Brandon Cortés – Contributor
A study conducted by Healthy Minds highlights that more than a third of college students are suffering from anxiety and depression.
In late 2022 and early 2023, Southern Connecticut State University participated in a survey conducted by Healthy Minds which stated that 41% of students experienced any depression –major and moderate– and a total of 36% suffer from anxiety. Nick Pinkerton, the associate dean of counseling and wellness services explains that most of these results can be due to financial issues and sociopolitical stressors or indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are still unraveling the broad implications of the pandemic on our mental health and wellbeing,” Pinkerton said.
Other observations made by Pinkerton are the impact and comfort of social interactions.
“Loneliness and social anxiety– which manifests as social avoidance– are on the rise,” he said.
Pinkerton said that he recognizes many students and community members are struggling to feel truly connected to others in genuine and meaningful ways.
“While the pandemic certainly was an accelerant of these trends, they were here prior and unfortunately are continuing.” Pinkerton said.
“Students have a lot on their shoulders right now and even more after the pandemic left us a huge emotional scar inside us,” says Devon Wilson, a junior majoring in psychology. “Hell, some students have stuck with online classes since the beginning of the pandemic because they are frightened to make any social interactions with others at all.”
Wilson says classes and keeping track of course schedules are huge factors to consider.
“Some classes that aren’t required for your major can hold you back,” Wilson says. “ I think there is a lot of disorganization in Southern when it comes to this, and I think that this becomes stressful for the student because they have to combat and organize it themselves in a way; and trying to get in contact with your professor; and all of that and at the same time administrating your time for your classes and pay up your student debts and loans is, honestly, enough to make anyone depressed.”
“Sometimes these feelings come from the inability of not knowing what to do,” said Luis Flores, a freshman majoring in psychology. “Yes, paying tuition, not knowing what to do with your life and working and studying at the same time can put you in a dark spot in your life, but the feeling that you are alone, and you have no help, and you feel cornered by your negative thoughts is what makes the situation worse, and some students go through all of that.”
However, the university has multiple tools to help students who are struggling with their mental health, such as counseling service, the Wellbeing Center and even clubs like Active Minds, which is dedicated to informing and disseminating information on mental disorders and helping students who require it.
Jordan Cervantes, a sophomore majoring in psychology, is currently the president of the Active Minds club which meets every Monday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Adanti Student Center in Room 201.
“I have always been exposed to people struggling with mental health since I was in middle school, so when I arrived at Southern and saw the opportunity to run for president for the Active Minds club, I took it because I wanted to help as many as I could who are struggling with their mental health,” Cervantes said. “Our main goal at Active Minds is to raise awareness about how important mental health is. Many times, we have found it difficult to complete this task since many people consider it a ‘taboo’ to talk about their mental health, especially men, whom many of them believe that talking about their mental state is a sign of being ‘weak’ when it is not.”
The Active Minds club works together with Pinkerton to raise awareness about mental health, offering activities in collaboration with the Wellbeing Center.
“We are also promoting our Wellbeing Center presentations to the community, encouraging a ‘Don’t Cancel That Class’ initiative to allow us to present during planned instructor absences,” Pinkerton said. “I just had an interview this morning with JED, who will be featuring our Thrive in 5 Workbook in their next blogpost, as they feel that it is an innovative approach to infusing well-being related topics into the learning environment. We have several workbooks printed to hand out to professors and provide it in PDF on our Wellbeing Center website, having created each 5-minute exercise as a double-sided handout for easy printing.”
“All of these activities plus our counseling services have helped us combat and progressively reduce the numbers of depression and anxiety,” Pinkerton said.
In fact, the survey report notes that “campus counseling services led to large reductions in symptoms and improvements in functioning, according to analyzes by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH). In your Healthy Minds data, satisfaction rates are close to 86.70% among students who used campus mental health services, suggesting that your services are effective, as in the CCMH data.”
“We will continue to utilize tools like this to enhance our understanding of and response to the needs of our community,” Pinkerton said.
