Crisis on Campus: Mental Health Disorders Amongst College Students

The college years are a particularly vulnerable time for the presentation of mental illness. Your late teens and early twenties are prime time for many mental health disorders to emerge; 75% of mental illnesses begin by the time you reach 24. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have consistently been linked to young adulthood, with the former typically presenting between the ages of 16 and 25 and the latter between ages 15 and 30. However, other psychiatric conditions that used to emerge in later years are now increasingly showing up in young adults. Renowned psychiatrist Dr. Charles Nemeroff says, “[T]hirty years ago, the average person had their first depressive episode in their late forties or early fifties. The average age of onset right now in the United States is 24 years of age.” Today, 10% of college students have been diagnosed with or treated for depression, and many more report experiencing serious depressive symptoms that interfere with their ability to function. Meanwhile, anxiety disorders that often emerge as early as childhood take on increasing urgency in the face of new environments, pressures, and responsibilities. Anxiety disorders are now considered the most prevalent of all mental health diagnoses among college students, with approximately 16% of students receiving a diagnosis of or treatment for anxiety within the past 12 months.

While mental health disorders are typically rooted in complex genetic, biological, social, and experiential factors, the collegiate experience includes specific environmental factors that can trigger or aggravate psychiatric illnesses. Immersed in an unfamiliar milieu and removed from existing support networks, many students feel an acute sense of isolation and disorientation as they struggle to find their place. Some believe that the newfound freedom of college can create a kind of psychological shock for those who have been raised by overprotective parents whose well-intentioned but misguided nurturing drive prevented their children from learning how to make their own way in the world. The decreased quantity and quality of sleep that is a hallmark of the college experience for many can have a serious psychological impact and contribute to a number of mental health disorders. At the same time, the frantic pace of academics and high stakes of success can create overwhelming stress with severe emotional effects. William Deresiewicz, a English professor at Yale, says, “[T]he fact that we’ve created a system where kids are constantly busy, and have no time for solitude or reflection, is going to take its toll.” A number of highly publicized suicides and suicide attempts at elite colleges such as MIT, NYU, Harvard, and Yale have been blamed in part on pressure-cooker academic environments.

Even more alarmingly, internalized and external expectations of perfection along with problematic mental health policies of the colleges themselves combine to dissuade students from seeking help for their distress. One student at Yale, whose policies have come under scrutiny following the suicide of Luchang Wang, says that the school “creates a culture of shame and silencing and self-silencing,” preventing students from “feel[ing] that you can speak openly and be heard as a student about mental health issues.” The fear the social, academic, and institutional repercussions of disclosure may keep you from getting the medical intervention you need and can cause you to turn to self-destructive behaviors such as drinking, drug use, risky sexual behavior, and self-injury to cope with your pain.