health problems is to become aware of the risk factors and warning
signs of mental health problems. We need to accept that mental health problems are real and
serious and that if they are left untreated they can became detrimental to a students well-being.
Second, the campus should work on decreasing the stigma of mental illness and help-seeking by
being supportive and encouraging of students who may need to seek help.(J. Marquez, personal
communication, April 7, 2015). As Dr. Marquez states, the most important thing universities can
do is promote awareness of risk factors and to know if they are starting to show signs of having
mental health problems. One thing that the University of Texas at El Paso does is that they have

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year round suicide prevention program that any group can attend. If student run organizations
started making it a requirement for their member to attend one of these programs at least once a
year a lot of good useful information may be spread to a larger amount of students.

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