Age of uncertainty
In “College Girls,” author Lynn Peril tracks the bizarre eating rituals of girls away from home for the first time. Long before bulimia and anorexia became movie-of-the-week familiar, young women in college stuffed themselves during midnight buffets, organized eating groups and lamented gaining the infamous “Freshman 15.”
In a recent review of the book in Atlantic magazine, writer Caitlin Flanagan posited a theory why weird food habits, as well as full-blown eating disorders, have always plagued some college-age girls. “Even those girls for whom leave-taking is more escape than sorrow enter a period of profound self-examination – and often melancholy – when they break from the home where they were raised.”
Emotional and mental illnesses, from mild melancholy to schizophrenia, have always been a fact of college life. Ask post-college adults if they knew a fellow student who “went crazy” during college, and you’ll hear a lot of stories, because the college years can be an especially vulnerable time for the onset of mental illness. Brain development is in flux. And stress can trigger genetic and biological predispositions.
“This is a time in life when there are a lot of pressures and demands placed on people,” explained Dennis Dyck, vice chancellor of research at Washington State University whose expertise is schizophrenia. “There are the rigors of competing and new relationships with peers.”
Last week’s tragedy at Virginia Tech is raising awareness about mental health issues on college campuses, but Dyck and others worry that the tragedy might also awaken stereotypes about people with mental illness, including the fallacy that people with mental illness are often prone to violence.
Most young people make it out of the college years just fine. And if they do struggle with emotional illnesses, they are often better off on a college campus, where people are trained to look for and help treat those struggling.
The Inland Northwest is home to nearly a dozen institutions of higher education, and high-schoolers (and their parents) researching potential colleges should include questions about mental health resources. They might never need those services, but they will be attending class and living with other students who do.
Universities educate students for their professions and for their future. Universities are also in a position to educate everyone on the myths and facts of mental illness. And the best higher-ed institutions will make certain that those who need help get it – quickly and with compassion.