Every pop star, actor and politician seems to have an eating disorder, be experiencing a nervous breakdown or suffer from some variation of depression that seems to be the cool new thing. But it’s so much more complicated than that. When are you mentally healthy? When are you not? Who’s ill and who’s just weird? Is everyone ‘attention-seeking’? Are they just ‘being silly’? The chances are, if you’ve ever had, or have, a mental health problem, you’ve heard all these things.
University is, for everyone just starting in their first year, one of the first big moments of change in your life. Even if you’re a 33 year-old mature student or postgraduate who has been working for a few years, it’s still a massive change. Naturally, changes in lifestyle affect how you think and behave. And changes in how you think and behave directly influence your mental health. All this makes students one of the most vulnerable social groups for mental illness, with depression and eating disorders being the most common.
Most people will just face these changes, adapt and grow. However, some people will struggle with these changes and just fall apart. Getting help is not always easy, and it’s difficult to know what is available. The chances are, in the middle of an exciting first semester, you won’t notice the people in your halls who fall apart. The chances are, you’ll probably never notice. You’ll probably hear one day via someone else that ‘that one’ in ‘that hall, you know, in your seminar’ dropped out.
Treatment
With an estimated 450 million people worldwide with some form of mental health problem, treatment is no small feat. For students starting to suffer mental health problems, the first port of call is your GP. Medication of some sort is the most likely option, but they will usually offer access to a counsellor, which is often limited to 6 sessions. Book prescription schemes are becoming more common. A GP gives you a ‘prescription’ for a book, which you then collect from the library. These come from a series of self-help books on common problems such as low self-esteem or anxiety. (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is not a common recommendation by doctors!)
The university has its own counselling service but, as with the GP, there are limits on how long and how often you can see a counsellor. According to the Association for University and College Counselling, 3-10% will have contact with its counselling services every year, so there’s a fairly high demand. Exam periods tend to be difficult for appointments, but if you’re particularly troubled they will try to see you the same day.
In more serious cases, for example long-term or severe depression, psychosis, bipolar disorder, your GP might ask for you to be assessed by the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). These are made up of doctors, community psychiatric nurses, social workers and clinical psychologists. They will do an initial assessment. Depending on assessment, they may either refer you back to the GP with their recommendations, or they may offer an ongoing service, including medication, psychotherapy and social support.
The problem with this, though, is that it all takes time, and if you find yourself in such a serious situation, it is probably time to consider your options in continuing your degree. It might seem an easy choice to make, and it might not. This is where it is always a good idea to keep in touch with your personal tutor, or someone else in your department who is familiar with you. It can come down to choosing between your health or your degree.
Beyond that, if you enter a serious crisis it used to be the case that you’d be admitted to an acute psychiatric ward. It is more common now to be referred to Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team, so that sufferers can be cared for in a crisis without having to go to hospital. A crisis team would consist of psychiatrists, nurses and social workers (similar to a CMHT) who would visit you at home up to three times a day. They would stabilise changes of medication, carry out brief psychotherapy, and arrange extra s
