It was not until I came to college that I began to realize just how many college students suffer from mental illnesses. I remember being surprised at the beginning of my freshman year by how happy everybody was all the time. Except the more people I befriended, the more I began to realize that this happiness was often a façade. The vast majority of my new friends, including myself, were suffering or had suffered from a mental illness.
As school becomes increasingly high stakes for the millennial generation, pressure and stress only rises. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in four students will suffer from a diagnosable illness while in school. The epidemic of mental illness sweeping across the nation is not new, but continues to persist, since it is an issue that has not been properly addressed. When nearly a fourth of students suffer from mental illness, it becomes clear that the mental health crisis is a systemic issue.
Congress has taken steps to resolve the problem by creating various suicide prevention programs across the nation. However, suicide is only one of the many different mental health problems affecting students. Until the nation properly addresses the mental health crisis it will only worsen.
I’m not proposing a solution, because frankly, I don’t have one, but rather I am writing this as a call to action. I am beyond frustrated by the lack of psychological support college students receive despite paying thousands of dollars in tuition. Across the nation, college counseling centers have continued to cut back appointments available to students in an effort to accommodate the influx of students seeking services. This is not an effective way to solve the problem. Colleges need to allocate more money towards counseling centers to accommodate students rather than ignore the worsening epidemic.
I will not stand to see another college student leave school because they are not receiving proper treatment or support at their institution; this is simply unacceptable and unfair. It is time for colleges to step up their game and understand that every time funding is cut for mental health services or counseling centers, the institution becomes complicit in a growing epidemic.
