By Jessica Wind (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 10, 2012
Do you have trouble sleeping? Are you irritable for no reason? Do you feel compelled to drink on a daily basis?
With these symptoms, you may be like most university students during midterm season, but you may also be suffering from depression or anxiety.
Here to Help BC, the main mental health resource in the province, sponsored Beyond the Blues: Depression and Anxiety Education Screening Day on October 4, just outside the cafeteria of the Abbotsford campus.
UFV Counsellors and Here to Help volunteers set out cookies and 26 piles of informational brochures dealing with social anxiety disorder, depression and diagnosis, suicide, and support for aboriginals. They also offered one-on-one confidential screenings for depression, anxiety and risky drinking behaviour, as well as providing support for those concerned for their loved ones’ mental health.
Counselling department head Dawn Holt said the event was designed to educate and reduce the stigma towards anxiety and depression.
“40 per cent of university students struggle with anxiety or depression … it’s the norm,” she explained.
UFV is one of the few universities to participate in the one-day program, and has been participating for at least 10 years. The event is traditionally held on the first Thursday in October, and dozens of facilities all over the province—including colleges, hospitals, health centres and walk-in clinics—participate in raising awareness on the same day every year.
For students it is an opportunity to describe how they are dealing with the pressures of university, and get the support and resources they need to manage their symptoms.
The first step students went through was a confidential screening that finished up with a private discussion with one of the counsellors.
“We give them the sheet of paper [to take to their doctor],” Holt said. “They don’t have to talk as much, so it takes some of the nervousness away of actually reaching out and getting some help.”
The screening site was located in the hallway just outside the cafeteria, engineered to draw in students passing by on their way to lunch. This very public atmosphere would presumably deter students from participating but Holt explained that this wasn’t the case.
“We’ve actually found that it brings students out; part of the point of the day is education. It’s not some small number of shamed people who are hiding in the corner with a mental health issue. We’re talking about half of our [country’s] population,” she explained.
For those students that would still prefer the privacy of a closed door, UFV employs six counsellors at both Abbotsford campus and CEP. Students are free to make an appointment and have a screening done, or come in just to talk.
The screening itself consists of a series of questions about the symptoms for anxiety and depression, as well as risky drinking behaviours. In the last week have you felt anxious? Has this affected your ability to go about your day? On a scale of “never” to “all the time,” how often do you feel like breaking things?
The questions are intended to make students consider things they experience frequently, but to have them laid out on paper can help students see patterns more clearly.
“[It] activates different neural pathways in the brain, and makes you look at them differently,” Holt explained. “A low score may be a reassurance for some, but a high score might be reassuring to others.”
Considering 100 per cent of us know what it’s like to be a student, and 40 per cent of us are experiencing anxiety or depression, a little more education could make a big difference.
“You know what? We live with it,” Holt mused. “You can have help with it, you can get educated about it, and if you are having symptoms, somebody’s around to support you.”
