Depression affects a lot of people. A lot of them just feel like a dark and rainy cloud hovers around them. On the other hand, for others it’s much more than that, as they are at risk of hurting themselves and potentially others. According to everydayhealth.com, 3 percent of Americans suffer from severe depression. And the number of suicides is 40,000 every year according to save.org.
Thankfully, there is help available. Mesa College offers free therapy sessions to anyone who needs help. They are there, even if people just want someone to talk to, health services is available. The room is located in I4-209. Students can make appointment or visit the office on a drop- in basis.
Depression is something a lot of people experience. For some people, however, it is present everyday and every minute of their life. It is the feeling people get when they find it hard to sleep and to wake up. Many suffer from a loss of appetite; food is the last thing on their minds. For others, their only way to cope is through over eating. It’s as if food fills that void inside of them, or compensates for the feelings they are experiencing.
This can increase the potential of other illnesses to arise, such as anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. These are common among college students, especially young college women. Sadly, this college campus is no different, as one brave student revealed.
“I didn’t know what was really happening to me, but I slowly came to realize that I wasn’t myself anymore. I wasn’t eating as I normally would and it carried on for days, weeks and months. I began to lose weight and felt like I was in control of something. I was having a lot of issues and felt depressed and like nothing was going my way. It helped me…for a while but later as it carried on…it ruined me.”
She sat there debating whether or not to go into the health office, to seek professional help. She was ready to get things off her chest and talk about her issues for the first time.
Depression makes a lot of people feel very lonely, so they find themselves isolated from people and society. A student here at Mesa, who wishes to remain anonymous, experienced isolation first hand.
“All I wanted to do is be left alone. Even if I didn’t really want to be, if that makes sense at all, I didn’t want to be surrounded by people. They made me feel even smaller than I already felt. I think it was because they looked happy and I wasn’t.”
And it wasn’t just with friends; the feeling of wanting to be alone was stretched to the household as well.
“It wasn’t any different with my family. I loved them but it was too much to be around them too. Something in my mind just made me feel so lonely and so…I just wanted to be left alone. I’d put the lock on my room door.”
This student was also in the health office. He found out there are therapists on staff that could help him in hopes to feel better and not have this dark cloud over his head all the time.
He knows that if things get really bad, he and others can call a crisis hotline at (800) 479-3339. It’s important to remember that people care and that they are not alone.
