From 2009 to 2017, depressive episode rates increased 63 percent in people ages 18 to 25, according to the American Psychological Association (APA). The average onset for several mental health conditions is ages 18 to 24. Age, time period, and cohort are all factors that may affect these mood disorders.
The APA did a study exploring trends in psychological distress and major depressive episodes (MDE) from 2005 to 2017. Serious psychological distress increased 71% in adults ages 18-25 in 2017. This was primarily due to cohort, which is a cultural trend that can affect people based on their age or generation. MDE increased by 68% from 2006 to 2017.
Mood disorders tend to decrease over time and with older age. For instance, the APA’s study found that people over the age of 26 did not struggle with depressive episodes or serious psychological distress nearly as much.
In the past, there has been inconsistency between the perceptions of mental health issues and how people actually communicate about mental health. Students who struggle with depression or anxiety in college often don’t know the signs associated with the issues, or simply won’t get help because of the stigma surrounding the environment of counseling.
In a journal article about depression and anxiety stigma from 2018, stigma was defined as “socialized, simplified, standardized image of the disgrace of a particular group.” The particular group this article focuses on is people struggling with depression or anxiety. The three kinds of stigma associated with these mental health issues are personal stigma, perceived stigma, and shame.
The article did a study on which of these stigmas was more prevalent in college students struggling with depression and anxiety. Using a 5-point scale, they found that, on average, attitudes toward mental health issues in the personal stigma column were higher. Therefore, more students experience internalized, personal shame from depression and anxiety than external.
Many studies suggest that one of the factors that could be contributing to the increase of these mental health issues is the amount of time young adults spend on social media and smartphones. In an NPR article, professor of psychology at San Diego University Jean Twenge said that “Spending time on social media tends not to be in real time… it’s just not as emotionally fulfilling as seeing someone in person.”
Psychologist Mary Fristad, from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the Ohio State University, organized a focus group of students at Ohio State who all received smartphones when they were 13 or 14 years old. These students mentioned struggling with pressure to build a brand, comparison, and not getting enough face-to-face interaction due to their phones.
In the NPR article, Fristad said “There’s just a lot of heightened tension around this,” referring to the frequent use of social media and smartphones. However, there are ways to avoid that tension and help students stay healthy and avoid stigma during their college years.
Over the 2015-16 school year, more than 40% of college counseling centers hired more staff members. There continues to be experimentation and allocation for more ways of monitoring student health and treatment.
In an article from TIME magazine, Nelly Spigner explains her experience with mental health issues during her freshman year at the University of Richmond in 2014. At the time, she felt worn down and lonely but did not want to brave the counseling center, which was hidden away in the psychology department.
She felt defeated. She said in the article that “when you’re going through that and you’re looking around on campus, it doesn’t seem like anyone else is going through what you’re going through… it was probably the loneliest experience.”
After taking a leave of absence for mental health and coming back senior year, she found that the entire department of counseling had changed. Students shared publicly their struggles with mental health in an open mic night, all of her friends went to counseling, and she openly discussed her mental health with others.
Researcher and clinical psychologist with the University of Kansas, Steve Ilardi, developed a treatment approach based on cognitive behavioral therapy that helps young adults change their lifestyles to become healthier individuals. According to him, behavior change often “helps kids get unstuck from their perpetual sense of anxiety, stress, and depression.”
Ilardi told NPR, “Kids buy into it when you lay it out for them and explain they can be empowered to make changes themselves that can make a big difference in how you feel, how your brain, mind, and body functions.”
The high increase in students who struggle with depression and anxiety in the past few years is troubling, but many colleges are creating new programs to help students live healthy lives and feel comfortable getting the counseling they need.