MEREDITH RODRIGUEZ
Assistant News Editor
Laura Dudley is a junior. She lives off-campus with some friends and is passionate about her German major.
What the average eye does not see is that aside from an impressive high school GPA, a slew of Advanced Placement courses and remarkable SAT scores, Dudley brought something else with her to Pepperdine.
Dudley has been battling depression since junior high.
At the age of 14, Dudley was put on the anti-depressant, Paxil, and today, after spending adolescent years in counseling, Dudley takes daily doses of Effexor and makes weekly visits to the Pepperdine Counseling Center.
Dudley is not alone.
The No. 1 pill on college campuses is not acne medication or birth control. It is Prozac. Running in second are anti-anxiety agents and in third are all other anti-depressant SRRIs combined, which are a newer generation of anti-depressants like Prozac and Zoloft, according to Psychology Today’s special May 2004 edition called “Blues Busters.”
College campuses have been seeing mental health issues increase dramatically over the past several years, according to Counseling Center Director Connie Horton.
A study conducted by psychologists at Kansas State University that examined trends among students seeking psychological help found that the percentages of counseling clients diagnosed with depression and suicidal thoughts almost doubled between 1988 and 2001.
Granted, depression is becoming a less taboo topic nowadays, freeing more people to seek help. However, Horton attributed the rise to greater psychological threats and less support nowadays.
“Students are worried about all different things,” Horton said. “War, health, money, ‘making it’, it has all gone way up.”
Horton said that people feel less connected than they did in the ’50s through the ’70s than today. This may be due to smaller family sizes, family disruption and how far the average person lives from extended family as compared to the past, according to Horton.
“We used to deal with things like homesickness and time management,” Horton said of college counseling centers in the past. “Now we’re dealing with things like bipolar disorder, psychosis and major depression.”
Professor of psychology Dr. Cindy Miller-Perrin said she has not found any data confirming that disorders are rising nationally.
Both Miller-Perrin and Horton do agree on one pivotal factor that could be contributing to the rise on college campuses: medication. Those who in the past would not have made it to college, like Dudley perhaps, are now enabled by medication to attend elite schools such as Pepperdine.
“There are more, better meds now,” Horton said. “That is why people with good meds can make it to school.”
As a result of more medicated students attending their schools, college counseling centers have had to become more prepared to deal with more severe disorders. Students who have dealt with depression in the past are the ones most likely to experience it in the future, Horton said.
In fact, 50 percent of students who visited the Counseling Center this year so far had already gone to counseling, 30 percent had been put on medication at one point in their lives, 25 percent were on medication at the time of counseling and 4 percent had been hospitalized.
Another contributor to the rise in disorders among college students are higher college entrance standards coupled with parents’ high expectations, according to both Horton and Miller-Perrin.
“A lot more pressure is put on a high school kid,” Miller-Perrin said. “AP courses and all these things to get into college have been ratcheted up. Admission standards have risen, putting more pressure on students.”
Horton explained that perfectionism comes at a cost.
“It has to do with a well-intended parenting style,” Horton said. “A high package of problems come with being driven, motivated and pressured to perfectionism …. Anxiety is the underside of highly motivated students.”
A Kansas study found that students with A and B averages are more likely to seek counseling than those with C averages or below, according to Theresa Foy DiGeronimo’s book, “College of the Overwhelmed.”
Horton added that due to an overzealous pressure to succeed, many students never learned how to balance work and play.
“Kids experience a subtle dysfunction,” she said. “A structured and busy life leaves no room for imagination, play, family meals or vacations. The privileged miss out on the simple life.”
Then when perfectionists walk into a place like Pepperdine, they are introduced to a whole new set of stressors including relational, academic and transitional stressors.
“College can be a stressful environment, especially for those without proper problem support,” Miller-Perrin said. “In high school, they were the best of the best. Now they are with the best of the best across the country, forcing them to make adjustments to their identity.”
Dudley has experienced Miller-Perrin’s observation.
“I’m really passionate about German,” she said. “When I wasn’t doing well as I had done in high school, it was very undermining to my self esteem … it’s the typical Pepperdine story.”
Dudley has experienced occasional relapses into depression during her time at Pepperdine, which have interfered with her studies.
“I kind of think it’s the nature of being in college.You’re not rooted in anything. It’s day to day,” she said.
Ironically, Dudley said her studies often pull her out of depression.
“Learning is a joy of mine,” Dudley said. “Once I get started, I do really well.”
In fact, depressed people in college are less likely to be suicidal than those who does not attend, largely because they have schoolwork to keep them busy and hopeful, according to Horton.
On the flip-side, newfound freedom in college presents developmental issues, according to Horton. In response, sometimes students turn to unhealthy alternatives to relieve stress, further contributing to depression.
“It becomes a problem when students go to temptations to relieve stress,” Horton said, such as abusing sex and alcohol, using drugs or adopting anorexia.
“The problem is that those things do work in the short run, but they cause way more problems in the long run,” Horton added.
Dudley said that without the accountability her parents provided, she festered her disorder by making unwise choices.
“When you’re in college, you do things that you wouldn’t be doing if your parents were there,” she said. “That means that they’re stupid ‘cuz your parents know better.”
She did say the Pepperdine environment cushioned her college experience.
“Even if I felt lonely, I always felt I was around kind people,” she said. “I think that’s particular to Pepperdine.”
Apart from friends, family and professors, Dudley has found support at the Counseling Center.
“I love my counselor,” she said. “I ascribe to the opinion that everyone should have therapy because you’re more aware of your actions, and you don’t do things so unconsciously anymore.”
The Counseling Center is working to rebut the stigma often associated with depression and being medicated for depression.
“Sometimes people are reluctant because they think they can handle the problem on their own,” Miller-Perrin said. “In my view, depression has a large biological component to it.”
Horton compared anti-depressants for depression to insulin for diabetes.
“If you had some other problem that had a biological cause, you wouldn’t hesitate to take medication,” Miller-Perrin said.
Horton assured that the Counseling Center does not medicate without coupling it with counseling, and while she is a firm believer in her program, Horton said she does not want to minimize the power of friendship, faith, a community and self-care.
Miller-Perrin agreed that besides counseling there is a lot of support to be had. She added to Horton’s list: taking break time to have fun and gaining information about the issue.
Dudley is grateful for the medication that minimizes physical symptoms of her depression, such as sleeplessness and headaches. She is also grateful for the counseling that has helped her think more logically and positively. However, she hopes to get off of medication soon.
“It’s not nice,” she said. “All medication has side effects and taking it for so long is just not good for your body.”
Yet she said she knows her depression, and particularly the therapy that went along with it, has enriched her life.
“I would have liked to have had it only for a year or two,” she concluded. “But it is the path my life has taken, and I don’t mind it. It has shaped me into the person I am … and I like the person I am.
11-03-2005