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MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2007
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》CAMPUS
VOLUME 118 ISSUE 73
SUA tries to ease students'stress
It's the semester's last week of events for Student Union Activities, and students can have some holiday fun before they begin finals week.
Students can get free cookies and massages at the Holiday Open House Tuesday afternoon in the lobby in the Kansas Union. At Hawk Nights Holiday Bash on Thursday, students can compete in a gingerbread house making contest.
FULL STORY ON PAGE 3A
KU ENDOWMENT Fall fund honors Boardwalk victim
A new scholarship will be offered next fall in honor of a University student who died in a fire at the Boardwalk apartment complex in October 2005.
Nancy Bingham, Nicolé mother, said that she established the scholarship as part of a memorial for Nicolé's friends.
The scholarship is available to history majors like Nicole with a GPA no higher than 3.5. Lisa Scheller, senior editor for the KU Endowment Association, said that information will be sent out to history majors in the spring with details of how to apply.
The scholarship is in memory of Nicole Bingham, who was a Wichita senior at the time of her death.
HEALTH
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Nicole Bingham, Wichita senior, died in the Boardwalk Apartment fire. Next fall a scholarship will honor her memory.
FULL STORY ON PAGE 3A
AMTRAK ACCIDENT
Speeding train causes $1.3 million in damages
FULL AP STORY PAGE 4A
weather
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index
Classifieds ... 3B
Crossword ... 6A
Horoscopes ... 6A
Opinion ... 7A
Sports ... 1B
Sudoku ... 6A
All contents; unless stated otherwise
© 2007 The University Daily Kansan
Coping with collegeblues
Freshman transition often leads to depression for students who must quickly adjust; social life centered on a substance that only worsens the condition makes it one difficult to escape
BY COURTNEY
CONDRON
ccondron@
kansan.com
Katie Cox recalls sitting in a geology class freshman year when she was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness. She started crying, and couldn't stop, which was embarrassing for Cox, a St. Louis sophomore.
Cox wasn't
Cox wasn't motivated to do anything, didn't feel like socializing, ate and slept poorly and cried so frequently she began wearing sunglasses to class to hide her tears.
Cox had joined an increasing number of college students who suffer from depression so severe that they can't manage everyday tasks. According to the American College Health Association (ACHA), the percentage
of college students diagnosed with depression has increased 56 percent in the last six years. That depression is often triggered by leaving a structured home life, high school friends and relationships for a college life where students have to make their own decisions. Psychological problems such as depression often first surface
and they begin to isolate themselves from friends. However, students like Cox can reach out to get the help they need, whether it's therapy, anti-depressant medication or natural mood-boosters, and the University of Kansas has made these options available for students.
during early adulthood and late adolescence. In addition, the college social scene is centered on the powerful depressant alcohol, which can make these feelings even worse.
DEFINING DEPRESSION
Stephen Ilardi, associate professor of psychology at the University, said students often feel sad and homesick when they left for college freshman year, but depression goes beyond these feelings. He said there was more public misunderstanding of depression than of any other illness.
Melissa Farr, Leavenworth senior, has suffered from depression periodically since freshman year. Farr had a tough time settling in with roommates, broke up with her boyfriend of three years and was experiencing hormone problems. She began to withdraw from friends, and her grades plummetted. She turned to alcohol to escape it all, not realizing it was a depressant that would only worsen her condition.
Farr had to force herself to care about school or even shower. She didn't care whether she ate, and she lived for weekend nights. Instead of attending class, Farr spent her time lying alone in bed, in the darkness and silence of her dorm room, while her roommate was in class or socializing.
"Everyone has sadness," Ilardi said. "Depression is not just moodiness and sadness. It profoundly impairs your ability to function, ability to stay asleep, quality of sleep, robs you of energy and the ability to concentrate."
Depression can manifest itself in different ways. Students may feel like they never want to get out of bed or don't want to shower,
"For the longest time I was just kind of naive and sugarcoating everything and not wanting to say 'Look, cut the crap; there's something wrong,'" Farr said.
"There was a part of me that knew I had to get up and shower and eat and stuff like that, but I didn't care."
MELISSA FARR Leavenworth senior
"I if I was asleep all the time, that was less time awake to experience reality and having to deal with things," Farr said. "My bed was a safe place to be."
H a r a
Morano, editor at large
of Psychology Today,
has extensively studied
depression in college
students and said a lack
of engagement was the
main cause of depression.
H a r a
"That's how you define it. Kids who are not engaged intellectually have no flow, no real deep meaningful exchange. They think about themselves all the time. When you are engaged with something on the outside, you grow and are forced to reflect on that experience." Morano said.
Ihardi called depression a neurological runaway stress response in the brain with a set of physical reactions to it, similar to the flu.
"They have no energy, feel like they just want to crawl in a hole and don't want any interaction," Ilardi said.
Ihardi said depression could negatively impact memory and appetite and make those who suffer from it lethargic. Depression stimulates the parts of the brain that register physical pain, and some people say depression can hurt worse than natural childbirth or a kidnave stone, he said.
Marcia Epstein, director of Headquarters Counseling Center in Lawrence, said depression could look like anger and aggression, not just like tears and withdrawal. She said feelings of depression didn't necessarily diminish over time regardless of support and self-care. She said that if people could just decide to feel better, they would, but that "it's just not that easy"
This often causes depressed students to drop out of school, and those who don't drop out have to force themselves to keep at it.
Morano said, "They can perform sort of like robots, going through the motions of current and extracurricular life, but there's no soul there. It is really hard to study if your mind has been hijacked by stress or anxiety."
Farr said she struggled to carry on.
Farl and she struggled to carry on.
"It was almost like I was forcing myself.
There was a part of me that knew I had to get up and shower and eat and stuff like that, but I didn't care," she said.
Cox said she didn't feel like herself.
"I was just kind of flat." Cox said. "I felt like I was alone trying to handle this by myself. A lot hit me all at once."
EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM
According to an ACHA survey of 23,863 students from 34 colleges, including the University, 35 percent said they felt so depressed that was difficult to function one to 10 times in the past year. If that percentage held true for the 28,000 KU students, almost 10,000 of them would have felt depressed in the past year.
Illardi called depression on college campuses an "epidemic." He estimated that around one in five of the 600 students in his classes were currently depressed or had taken antidepressants. Illardi said that because he taught classes such as abnormal psychology, the percentage of depressed students in his classes may be higher than the total number at the University because students who suffered from psychological problems were more interested in the subject.
"The proportion of students who have told me directly about their own experience
with depression is really pretty staggering," lardi said.
Morano, a Psychology Today editor, said the increasing rates of depression were "astronomically high on college campuses these days, no matter what sources you look at."
Morano said depression was common in young people because of the stress that college can cause, their lack of coping skills to effectively deal with internal pain and because their parents hovered over them and prevented them from developing a healthy sense of self.
Before students went off to college, they had structure in their homes, Morano said. They wake up at the same time each day, go to school and have parents who make them meals and tell them what to do.
"Then you get to college on your own and have to decide when you go to sleep, when to get up and when to study. There's more room to not be self-organized and fall apart," Morano said.
SEE DEPRESSION ON PAGE 4A
Where to get help
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
Watkins Memorial Health Center, 2nd Floor.Call 864-CAPS to make an appointment for counseling.
Watkins Memorial Health Center
Watkins Memorial Health Center If prescribed medicine, students can fill prescriptions at the pharmacy, and the Wellness Resource Center can help students with stress management and self-esteem 864-9570.
Headquarters Counseling Center Has services such as suicide prevention, information about anti-depressants and counseling and support.