{"id":688,"date":"2019-04-28T00:19:54","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T00:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/?p=688"},"modified":"2019-04-28T00:22:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T00:22:22","slug":"dont-suffer-in-silence-speaking-out-about-mental-illnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/2019\/04\/28\/dont-suffer-in-silence-speaking-out-about-mental-illnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Suffer in Silence: Speaking Out About Mental Illnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disability<\/a> |\u00a0noun<\/em> | dis\u22c5a\u22c5bil\u22c5i\u22c5ty |\u00a0\/\u02ccdis\u0259\u02c8bil\u0259d\u0113\/ | “a physical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition that impairs, interferes with, or limits a person’s ability to engage in certain tasks or actions or participate in daily activities and interactions.”<\/p>\n

According to this definition, mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, are considered disabilities. There must be proper documentation, such as records from mental health practitioners and a treatment history, that prove symptoms to be disabling.\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a> (WSJ) explains that “schools are required to extend ‘reasonable accommodations’ for students with documented disabilities \u2013 including psychological ones \u2013 to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.”<\/p>\n

The problem is, however, that different schools vary widely on accommodations for students with psychological disabilities, with regards to flexibility with assignment deadlines, class attendance, and participation. For example, this<\/a> WSJ article mentions a student at the University of Connecticut who emailed a professor asking for extra time to complete a paper. She said, “I have been going through a rough patch lately and am making the decision to take care of myself this week.”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, colleges are seeing more and more students on campus with mental illnesses. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a study regarding the mental health of incoming college freshman. The study<\/a> “examines the prevalence of major depression, anxiety disorders, mania, panic disorders, and substance use\u2026 Researchers found that 35 percent of the 13,984 college students surveyed reported having dealt with one of these disorders at some point in life, while 31 percent reported coping with such challenges within the 12-month period prior to taking the WHO survey.”<\/p>\n

As a result of the pervasiveness of mental illnesses on college campuses and the magnitude of their impacts, students are being forced to voice their concerns. Schools claim<\/a> that “they are seeing a rise in the number of students registering with their disability offices due to psychological problems.” These mental illnesses often have severe academic consequences, affecting students’ concentration, sleep, and cognitive processing. Moreover, one challenge with mental illnesses is their unpredictable nature. Students with psychological disorders do now know when their symptoms will occur, and when they will be disabled.<\/p>\n

What this means for college professors and disability offices is that they need to be educated and prepared. Students need to be vocal from the beginning of the semester to create a plan, should there be a need for one in the future. There are several options for these students, including communicating directly with the professor or going through the college’s disability office. Either of these ways of receiving accommodations can be successful and are important. In order to erase the stigma surrounding mental illnesses, students need to speak out about their challenges.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A student group devoted to reducing stigma around mental illness is on 325 campuses. A backpack, pictured, reads ‘1,100 students die by suicide each year.’ BRIAN HARKIN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Post by: Maya Grant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disability |\u00a0noun | dis\u22c5a\u22c5bil\u22c5i\u22c5ty |\u00a0\/\u02ccdis\u0259\u02c8bil\u0259d\u0113\/ | “a physical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition that impairs, interferes with, or limits a person’s ability to engage in certain tasks or actions or participate in daily activities and interactions.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8830,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[457166,217169,457064],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8830"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/achievementgap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}