The current event topic that my group and I investigated was depression in college students and how it affects their performance in school. In order to investigate if depression affects performance in school, we also looked into the way that professors view students who have depression. The availability heuristic plays a key role in this project because people tend to associate this current event topic with things that they may see in the news or in movies. There is a current stigma that those who have depression don’t excel in the classroom, are lazy, don’t show up to class, and make excuses for why they have low grades. By doing this project we wanted to shine a light on how depression affects people and compare that to actual people’s beliefs about the topic.
Depression Overview
Depression is often a disorder that is over looked by many. According to the Journal of Affective Disorders, depression is a problem that is affecting approximately 350 million people around the world. That number is only including the people that have been diagnosed. There are still people around the world struggling with this disorder thinking that they are alone, but they are not. In order to fully understand this topic, it is important to define the word depression itself. Depression is a disorder which affects the way you feel, think, and handle everyday activities and pleasures. One of the major subtypes of depression as stated in a journal article is “melancholic features which requires at least of the following symptoms: complete loss of pleasure, lack of reactivity, psychomotor retardation, significant weight loss, excessive guilt, or distinct quality of depressed mood” (Core symptoms, 2008). Some people can even experience a catatonic state which makes your body feel unusually heavy, almost like you are carrying extra weight. All of these symptoms can have a large impact on an individual who has depressions life and how they carry out there every day life.
The availability heuristic comes into play with this topic because many have an adopted attitude for how they view people who have depression. Often time’s people rely on the media or news for how they perceive depression or other mental illnesses as well. Events that are more easily remembered are judged as being more probable than those less easily remembered. This is due to the fact that media affects the way people view depressed individuals.
How depression is negatively viewed through the media
Throughout the course of this project as a group we looked through many video clips and news reports and examined how the media often reports mental illness as being associated with violence. In the movie, Girl Interrupted, it portrays one of the main characters who has depression as crazy and out of control. According to Stuart the media has” been responsible for creating a vast store of negative imagery with some of the most malignant depictions of madness and horrifying illustrations of psychiatric treatments” (Stuart, 2006). In the movie Girl Interrupted, most of the women didn’t need to be in a psychiatric hospital. But since they were, it created more of a negative outlook on mental illness. It is sad that the way people view depression is based off of movies and the news, when in no way are a lot of them realistic. According to the article, Stuart stresses the fact that the media tends to portray people with mental illnesses as having no close family members and no true social life at all. Stuart pointed out that “even the camera shots used to film mentally ill characters differ from those used to film other characters. Mentally ill characters are usually filmed alone with close-up or extreme shots, reinforcing their isolation and dislocation from the other characters and from the community” (Stuart, 2006). An example of this would be from the movie stated above because often times when the main character would have violent outbursts the camera would get very close to her, making the people watching assume that she is just crazy and out of control. As well as mental illnesses being portrayed in movies it is also negatively portrayed in the news as well. This contributes to the stigma because a majority of people watch and trust what the news says which in turn leads to the negative attitude toward people with mental illness. The more media expresses mental illness in negative ways, the more frequently people will falsely believe that depressed people are crazy and incapable of receiving help or getting better. In a study done by the National Institute of Mental Health, “Approximately 37% of adults with major depressive episode did not receive treatment”, this is frustrating because with the proper help, an individual with depression can lead a normal life. Often times the media portrays depression in a way that makes it seem like having depression is the end all be all, when that is not the case.
How depression can be positively used through the media
Although the media and movies tend to negatively portray mental illness at times it also shows mental illness in its true form. In the TV show 13 Reasons Why, depression is depicted accurately in its most raw form. There was a lot of controversy over this show because of how descriptive and vivid it was. A positive affect this show had on its viewers was that it opened the door for people to start talking about mental illness instead of keeping it on the back burner. Teenagers and college students have a lot in common when it comes to social pressures that come with being in school. Suicide, rape, assault, and bullying are things that still go on in High Schools and in college. There was controversy over whether or not this show “glamorized suicide”. In my perspective I think that it brought to light a topic that no one wanted to talk about and this show made people talk about mental illness. This show showed that someone can only handle so much by themselves before it becomes too much, there is only so much one can handle by themselves. Mental illness was also shown through the TV show Bojack Horseman, where the main character was often found self-loathing. This show is more of a comedy and not specifically about mental illness, but it shows the true effects that depression can have on someone’s life. This show proves that it doesn’t matter how privileged one is, someone can have all of the wealth in the world and still feel like they have nothing. The show also proves the many ways that people with depression handle themselves, whether it is shutting the world out or just disappearing. This show is important because a lot of people can connect with it, it shows people that depression is real. The use of animals instead of humans in the show depicts the fact that mental illness can affect anyone, and that people are very complex.
Common symptoms and risk factors
In a study done by Geisner, it stresses that college kids are at a higher risk for depression. The college kids were given a survey and the rates of sadness/depression were exponential. This research shined a light on how college students tend to underestimate the importance of their feelings and the effects that their sadness has on their everyday lives. Being away from home and at college can often leave a lot of stress and discomfort on college students which can often times be over looked as just being “homesick”. The study specifically stated, “Depressed mood may lead to suicidality, problematic drinking and other drug use and can exacerbate the consequences experienced” (Geisner et al., 2015). This study examines that college students face many challenges as they go through school due to the several stressors that they endure, often times facing depression or other mood related behaviors while being unaware that they are. Often students simply think they are sad and that it will easily pass, which sometimes may not be the case. College students tend to see depressed people as weak and unable to succeed, which not only adds to the stigma, but it also prevents people with depression from getting the help that they need. This study showed that more needs to be done around campuses, college kids and even most professors are uneducated when it comes to the topic of mental health.
Research results
As a result of the research that my group and I conducted, I think that not only kids need to be educated on mental health but professors as well. Specifically, at D’Youville I think a lot can be done in terms of spreading awareness about the importance of mental health. D’Youville needs a more professional counseling center that is bigger and has more counselors readily available for students that are in need. I think that a specific class should be integrated into students' schedules allowing kids to immerse themselves into learning more about mental health. They should also be educated on the importance of mindfulness, of the stressors that we face each day, and know that it is okay to ask for help. Lastly, and I know that this would be very hard to incorporate, but I think that professors need to be paid more. I think that when professors are underpaid, they tend to not care about their students as much. A personal example that I can give is from freshman year. My first semester at D’Youville, I was struggling in my Biology class, after not doing well on my second exam I decided to confront the professor and ask what I could do differently. When I walked into this professor’s office it was clear when I was talking to him, he was focused on answering his emails rather than helping me. When I asked what I could do differently the professor responded with ‘You dug yourself a pretty big hole kids, good luck getting out of it’. After sitting there crying in shock for a few minutes I decided to get up and leave. I personally think that this professor had too much on his plate, is underpaid, and in turn does not care about his students (on an academic or emotional level). I don’t blame this professor for not being a happy person because if I was in his shoes, I wouldn’t be happy either. But I do believe that he, along with other professors, could benefit from some sort of compassion or mental health training.
This topic that my group and I chose is extremely important because the judgement that people make on a daily basis, of people with mental illness, can discourage them from seeking help. The video that we made stresses that it is important to reach out for help when you think you may have symptoms of depression. It is important that as students we educated ourselves and others on the realities of depression and mental illness. Individuals with depression don’t deserve to have a label slapped on them stating they are lazy and unmotivated, because they can get better and that label should not become their identity. With the correct help, someone with a mental illness can succeed just as well as someone without a mental illness.