maybe, MAYBE a few people on the lower end of administration care, but i was told in no uncertain terms by uc santa cruz that i was a liability for being unhappy

oh and since i’m visibly depressed and are generally afraid to talk to anyone people either compare me to the guy from grandma’s boy or talk about how pitiful and creepy i am while i’m in earshot

i won’t eat at one of the restaurants here specifically because of that

and the students for whom college is iconic and wonderful lie to the students who are unhappy. as in my freshman year i had this conversation with the guy across the hall from me many times:

him: “everyone ready for funday mondays?”

other people: “fuck yeah we’re gonna get drunk”

me: “let me know what’s going on. it sucks sitting in my room alone everyday”

him: “oh well we’re not gonna really do anything”

and then of course they’d all insist nothing was going on and i’d get to fucking cry myself to sleep to the sounds of the group who apparently wasn’t going to do anything getting drunk, having fun, and fucking each other…

Just think about it, how long did it take you to learn your lecturers name or how long did it take to learn any of the tutorial or practical teachers names if you ever did? What about the teachers themselves do you think that they gave a rats ass who you are? It probably took them a full semester just to remember your face from their class.

Now again I ask you to think about how many times you yourself offered help to someone else in your class who you might of known intuitively by their body language that they were struggling with the work? Would you go up and help them even if you didn’t know them? I think that is what has to be done, is the the university on a whole has to become more collectivist in its nature going right down to the marking criteria of the student. I remember in my prior studies before I went to uni that was one of the things we got marked on, was how much help did we offer other students… I don’t remember ever anyone coming in and being so stressed and not one person go up to them and offer them some help. It is also good learning tool because if you can explain something it must surely reinforce the learning and give you a better understanding of your own understanding.

Another thing, it may also help with the much earlier detection of depression in a student if everyone is monitoring each other and reporting(if seeing fit) to a teacher who could then take the appropriate action.

Some other solutions could be the encouragement of inter student communication via email or maybe the use of a discussion bored be made compulsory, say at least 2 posts and 2 replies every semester.

Basically what I am getting at is that the reason so many students are stressed and depressed is because of the strenuous working conditions and feeling that have no where to turn if they hit a road block which then leads to the feeling of hopelessness.

I am a 20 year old sophomore in college, and just this past week, I went into the university counseling center to meet with someone. It took a whole heck of a lot of convincing to get myself to walk through those doors, and this is coming from someone who has been taking depression medication for 3 years. Which means that I KNOW I can and will have occasional problems. There are so, so many other students who honestly have no clue that they are feeling things that are out of the norm.

And, even though I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, I was so incredibly nervous going into the introductory meeting. I only talked about a few surface things, but after I left, I was tired, shaky, and even a teeny bit dizzy for the rest of the day. I never expected that I would have the opportunity to talk to someone who would listen without trying to equate their situation with my own, and it was actually slightly intimidating.

And, even though I broke the ice (or made a few cracks), I still have to convince myself to go back, since it’s such a large step out of how I’ve conducted my life for so long. Some would be surprised that college students don’t just stick their heads in the sand in regards to their problems. I knew about the counseling center for a while, and I still had to give myself major pep talks before I ended up in the office.