Editor’s note: Names have been changed for the protection of privacy.
As a lone freshman walks around Fairfield’s campus every day and watches hundreds of his seemingly “normal” peers walk by, he wonders to himself, “Why am I so alone?”
Greg Kolins desperately tries keeping his medication hidden under clothes in the drawers of his bureau. He says he is simply running errands when in fact he is visiting his doctor. Luckily, he hasn’t needed excuses for “disappearing” from his classes like he did in high school because he hasn’t needed to be hospitalized during his first seven months at college. But he distances himself from anyone he might become close with because he’s scared that they will someday discover the illness he has been struggling with for the past two years: schizophrenia.
But what Kolins doesn’t know is that although it seems that society has yet to fully accept serious mental illnesses as chemical imbalances and medical conditions, he isn’t alone. Conditions like his are more prevalent than we think. Known as the most life destructive and least understood, schizophrenia affects 51 million people worldwide and 2.2 million Americans, according to the Web’s leading site on schizophrenia, Schizophrenia.com.
Not only that, but an estimated 27 percent of American young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have a diagnosable mental illness, according to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). These mental illnesses include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, among others. The statistics speak for themselves, but inflicted students still feel alone.
Another student’s story
If you’re familiar with Irving’s popular folktale character Rip Van Winkle, who after waking from a 20-year sleep is unable to decipher reality from his dreams, you may be able to partially identify with Harvard sophomore, Kate Hopher, when she isn’t suffering from bipolar disorder.
“For me, being bipolar is about feeling without reason,” said Hopher. “I never know when I wake up in the morning whether this will be a good day or a bad one, whether I will be loud and confident, or whether I will fantasize about my own death.”
Whom can she turn to? Even though Bipolar.com says there are 2.5 million Americans who suffer with bipolar disorder, Hopher doesn’t know anyone else at school who could possibly understand what she’s going through. Hopher, like Kolins, feels the need to hide her illness from her friends in fear of being judged.
“You would never believe how much I can hide from you,” said Hopher. “I’m a Harvard student like any other… Sometimes I think my friends can see it in my eyes: a sense of hopelessness that I live with every day.”
“They ask me what’s wrong, but I only smile and say nothing,” she added. “I can’t give them the answer that they want: ‘I did badly on my bio test,’ or ‘My boyfriend and I broke up.’ Oftentimes, there is no reason at all, but trying to explain that would only confuse them as much as it confuses me. Sometimes it seems there is no reason in this illness and that is what makes it so terrifying.”
Fearing what we don’t understand
How many times have you heard someone say in jest,”You’re bipolar” when you’re just moody? How many times have you heard someone joking about being schizophrenic? The majority of people who joke about mental illnesses are uneducated. If you think schizophrenia is being “Mary” one day and “Tom” the next, and bipolar disorder is being unusually happy one day and sad the next, you’re wrong. It’s no wonder we judge.
We fear what we don’t understand. Sure, we hear about depression and eating disorders almost on a daily basis- we are hounded with packets of information from Wellness and Prevention about how to cope with the pressures of college and avoid developing these illnesses. But what’s often left out is education on disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which thousands of college students suffer with every year.
The hardships
College life is difficult and doesn’t always live up to students’ expectations. After suffering through high school and expecting to be in the home stretch of feeling lost and alone, college seems to make life even more complicated. It isn’t just what’s depicted in movies like “Animal House”- college throws at you harder classes, the pressures of balancing partying and schoolwork, new relationships and a great distance between your new residence and hometown.
On top of that, mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder typically develop in a person between the ages of 16 and 25: the college years.
According to NAMI, “Mental illnesses like these can profoundly disrupt students’ thinking, feelings, moods, ability to relate to others and overall capacity for coping with the demands of college life.”
As if college isn’t already stressful.
Can you imagine coping with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder while attending college and keeping it a secret from others? Depending on the severity of one’s condition, it is often impossible and usually dangerous.
Getting educated
and getting help
If you suspect that you may be suffering from a mental illness, it’s important to let close friends know and visit your doctor. Awareness, diagnosis and treatment is necessary and can often prevent suicide, alcohol and substance abuse, problems at school, divorce, ability to function on a daily basis, and alienation of oneself from family and friends. It can help you lead the life you once did.
Because people who suffer with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder often believe that there is nothing wrong and take themselves off medication, it’s also important for all college students to be educated on mental illnesses for the safety and well-being of their friends.
Fortunately, more students than ever are walking into their health centers with harder questions than just, “Could I have mono?” They are asking, “Could I be suffering from a serious mental illness?” or “Could my friend be suffering from one?”
This is just one step in the right direction. Mental illnesses aren’t anything new, but understanding and accepting them is. No one deserves to feel alienated and alone.
The myths
It’s a myth that all people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder spend their entire lives in psychiatric hospitals. Many are able to function so well that they hold jobs, attend college and are social. But it does require some extra work.
It’s also a myth that medication is just an easy way out of suffering through a mental illness that is rooted in the emotional. Although schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be triggered by emotional events in a person’s life, they are genetically acquired diseases and can’t be treated by psychotherapy (“talk therapy”) alone. Medication for serious mental illnesses is almost always needed because illnesses occur due to chemical imbalances of the brain.
According to NAMI, “These brain disorders are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character, or poor upbringing. Rather, mental illnesses are biologically based brain disorders and they cannot be overcome through ‘will power.'”
For more information regarding other serious mental illnesses, including schizoaffective disorder, borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders and others, visit NAMI.org or consult Wellness and Prevention.
Leave a Reply