Editorial: College depression

By Jeremy Bamidele

The recent string of school shootings has inspired school administrators to start taking a closer look at mental illness and the dangers it may cause when left unchecked.

Mental illness is not static; it progresses with time. We live in an interconnected world; consequently, we do not have the luxury to look at mental illness within a vacuum or as a personal issue. Instead, the way that mental illness affects communities must be addressed.

Colleges are especially important to look at since most mental disorders manifest themselves during this stressful period of time. One of the most common ailments that affect the college population is depression.

Depression differs from the typical one-to-two days of blues and instead stretches for weeks and even years of time.

“30 percent of college students reported feeling ‘so depressed that it was difficult to function,’’’ according to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health.

The American Freshman: National Norms survey of over 200,000 college students indicates that mental health in colleges is at its lowest point since the organization began obtaining data over 25 years ago. This is especially troubling because the long-term consequences of early-onset depression are more severe than those of late-onset depression. Early-onset depression can halt developmental changes from occurring, leading to underdevelopment in all areas of life.

Over 50 percent of those who suffer one lapse of depression will suffer another one and the chances of developing chronic depression increases with each episode.

Early onset depression is a predictor of other potentially more serious mental disorders developing somewhere down the line.

The fact that depression is common among college students seems paradoxical when looking at depression as an illness that is derived from sadness due to social triggers such as loneliness, after all colleges are filled with peers. However, the paradox is actually a result of the misinterpretation of the nature of depression.

While mental health problems are often triggered by external factors, their persistence comes from a change in brain activity. This change in brain activity persists even when the external factors that triggered the depression are removed.

While predispositions to depression are often genetic, there are ways to prevent the likelihood of developing depression and the slew of mental disorders that can result from it.

One is the maintenance of one’s overall health through diet and regular exercise. Exposure to sunlight can also help ward off depression. Depression rates are highest in countries with shorter sunlight hours. Many depressive states actually come from magnesium deficiency. A diet high in magnesium has not only shown to prevent the onset of depression but actually reverse its effects once it has begun. Avoiding stressful situations is one of the best ways to prevent the onset of depression and other mental disorders.

—Jeremy Bamidele is a nationally syndicated journalist and graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. He has lectured about mental health throughout the Greek fraternity and sorority system. 

Letters

Comic-Con Confusion

This letter is intended to campaign for a policy change at Comic Con in order to mitigate a situation that I fear will someday result in injury or death.

When the exhibit floor closed at 7 p.m. last Friday July 25, a throng of thousands of people flooded the sidewalk outside the Convention Center.

Thousands were trying to move west, while the same amount of people were trying to move east.

The flow of foot traffic was moving slowly but steadily until the sidewalk narrowed at the midpoint of the Convention Center.

It was there that two uniformed police officers were yelling at people to stay on the sidewalk and off the street.

Unfortunately, this particular spot is also where the buses stop to load their riders. So the huge mob of people who were stopped to wait for the buses were completely clogging the flow of foot traffic in both directions.

The doors to the Convention Center hallways had been closed and locked and were being guarded by yellow-shirted security personnel making sure nobody re-entered the building.

On one side you had locked, guarded doors. On the other side you had police officers forbidding people from overflowing on to the street. In the middle was a rapidly growing (and increasingly irritated) mob of very hot and tired people.

The throng continued to push and shove so people could try to make their way around the waiting bus riders, but there was no outlet and the crush of bodies was approaching critical mass.

I made my way to the doors and begged the yellow-shirted security guys to open the doors to alleviate some of the bottleneck by allowing some of the people to move down the hallways past the stationary group of bus riders. I told him people were going to get injured if they didn’t do something fast.

The “professional” security guard in the yellow-shirt looked at me like a deer caught in headlights. He threw his arms up and said there was nothing he could do.

I reiterated that the crush of the growing mob was going to reach dangerous proportions and people would be injured. But still he did nothing but walk around in confused circles.

The intense training he received during his security guard education obviously did not involve snap decision-making protocols for the interest of public safety.

Behind him were four First Aid responders who were sitting on chairs pretending not to hear what was happening. I begged the security guard to bring one of the First Aid responders to the door, and maybe THEY could authorize reopening the doors to alleviate the mounting pressure of the crowd. They continued to sit on their thumbs, laughing with each other, ignoring the situation outside the Convention Center.

The security guard continued to stand there, confused and dazed. Not once did a First Aid responder glance toward the locked door despite our continual banging.

Not only that, but the two police officers who were present never once investigated what the ruckus was about, nor did they take any pro-active action to insure public safety in this growing and horrible situation.

I find it ironic that, at a convention that celebrates “fictional” heroes, not one of the security guards or first responders onsite found it within their human condition to be a “real” hero that day; to take a risk and implement action to help people in misery.

I was utterly disgusted and disappointed by these “professional” security people who chose to ignore a potentially life-threatening situation instead of taking action.

Perhaps some serious retraining of San Diego’s police force, first aid responders and security personnel is in order.

And perhaps that retraining should include a rigorous regimen of comic book reading, so they can learn what real heroes do in situations of that nature.

—Anthony S. Clifton, Toluca Lake, California, via email