Depression Etc in College

Bravo — a lot of this stuff first manifests at this age and it’s important to know it when you see it, whether in yourself or another. BECAUSE TREATMENT IS AVAILABLE and WORKS, it’s a waste to let the conditions run and wreak havoc in young lives.

Rich Godfrey, TSTC Marshall, at 9:06 am EDT on August 9, 2005

Students deserve the same privacy rights as the rest of us, Larry—if students’ educational and occupational opportunities are being limited by loud-mouthed college health centers, then the centers should be told to keep their mouths shut and not release information about who comes to seek treatment.

No one says you have to get treatment if you don’t want to, but why would you be so hesitant to allow others to opportunity to get help? Even if you don’t beleive in mental illness, you can see that sometimes, lonely and stressed college students really need a friendly and supportive person to talk to. A therapist can be that person.

ML, at 11:20 am EDT on August 9, 2005

My 800-pound attorney

ML, you’re right. Why?

FERPA + HIPA + mean, vicious junkyard dog-attorney(s) = safe environment for privacy and treatment.

Better yet — parental supervision and review. I’ve dealt with students who had personal problems (e.g., suicide attempts, alcohol overdoses). Afterwards, it made me wonder, why their parents, allowed them to come to campus — really. Perhaps just to give themselves some relief?

Art (not Larry), at 1:19 pm EDT on August 9, 2005

a culture that does not believe in mental health or illness?

Coming from a culture that for sure does believe in it, I am curious— which culture is that? I come from a process of observation over time that would say there probably is a very small population of actually mentally ill people and a much larger, and growing, population, that buys into the PR and hype of pharmaceutical companies, and, quite possibly the American Psychiatric Association.

Kathy, at 3:07 pm EDT on August 9, 2005

part of this “hype”

I am just saying that this campaign fits the overall picture of how drug companies expand their markets. There is a large pharmacopeia of drugs used to treat depression. The more depressed people, the larger the market. The American Psychiatric Association campaign may be perfectly legitimate, but they may also have an agenda of working with the drug companies to expand the market for drugs used to treat depression. Depression and other psychiatric disorders are diagnosed in a subjective manner, often beginning with a self-diagnosis. One is more likely to self-diagnolse a mental disorder if one is familiar with it.

for example—one view of how Prozac came to Japan which had a culture that did not recognize mental illness in the same way US culture does.

One part of the story——"it’s become easier recently to diagnose many of his patients because they often have heard about depression from books and the popular media, and describe their symptoms clearly. “

http://www.drugawareness.org/Archives/4thQtr_2002/record0031.html

Kathy Krassa, at 11:52 am EDT on August 10, 2005

An easy way to ruin a career

Dr. McKinney,

What strict guidelines? If a students tells someone that he is “considering” or “thought about” suicide then there is a high likelihood that some measures that the student does not want taken will be taken for his “own protection.” The same goes if the student randomly muses about her homicidal ideations. Whatever promises of absolute secrecy are made are not followed and the law (as stated above) does not require it.

What are the remedies for blabbing that a 19-year-old got depressed and was thinking of killing herself ? Criminal penalties for the psychologist ? A cause of action on behalf of the victim ? Expulsion from the profession ?

The next problem is that there is a very real chance that a student who goes to see a mental health professional will have to disclose this visit on many applications for numerous positions of public trust for the rest of his/her life. (E.g. applications to the bar, military application, etc.) At a minium, this “help” that you are encouraging people to seek will generate extra questions, and at a maximum, it will preclude them from the profession. And why should it not ? Do we really want soldiers or lawyers that are known to freak out or seek the advice of a doctor at any point in time ? Do we really want Navy Seals on Prozac, lawyers on Zoloft or Surgeons on Paxil ? (No, we all gotta face enemies, disease, and injustice head on.)

Students need to know exactly what can and cannot be disclosed. Doctors should have to tell students 1) how long they have been practicing; and 2) how many times they have disclosed anything to anyone without the express written consent of the student (for each disclosure, not a blanket disclosure). Students need to know the practice of each profession that they may ever wish to seek admission to before they start pouring their hearts out or medicating themselves. Now, if someone just wants to be a housewife they should feel free not care about their career. But if someone ever wants to make something of themselves they need to think seriously about trusting a any sort of mental health professional.

Finally, as the other poster alludes to, how can anyone trust you to not be hyping a bunch of drugs ?

Larry, at 1:34 pm EDT on August 11, 2005