With the arrival of the fall semester comes change in a variety of forms. It does not take much observation to see the recent improvements to campus, the newest additions to the student population, and even the slow, but sure transition into autumn. Along with the physical changes comes the beginning of a new school year, academic responsibility, and difficult transitions for students of all ages. Dr. Eric Rose, Director of the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), was kind enough to share his professional expertise regarding the importance of understanding the large role mental health plays in young adults’ lives as they experience the crests and troughs of the college experience.
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Q: What makes the transition from high school to college difficult for many students?
A: The move from high school to college often coincides with a period of psychological (and sometimes physical) separation from parents and family. It’s a moment in life that frequently requires lots of rethinking and reconsideration. It can be a time of both growth and challenge as young people consider what aspects of their family life they want to hold onto, and which aspects they hope to let go of. Sometimes this separation goes smoothly, and other times not. When the process is rocky, we can see a spectrum of signs that a young person is hurting – and these can range from homesickness, to engaging in dangerous or rebellious activity.
Linked to separation challenges is the fact that college students often have far more independence than high school students. Sometimes college students aren’t prepared for how much freedom they now have! Some folks do great with the new freedom – they use it to make a schedule that fits with their emerging priorities and values. Others feel the need to test the boundaries of their new freedom – sometimes engaging in behaviors (for example drinking, drug use, explorations of sexuality) that can put them into situations they aren’t emotionally prepared to handle. Still others flounder with so much freedom – they wind up spending time lost in activities that don’t match up with their priorities.
Lastly, it’s important to realize that all of us get a little bit lazy at times when it comes to our coping mechanisms. We all have our “go-to-moves.” Maybe in high school you were a last-minute crammer for exams. Or maybe in the past you made friends by relying on being the “class clown.” And for the most part these strategies worked for you. Sometimes, though, a person gets to college and those old “go-to” way of coping don’t seem to be working any longer. The challenge then becomes giving up the old way of doing things in favor of something more mature that is going to better meet your needs in this new stage of life.
Q: If one could compare the numbers, is depression in young adults attending higher educational institutions more prevalent now as compared to before?
A: There are actually some researches who are doing exactly what you are describing – they are looking at large data sets of college students (in particular those who visit their college counseling center) to see what the trends have been over the course of years. The Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) reports that over the past five years there has been slow but consistent growth in student’s who visit counseling centers and report depression, anxiety and social anxiety. So at least over the course of the past five years, the answer is yes.
Q: What services does CAPS offer for students?
A: Whenever I have the privilege of speaking with groups of students here at Stevens about the services offered at CAPS, the thing I hope sticks with them most is that CAPS is staffed by highly trained professionals who care about the struggles they are going through. At CAPS, we hope to reach students before a small problem becomes a big one. That’s why we engage in regular prevention and outreach on campus. We give workshops about things like stress reduction, or ways to improve social skills. Sometimes students recognize that it would help to meet privately with a counselor. In these situations, we provide short-term, 1:1 counseling. Counseling can help you find a new way of looking at a problem, a new means of coping with stress, or simply be a way to gain support and stability through a difficult time. We also offer group psychotherapy, and brief psychiatric consultations. Sometimes students come to us in search of long-term treatment, or with special or more intensive treatment needs and in those circumstances we can help be a bridge to connect students with an off-campus provider. One last thing we can help with is when you are worried about a friend and want to consult with one of us about how to get help for them.
Q: For students struggling academically, socially, emotionally, or a combination of all three, would your professional advice be?
A: I think if there is one piece of advice I would want your readers to have it’s that isolation and self-criticism make the pain of life harder to bear. There is a traditional Buddhist saying which states that in life, pain is inevitable – but suffering is not. We all struggle from time to time, and emotional pain is both natural and inevitable. Suffering happens when we think that we shouldn’t be feeling any pain, sadness or distress; or that we are somehow “bad” for feeling that way. My advice: if you are struggling, talk to someone about it. Talk to a friend, or a teacher, or one of the professionals at CAPS. 95% of the time, you’ll feel better for getting it off your chest, and you might even come to see that your problems are not so different from what other people experience.
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The outreach and prevention efforts that Dr. Rose speaks to are not limited to just the staff. Dr. Melissa Zarin, Assistant Director of CAPS, is also Coordinator of the Peer Educator Program, a student-centric group whose goal is to educate the community on mental health issues. Dr. Zarin started the program 3 years ago and has since attracted a small, but highly-dedicated group of students who run workshops for various student groups on campus and advertise the services of CAPS.
“The goal is for these students to be independent,” said Dr. Zarin, who attests that her Peer Educators are invested in their own growth and training within the program. “As much as people invite me to present, I want my own [Peer Educators] to go out and host presentations.” The Peer Educators meet and train once a week, where they not only develop basic counseling skills, but learn to discuss topics such as sex positivity, stress management, drugs and alcohol, and the warning signs of depression and suicide. Dr. Zarin encourages those who are interested in becoming a Peer Educator to contact her as she is looking to add two to three students to the program this year.
Even the CAPS program has undergone changes over the summer. Disability services, once under the same umbrella as the counseling and psychology services, is now its own office, also located on the 7th floor of Howe. Dr. Rose and Dr. Zarin are also pleased to announce that CAPS will now be offering daily urgent-care walk-in hours (weekdays from 2-4pm) with the hope to decrease the wait time for students who need to be seen by staff. “We hope these changes mean that students are going to find us even more available than we were before,” said Dr. Rose.
The Counseling and Psychological Service Center is located on the 7th floor of the Howe Building. For those interested in the Peer Educator Program, contact Dr. Melissa Zarin at mzarin@stevens.edu. For those interested in hosting a Mental Health workshop, contact Joyce Pegler at jpegler@stevens.edu.
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