Steiners thesis states that college students must know what depression is, what causes it, and how they can be helped if they feel as though they have depression. Depression is very serious in today's world more than ever. College students all over the world are stressed from balancing their pressuring academic lives with their social lives, which can be just as stressful. She states that there was a five percent increase in college students who suffer from depression between 2000 and 2005. Steiner feels that with the right knowledge about what depression really is and what you can do to get help that people can approach their depression in a much healthier way rather than suicide.
Steiner supports her thesis by giving examples of college students who have gone through serious cases of depression which resulted in suicide. She starts off her argument by talking about a college student named Nima Shaterian. Nima seemed like an all around nice and educated boy who did not seem to have any problem to the outside world until he committed suicide. Nima was a college student at the time who attended UC Davis. Nima is unfortunately one of eleven college students who attended UC Davis who committed suicide from 2000 to 2006. She wants readers' to realize that if they can understand what depression is and what symptoms arise from it that they can help friends and family who they feel are depressed.
Steiner then goes onto talk about a sophomore in college at MIT named Elizabeth Shin. Elizabeth was a popular, busy, self-motivated and lively student but unfortunately had suicidal thoughts. She discussed these problems with her friends, roommates, and counselors at the MIT counseling center but no one took serious actions to help her with her depression. Elizabeth committed suicide as well by setting herself on fire. Steiner argues that if she had the proper help from her friends and counselors that this suicide could have been prevented. Steiner tied this issue into her essay by talking about Diana Hill who is a doctoral intern at the UC Davis Center for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). Hill explains that depression for college students starts in the very beginning. This is because of what I stated earlier on that college students have to juggle all their priorities and usually do not have much help when handling them. Unfortunately, Hill explains that even with the CAPS program it is very hard to reach out to students about the program and to have enough counselors for this program due to their lack of funding. Steiner believes that funding for programs that can help college students with depression must be made into a major priority.
I believe that Steiner is making very valid points. College students should be aware of what depression is, what causes depression, and how to help people with it. I don't believe that talking to friends is enough when it comes to this issue. College students who do suffer from depression must talk to loved ones and a counselor. Personally, I used to have a friend who suffered from depression. She was a very nice, smart, and kind girl who cared about others. Her parents getting a divorce caused her to go down hill physically and mentally. She gained an outrageous amount of weight, did poorly in school, and broke off ties with many people, including myself. She didn't rely on many people besides those who were very close to her. Her family forced her to go see a psychiatrist and she is now doing much better.
With the right help anything is possible! Funding for programs like CAPS should be given to every college so that students have an outlet to release their problems and people to turn to when they are in need of serious help. College students need to know that suicide is not the answer. There are people out there who can help them. If college students don't feel comfortable talking to a counselor or a psychiatrist, maybe they would feel better if there was a support group for them to talk about their problems with other students who feel the same way.
No comments:
Post a Comment